Andrew College was granted its charter as Andrew Female College by the Georgia General Assembly on January 15, 1854. At the time, it was the second oldest charter in the United States to give an educational institution the right to confer degrees upon women. It was named for BishopJames Osgood Andrew of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1864, Andrew College was requisitioned by the Confederate Army and served as Hood Hospital during the American Civil War. It was one of three hospitals in Cuthbert. Despite its buildings being used as a hospital, classes continued on a limited basis, and female students assisted the wounded with tasks like reading and writing letters. In 1892, a fire consumed the campus. The people of Cuthbert raised money to begin rebuilding the same year. That fall, the college reopened in what is now known as Old Main, a five-story Victorian, designed by Atlanta architect William H. Parkins, that was constructed for $25,000. Parkins was the most significant architect practicing in Georgia in the immediate decades following the Civil War. He settled in Atlanta where he started the state's most successful architectural business, which lasted until his retirement in the late 1880s. In 1917, Andrew became a junior college, and the institution became co-educational in 1956. In 2018, Andrew began offering a baccalaureate degree in Business and additional baccalaureate degrees are being developed.
During the fall 2019 semester, 300 students were enrolled at Andrew College. Approximately 65%% of students live on campus. The student profile is evenly divided between male and female, with 49% male students and 51% female students. There are students from ten states and several countries. An overwhelming majority of the college's student body originates from Georgia, Florida and Alabama, followed by scholars from other U.S. states and international students. Half of the students from Georgia matriculate from one of the 28 counties that constitute the Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the remaining in-state students come to Andrew from larger South Georgia cities such as Columbus, Macon, and Albany. The minimum SAT scores are 460 math and 460 verbal, or the ACT equivalent, and a high school GPA of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale.
Tuition & fees plus room & board for the 2019-2020 academic year total $29,428 per student. However, with an institutional financial aid budget exceeding $2.1 million, access to the Georgia Tuition Equalization Grant and private support, Andrew's true cost is greatly reduced. , the college has an endowment of $10,000,000.
