Westminster Is Home

Close your eyes and picture the quintessential college town. If you’re seeing cafés, coffee shops, and old brick buildings full of thriving small businesses — you’re picturing Westminster.

Of course, we’re biased, but we really do feel like Westminster has it all. Just a short walk down the Hill from McDaniel and suddenly you’re in a charming town of about 20,000 people — rich in history, culture, and comfort.

Meeting up with friends off campus? Take your pick of coffee shops or pizza joints or the movie theater. Want to impress your parents with a great local lunch? You can’t go wrong — whether they’re café soup-and-sandwich types or national-chain-restaurant types.

Westminster really is the best of both worlds. It’s a picture-perfect, small-town setting for the serious academic mission we’re about—reflective, quiet, peaceful. And for our introspective, nature-minded outdoor enthusiasts, we’re a short drive from Deep Creek Lake, waterfalls, and the Appalachian Trail. 

But we’re also just a quick trip from the major hubs of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—where McDaniel students get great internships and rewarding jobs after college. And where we all go for lots of fun when we’re feeling the big-city itch. Baltimore is just a 40 minutes drive, and Washington’s world-renowned galleries and museums, libraries, national monuments, governmental centers, and other extensive cultural and recreational resources can be reached in about an hour and 15 minutes.

McDaniel College is part of a lively community of more than 20 colleges and universities in the Baltimore area. The Baltimore Collegetown Network is a guide to all of the cultural and educational opportunities the area has to offer. With more than 100,000 students in town, there are events and programs on area campuses as well as Baltimore’s shops, restaurants, museums, theatres, nightclubs and attractions, such as the Inner Harbor, National Aquarium and Maryland Science Center – all within a 45-minute drive. For the details, visit Baltimore Collegetown Network.