With an enrollment of approximately 4,858 students, the university offers 47 undergraduate majors, 16 graduate programs, and a doctorate in educational leadership.

[9][10] The university is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and places primary emphasis on its role as a teaching and learning institution.

2, for the sum of $20,000; and for the support of said school when established $5,000 annually, provided, the people of the town of Frostburg furnish the ground for the site of said building and deed the same to the state.

[13] The State Board of Education selected and the town of Frostburg paid for the two-acre Beall Park[14] as the location of the new school on August 9, 1898.

2, the first institution being located in Baltimore and then Towson, opened with its first class on September 15, 1902, with 57 students with Frostburg's first administrator, Principal Dr. Edward D. Murdaugh (November 18, 1853 - May 1925).

In 1935, the school was renamed "State Teachers' College at Frostburg" (also called Frostburg State Teachers College) and began offering a four-year degree program leading to a Bachelor of Science in elementary education, after expanding the curriculum from two to three years in 1931 and 1934, respectively.

As early as 1943, there had arisen in the General Assembly a movement to close the institution, which eventually culminated in the Marbury Report.

Though the movement to close the college persisted, it seemed misguided to those on the scene and was roundly opposed by both private citizens and civic groups in Frostburg and Western Maryland.

We are convinced that the cost of operating this unit is not justified by the very small number of its graduates who are entering the school system of the state as teachers.

In reaching this conclusion, we have been strongly influenced by the report of our survey staff as to the present condition of the physical facilities at Frostburg.

[25] The continued southern expansion of the college caused the Brownsville Schools and homes along Park Avenue to be demolished by 1955 to make way for Compton, Allen, and Simpson Halls.

A new school-also known as the Lincoln School, and the current home of the university's Public Safety office-was constructed in the late 1950s.

On July 5, 2018, the Mountain East Conference announced that Frostburg State University has accepted an offer of membership beginning with the 2019–20 academic year.

[48] Beginning in 2020, Frostburg joined the East Coast Conference as an associate member in men's lacrosse, also contingent on being accepted into Division II by the NCAA.

[54] Frostburg State University has a large number of nationally and internationally recognized fraternities, sororities, academic clubs, and student associations on-campus.