Jamestown College is a private liberal arts college founded by the Presbyterian Church located in Jamestown, North Dakota, United States. It has about 1,000 students enrolled today and has been co-educational from its founding.
In 2007, Jamestown became the first North Dakota college or university to make US News and World Report's "Tier 1" for undergraduate colleges in the Midwest, a distinction repeated annually ever since. As of 2011, Jamestown College ranks 33rd in the region.
Jamestown College was founded in 1883, but closed fairly quickly during the depression of 1893. The school reopened in 1909 and has remained in operation ever since.
Jamestown College has been notable for three things: its athletics, its science and nursing programs, and its choir. In 1979, the Jamestown College football team went to the NAIA Division II National Championships. Jamestown's pre-medical students have a long-standing tradition of higher-than-average medical school acceptance rates.
In 1972 the college's choir—directed by Richard Harrison Smith and for decades one of the top small-college choirs in the United States—became the first American choir to sing at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, an honor they repeated four more times during the 1970s and 1980s. The choir continues to tour internationally every four years. The choir performed on a tour of Italy in May 2006, with concert venues including the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. The choir's most recent international tour was to China in May 2010.