Colorado College
Colorado Springs, Colorado | Admissions Phone: 719-389-6344
E-mail: admission@coloradocollege.edu | Website: www.coloradocollege.edu
ADMISSION
Admission Rate: 15%
Admission Rate - Men: 16%
Admission Rate - Women: 14%
EA Admission Rate: 18%
ED Admission Rate: 27%
Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -7%
ED Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -6%
% of Admits Attending (Yield): 42%
Transfer Admission Rate: 11%
# Offered Wait List: 851
# Accepted Wait List: 244
# Admitted Wait List: 60
SAT Reading/Writing (Middle 50%): 650-720
SAT Math (Middle 50%): 650-750
ACT Composite (Middle 50%): 29-33
Testing Policy: Test Optional
SAT Superscore: Yes
ACT Superscore: No
% Graduated in Top 10% of HS Class: 75%
% Graduated in Top 25% of HS Class: 97%
% Graduated in Top 50% of HS Class: 99%
ENROLLMENT
Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,114
% Part-Time: 1%
% Male: 45%
% Female: 55%
% Out-of-State: 83%
% Fraternity: 12%
% Sorority: 8%
% On-Campus (Freshman): 100%
% On-Campus (All Undergraduate): 80%
% African-American: 2%
% Asian: 5%
% Hispanic: 9%
% White: 65%
% Other: 8%
% Race or Ethnicity Unknown: 1%
% International: 9%
% Low-Income: 10%
ACADEMICS
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 10:1
% of Classes Under 20: 73%
% of Classes Under 40: 100%
% Full-Time Faculty: 86%
% Full-Time Faculty w/ Terminal Degree: 99%
Top Programs
Art
Economics and Business
Environmental Studies
International Political Economy
Organismal Biology and Ecology
Political Science
Sociology
Retention Rate: 96%
4-Year Graduation Rate: 84%
6-Year Graduation Rate: 89%
Curricular Flexibility: Very Flexible
Academic Rating: 
FINANCIAL
Institutional Type: Private
In-State Tuition: $57,612
Out-of-State Tuition: $57,612
Room & Board: $12,956
Required Fees: $474
Books & Supplies: $1,240
Avg. Need-Based Aid: $50,108
Avg. % of Need Met: 100%
Avg. Merit-Based Aid: $8,036
% Receiving Merit-Based Aid: 12%
Avg. Cumulative Debt: $23,714
% of Students Borrowing: 42%
CAREER
Who Recruits
1. US Olympic Committee
2. El Pomar Foundation
3. Accenture
4. SunShare Community Solar
5. Amazon
Notable Internships
1. National Science Foundation
2. Late Show with Stephen Colbert
3. Accenture
Top Industries
1. Business
2. Education
3. Operations
4. Social Services
5. Media
Top Employers
1. Denver Public Schools
2. Microsoft
3. Amazon
4. Google
5. Charles Schwab
Where Alumni Work
1. Denver
2. Cororado Springs, CO
3. San Francisco
4. New York City
5. Seattle
Median Earnings
College Scorecard (Early Career): $45,400
EOP (Early Career): $43,600
PayScale (Mid-Career): $97,900
RANKINGS
Forbes: 92
Money: 345
U.S. News: 27 (T), Liberal Arts Colleges
Wall Street Journal/THE: 111 (T)
Washington Monthly: 66, Liberal Arts Colleges
Inside the Classroom
With the Rocky Mountains visible from Colorado College’s ninety-acre campus, the school’s 2,100 undergraduates find themselves in rarefied air—in more ways than one. A magnet for high-achieving, civic-minded, and generally liberally inclined young people, CC is ideally located seventy miles south of Denver and within a reasonable car ride of seven national parks and ten ski resorts. The student body is geographically diverse with about one-quarter hailing from the Northeast, one-quarter from the West Coast, and a sizable representation from the Midwest and the South.
Rather than the typical semester schedule, Colorado College operates on the “block plan,” a series of eight three-and-half-week periods during which students take only one course. Requirements are broad, affording undergraduates the opportunity to chart their own course. That course, however, must stay within some boundaries that include a first-year seminar, a foreign language, as well as courses fitting under the umbrellas of global cultures, social inequality, quantitative reasoning, and scientific investigation of the natural world.
You won’t find a more intimate liberal arts college than CC. Classes have a cap of twenty-five students, and no more than a handful of courses exceed that figure. The average class consists of sixteen students, and one-quarter of offerings have single-digit enrollments. Face time with your professors is a certainty as the school boasts a 10:1 student-faculty ratio. Although it does offer master’s programs for teachers, this is a teaching college that focuses on undergraduate education. In faculty-wide surveys, the vast majority of professors report that quality of instruction is properly factored into their evaluations. Research opportunities are built in to the academic program as 20 percent of CC classes involve some degree of undergraduate research. Another 6 percent of students receive stipends to conduct research. Tigers appear unafraid to go into the world and immerse themselves in other cultures as a healthy 81 percent study abroad.
Regularly ranked among the top liberal arts schools in the country, Colorado College has an excellent reputation. Environmental studies, art, and sociology are considered very strong, but CC doesn’t necessarily offer programs that clearly stand above the rest. In its own words, “The most popular majors at CC are those that are popular nationally.” In terms of sheer volume, most degrees are conferred in the social sciences (30 percent), biology (13 percent), physical sciences (9 percent), natural resources and conservation (7 percent), and the visual and performing arts (7 percent). This institution is a regular producer of Watson and Fulbright Scholarship winners. It also ranks seventh in the nation for the number of Peace Corps volunteers produced, which is especially impressive given the modest size of each graduating class.
Outside the Classroom
Every freshman lives on Colorado College’s campus, and 80 percent of the total undergraduate student body remains in school-owned housing. There is a Greek presence, but it in no way dominates the social scene. Only 12 percent of men join fraternities and 8 percent of women enter a sorority. More than 135 student clubs and organizations are available, the most popular being the Outdoor Recreation Committee. That makes sense given the natural splendor surrounding campus that is conducive to hiking, skiing, cycling, and the like. Students have the dual benefit of attending what is, technically, an urban campus situated in Colorado Springs that is, by area, the largest city in the state. Dorms, food, and campus facilities all receive generally favorable reviews from the student body. Community service projects are inclusive with an 80 percent undergraduate participation rate. While no one would mistake CC for a jock school, it does have sixteen total men’s and women’s sports teams competing in NCAA Division III, except for the highly competitive Division I ice hockey squad.
Career Services
The Career Center has eight full-time staff members who focus on either career advising or employer relations. Titles include career coach, health professions advisor, and pre-law advisor. The 262:1 student-to-advisor ratio is superior to many schools featured in this guide. The center puts its personnel to excellent use, having conducted a remarkable 1,700 one-on-one counseling sessions in the 2018-19 academic year.
Colorado College is a member of the nine-school Selective Liberal Arts Consortium that is comprised mostly of elite schools on the East Coast such as Vassar and Haverford College. This organization hosts off-campus interview days based in New York City and DC as well as video interviewing days with a host of high-caliber employers. The Career Center also arranges so-called “Tiger Treks” in which current students travel to a major city to meet with alumni in a variety of job settings. On-campus recruiting and interviewing is not a regular occurrence; only twenty-two companies recruited on campus last year. Internship opportunities are available, but assistance in landing one is limited. Roughly 57 percent of graduating seniors report having participated in at least one internship.
Professional Outcomes
Being a small school, Colorado College does not send massive numbers of graduates to any one company or organization, but there are employers that have wrangled their fair share of Tigers. That list includes Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Amazon, Google, and Charles Schwab. The largest number of graduates who pursue employment end up in the fields of education, technology, health care, the arts, and government. Ten years after entering college, CC alumni have a median salary of about $45,000, lower than many schools of its ilk. Again, this is attributable to many graduates pursuing careers in nonprofit sectors and the relatively low number of STEM majors. Further, as we will discuss in a minute, seemingly all graduates of this school continue their educational journeys, a choice that typically delays financial rewards. Roughly one-quarter of grads stay in the state of Colorado while the majority migrate to major cities across the United States with San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles among the most popular destinations.
The bachelor’s degree earned at Colorado College is unlikely to be the last degree a graduate will earn. Five years after graduation the typical cohort sees 70-90 percent of its members having either completed or finishing an advanced degree. Over half of that group are in PhD or professional programs with an average of 25 percent going to medical school. Recent graduates pursuing legal training have matriculated at a wide range of law schools including UVA, Columbia, NYU, Fordham, the University of Colorado, Temple, and Vermont Law School.
Admission
With an acceptance rate of only 15 percent, Colorado College unquestionably qualifies as a highly selective school. That figure has been sliced in half over the past five years as the number of applicants continues to soar. The good news is that the profile of the average admitted student has remained fairly steady. An SAT score in the mid-1300s (or an ACT around 30-31) will put you on solid ground if accompanied by a strong academic transcript. The mid-50 percent on standardized tests for those entering the Class of 2022 was 1300-1470 on the SAT and 29-33 on the ACT.
Colorado College’s testing policy used to be as unique as its academic calendar. However, starting in 2020 the school made the shift from test-flexible to full-blown test-optional. Superb grades in a challenging high school curriculum are a must as “rigor of secondary school record” is the sole category rated by the admissions staff as “very important.” The data suggests that the school means what it says: more than one-quarter of those attending finished in the top 1 percent of their graduating class; over three-quarters finished in the top 10 percent. Applying via early action or early decision can have a profound impact on your chances of gaining admission. Last year, those applying nonbinding early action were accepted 18 percent of the time, ED applicants 27 percent of the time, and regular applicants at only an 8.5 percent clip. Early decision applicants alone made up 57 percent of the incoming freshman class. In short, Colorado College is an institution with a low acceptance rate but a clear idea of what type of applicants it is looking for. While highly selective, those who performed at the top of their high school class can expect to be welcomed here, even if they didn’t score perfectly on the SAT/ACT.
Worth Your Money?
The affluent make up a sizable portion of the undergraduate population at Colorado College, rendering the $73,600 annual cost of attendance of little concern to many considering the school. Tax return data estimates that almost one-quarter of students come from one-percenter households. For those who are concerned about the price tag, Colorado College awards minimal merit aid to 12 percent of its students, but it comes through strong for qualifying applicants, meeting 100 percent of demonstrated need for every financial aid recipient. The average annual value of those grants is roughly $50,000, helping make the school a worthy investment to students coming from more modest economic backgrounds. Students coming from families who make to much to qualify for significant need-based aid, but who make too little to comfortably cover CC’s hefty price tag, are encouraged to consider their career and/or graduate school plans before committing.