Graduate students, welcome to a university that was founded with you in mind. The value Catholic University places on advanced studies is rooted in history and manifest in an abiding commitment to scholarship at the highest level. 

From the beginning, Catholic University aspired to the advancement of knowledge through research. Ours was a new type of university right from its founding in 1887 — not as a college like most institutions of higher learning in America at that time  — but rather as a research university. In 1900, Catholic University was among a group of only 14 institutions offering instruction for doctoral degrees that formed the Association of American Universities, a group of leading research institutions. 

Graduate education is not an add-on or an afterthought at Catholic University. It is the very core of what we are. It defines the seriousness of the academic work we undertake in all disciplines. And it is the foundation of the teaching and learning that animates both graduate and undergraduate studies at this university.

In the School of Arts and Sciences, we offer more than 60 master's and doctoral programs in 16 different disciplines comprising the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

All of our programs approach the exploration of the frontiers of knowledge within the context of the Catholic intellectual tradition, which holds that the Creator is the source of all truth. This approach inspires a sense of freedom to undertake  great academic adventures with confidence in the harmony between reason and revelation. 

Our location in Washington, D.C., enriches academic pursuits in every arena. Research facilities and resources available to graduate students at Catholic University include the Library of Congress, the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, the halls of Congress, the National Institutes of Health, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and on, and on. There is no other place in America that has more to offer graduate students of every discipline than our nation's capital.