What's New at Catawba?

Our newest majors: administration of justice, popular music, special education, and economics & finance.
Distinctive to Catawba are music business and popular music majors, a sustainable business and community development major, a theatre arts education major, and an accredited athletic training major.
Our most popular majors: Business Administration, Theatre Arts, Musical Theatre, and Theatre Arts Administration.
Catawba's Ritchie Academy for Teaching offers generous scholarships to prospective teachers with no repayment stipulation.
In 2010, Catawba was one of only 20 Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) member institutions to receive a $100,000 grant through the CIC/Walmart College Success Awards to fund programs designed to increase retention and support the education of first-generation college students.
New scholarships targeted to high school salutatorians and valedictorians are now being offered by Catawba College.

Catawba is ranked 16th among the nation's BEST Regional Colleges in the South, according to the 2012 edition of "Best Colleges," published by U.S.News & World Report.

	•	Again this year, Catawba is one of the country's best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review’s new 2012 edition of "The Best 376 Colleges."
	•	Catawba is one of only 20 North Carolina public and private institutions included in Forbes' "America's Top Colleges 2011," and is ranked 476 among the 650 best undergraduate colleges.
	•	For four consecutive years, Catawba has been named one of the nation's Best Music Schools by In Tune magazine. Catawba was one of only 45 institutions included in the magazine's listing of The Best Music Schools of 2012.

Catawba is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S.A. and Canada, according to The Princeton Review. It was one of 322 schools included in the third annual edition of "The Princeton Review's Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition."
Catawba's Admissions website was ranked among the most highly rated in the country, scoring in the top 100 of all sites rated. The site was recognized in the 13th annual My College Options® Enrollment Power Index® (EPI), an analysis of the admissions websites of nearly 3,000 colleges and universities.
Catawba is renovating the cafeteria in the Cannon Student Center, to begin construction in early May 2012. Renovation of the new cafeteria will be completed in time for the 2012-2013 academic year.
In 2011, Catawba's Center for the Environment partnered with the Rocky Mountain Institute to host a Environmental Youth Summit on campus, open to high school juniors and seniors.
Catawba boasts a 189-acre ecological preserve adjacent to campus and a 300-acre wildlife refuge several miles from campus where students conduct research and gain valuable field experience.
Catawba added a Winter / "J" term to allow students the option of taking a class, often with a travel component, between fall and spring semesters.
Catawba's Lilly Center for Vocation and Values helps make ethics and service integral parts of students' lives through values dinners, leadership retreats and coordinated volunteer opportunities.
In 2010, Political Science became a Politics major with concentrations in pre-law or public administration. Dr. Michael Bitzer, chair of the History and Politics Department and associate professor of Politics at the college, is a sought-after political commentator who has been quoted in The L.A. Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and a variety of other television, radio and print outlets.
Catawba added Women's Lacrosse to its 17 other NCAA Division II athletic teams and the College's newest team kicked off its inaugural season in Spring 2012.
Catawba added a marching band, the Catawba PRIDE, which began in fall 2011.