About Mercyhurst
Mercyhurst University is an accredited college founded in 1926 in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Located on a hill overlooking Lake Erie, our 75-acre campus is known as one of the most beautiful in the region. Elements of English Gothic architecture are carried throughout our Old Main, academic buildings and student residence halls.
Grounded in the ideals of service, hospitality and entrepreneurship that inspired our founders, a Mercyhurst education encourages the development of lifelong passions and engagement with the larger world. Inspired by our motto, “Carpe Diem,” our faculty and students embrace innovation and leadership in service, as they make a difference within our gates and around the world.
A Transformative Education
At Mercyhurst, we value your college experience as more than another transactional step along the way. Your time here will be spent wrestling with new ideas, establishing friendships, growing as a leader and innovator and being encouraged to realize your full potential. There’s a place for you at Mercyhurst, as long as you’re ready to seize the day.
Faculty Who Will Know You
Discover opportunities to conduct fieldwork, travel abroad and collaborate on research and other projects alongside faculty and peers. With a 14-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio, your professors will be valued resources and mentors.
Liberal Arts Tradition
Our flexible curriculum of liberal arts and science courses affords you opportunities for meaningful collaborations and discussions across disciplines, as you build critical thinking skills and form connections in new and exciting ways.
Grow Through Experience
We prize hands-on education and the application of knowledge, which means you’ll gain valuable experience through participation in a wide variety of community service, internship, study abroad, fieldwork and faculty-led research opportunities.
Dynamic Campus Community
There’s always something to do at Mercyhurst. With more than 80 clubs and organizations, 25 athletic teams and a rich array of cultural and performing arts events, you’re sure to find your place in our campus community.
Education with Value
A Mercyhurst education is a valuable investment in your future. We strive to make a Mercyhurst education accessible and affordable for everyone and we’re often recognized for the quality of our financial aid services.
Tradition and Innovation
Celebrated traditions allow you to engage with our history and build camaraderie. You’ll also find cutting-edge innovations in our academic programming, as well as labs and learning spaces equipped with the latest technology.
- Caring for the Earth
- Caring for immigrants
- Combating racism
- Promoting non-violence
- Caring for women
Mission
Rooted in our Mercy Catholic liberal arts identity, we educate and inspire diverse learners in an environment where faith and reason flourish together for meaningful lives, dignified work, and leadership in service toward a just and loving world.
Vision
We will be known as a dynamic university that builds community and advances the common good as we promote wisdom, mercy, and respect in all our engagements.
Core Values - We are Ambassadors of Service.
Socially merciful
Mercy restores human dignity, expands our social relations, and empowers us to reach out in compassion to others.
Globally responsible
Globalization challenges us to learn how to steward the resources of the Earth wisely and to act in solidarity with its diverse peoples.
Compassionately hospitable
Mercy hospitality begins with self-acceptance, welcomes peoples of different faith, ethnic, and cultural traditions, and thus builds communities that transcend mere tolerance.
Intellectually creative
Generous, inquiring, and critical habits of mind, which support the aspirations for excellence manifested within the academic community, encourage us in our lifelong search for what is true, good, and beautiful.
Reflectively aware
Our Christian environment encourages self-reflection and contemplation of human behavior, promotes balance of mind, body, and spirit, and ultimately offers the opportunity to develop a moral compass for a life of integrity.
Critical Concerns
Of the Sisters of Mercy.
Mercyhurst owes its existence to a remarkable group of determined, forward-thinking women: the Sisters of Mercy. Sensing the need for quality higher education for women in the early 20th century, the Sisters, under the direction of Mother M. Borgia Egan, led the way in establishing a college on 75 acres of farmland. In the years leading up to Mercyhurst’s opening, the Sisters negotiated land deals, worked as laborers and painters and even pursued graduate degrees from top American universities to form the first Mercyhurst faculty.
