University Partnership Program

Connecting Our Students to College Professors

At Friends School, students don't have to wait until they graduate to work with collegiate-level researchers.

Our University Partnership Program (UPP) connects students and teachers with thought leaders from major research institutions across the country. 

The program, which launched in 2011 as the first-of-its-kind in the Baltimore metro area, partners students with professors, researchers, and others in colleges and universities around the country in subjects ranging from neuroscience and engineering to urban renewal, political science, the arts, and more.

Highlights of the program include a history/English elective in which juniors and seniors assist professors at Duke University with ongoing research on enslavement and an infectious disease project for which 6th grade science students diagnose and present “patients” in front of visiting physicians.

We believe that collaboration of this kind — applying classroom skills and knowledge to real-world problem-solving — inspires students to think deeply and act in new and exciting ways, and prepares them for success tomorrow. It also fosters in our children an enduring passion for learning, which is critically important to their development as students and as people.

Through the Upper School’s University Partnership Program (UPP), Friends School of Baltimore has established guaranteed admission partnerships with select colleges and universities that recognize the strength of a Friends education and the caliber of our students. Students in good academic standing are eligible for direct admission and, at all partner institutions except Guilford College, guaranteed annual merit scholarships at:

• The Catholic University of America — $22,000
• Earlham College — $30,000–$40,000
• Goucher College — $32,000
• Guilford College — Guaranteed admission
• Loyola University Maryland — $25,000
• McDaniel College — $22,000–$33,000
• Stevenson University — $23,000
• Washington College — $33,000

Two partner institutions — Earlham College and Guilford College — share a Quaker foundation with Friends School, grounded in integrity, community, and service to the greater good. The remaining partner colleges, located in Maryland and Washington, D.C., offer strong local pathways for students seeking academically rigorous environments.

These agreements build on Friends School’s outstanding college-preparatory program and reflect the exceptional academic reputation of our school and the preparation our students bring to their next chapter.

In addition to student opportunities, Goucher College extends benefits to faculty and staff, including a 20% graduate tuition discount, complementing the 75% graduate tuition support Friends already provides.

At Friends, we believe education fulfills its promise when preparation meets opportunity — and these partnerships are one way we help students move confidently toward what comes next.