Haverford College
Haverford, Pennsylvania | Admissions Phone: 610-896-1350
E-mail: admission@haverford.edu | Website: www.haverford.edu
ADMISSION
Admission Rate: 19%
Admission Rate - Men: 19%
Admission Rate - Women: 18%
EA Admission Rate: Not Offered
ED Admission Rate: 44%
Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -5%
ED Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -1%
% of Admits Attending (Yield): 41%
Transfer Admission Rate: 19%
# Offered Wait List: 1,349
# Accepted Wait List: 613
# Admitted Wait List: 11
SAT Reading/Writing (Middle 50%): 680-750
SAT Math (Middle 50%): 690-780
ACT Composite (Middle 50%): 32-34
Testing Policy: ACT/SAT Required
SAT Superscore: Yes
ACT Superscore: Yes
% Graduated in Top 10% of HS Class: 95%
% Graduated in Top 25% of HS Class: 97%
% Graduated in Top 50% of HS Class: 100%
ENROLLMENT
Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,310
% Part-Time: 0%
% Male: 49%
% Female: 51%
% Out-of-State: 86%
% Fraternity: Not Offered
% Sorority: Not Offered
% On-Campus (Freshman): 100%
% On-Campus (All Undergraduate): 98%
% African-American: 7%
% Asian: 13%
% Hispanic: 10%
% White: 53%
% Other: 3%
% Race or Ethnicity Unknown: 3%
% International: 11%
% Low-Income: 16%
ACADEMICS
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 9:1
% of Classes Under 20: 78%
% of Classes Under 40: 96%
% Full-Time Faculty: 85%
% Full-Time Faculty w/ Terminal Degree: 99%
Top Programs
Biology
Chemistry
English
History
Mathematics
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science
Retention Rate: 97%
4-Year Graduation Rate: 88%
6-Year Graduation Rate: 92%
Curricular Flexibility: Very Flexible
Academic Rating: 
FINANCIAL
Institutional Type: Private
In-State Tuition: $56,200
Out-of-State Tuition: $56,200
Room & Board: $16,770
Required Fees: $752
Books & Supplies: $1,194
Avg. Need-Based Aid: $51,777
Avg. % of Need Met: 100%
Avg. Merit-Based Aid: $0
% Receiving Merit-Based Aid: 0%
Avg. Cumulative Debt: $11,000
% of Students Borrowing: 37%
CAREER
Who Recruits
1. Chatham Financial
2. FDIC
3. Janney Montgomery Scott
4. Boston Consulting Group
5. Analysis Group
Notable Internships
1. Boston Consulting Group
2. Spotify
3. U.S. House of Representatives
Top Industries
1. Education
2. Business
3. Research
4. Healthcare
5. Media
Top Employers
1. Google
2. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
3. Facebook
4. US State Department
5. Deloitte
Where Alumni Work
1. New York City
2. Philadelphia
3. Washington, DC
4. Boston
5. San Francisco
Median Earnings
College Scorecard (Early Career): $60,700
EOP (Early Career): $57,200
PayScale (Mid-Career): $112,300
RANKINGS
Forbes: 49
Money: 126
U.S. News: 11, Liberal Arts Colleges
Wall Street Journal/THE: 39
Washington Monthly: 11, Liberal Arts Colleges
Inside the Classroom
Serving 1,353 remarkably accomplished undergraduate students, Haverford College, situated on Philly’s ritzy Main Line, has 186 years of history and a reputation as one of the best liberal arts colleges in the country. Affectionately known as “The Ford,” the college is part of the Tri-College Consortium with nearby Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore, which also happen to be among the crème de la crème of liberal arts schools. Students can take courses at those two schools as well through Penn’s Wharton School of Business via an additional alliance known as the Quaker Consortium.
Haverford offers twenty-nine majors, thirty-one minors, thirteen concentrations, and eleven consortium programs— areas of study that can be pursued at partner campuses. All students must fulfill a first-year writing requirement, a two-course language requirement, and a quantitative or symbolic reasoning requirement, and students need to take an uncredited physical education course prior to their junior year. Every student produces a senior thesis, a work of original research/scholarship under the close supervision of a faculty member. Teens seeking a relatively open curriculum that encourages exploration and the pursuit of one’s unique passions will adore Haverford.
The school’s 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio and exclusive emphasis on undergraduate education leads to exceptionally intimate classes, 39 percent of which have fewer than ten students, and 76 percent have fewer than twenty. Plenty of summer research opportunities exist in which students can work alongside faculty, and some STEM students conduct and present original research through the Undergraduate Science Research Symposium. The study abroad program has a 49 percent participation rate, and students can choose from seventy-six programs in thirty-four countries.
The most popular areas of study at Haverford include the social sciences (26 percent), physical sciences (13 percent), psychology (10 percent), biology (9 percent), mathematics (8 percent), foreign language (7 percent), and computer science (5 percent). All majors are highly respected in the eyes of graduate institutions and potential employers, but programs in English, physics, and political science receive especially high marks. Science majors and those on a premed track gain acceptance to prestigious PhD programs and medical schools at an eye-popping rate. Graduates are also no strangers to competitive national awards/fellowships. In the school’s history it claims twenty Rhodes Scholars, 104 Fulbright Scholars, sixty-three Watson Fellows, forty-eight National Science Foundation Fellows, and two Goldwater Scholars.
Outside the Classroom
Ninety-eight percent of students live on this stunningly beautiful 216-acre campus; first-years are assigned to one of four residence halls. There are no fraternities or sororities at Haverford. Even with such a tiny student body, Haverford fields twenty-three varsity sports teams that compete in NCAA Division III. Combined with the seven club sports teams, 53 percent of undergrads participate in athletics. The college’s 145 student-run organizations include an array of pre-professional and service-oriented groups as well as plenty of recreational/performance options such as the Martial Arts Alliance, contemporary dance, and a number of a cappella groups. HAVOC is an outdoor adventure group that has a strong membership. The mock trial team placed second in the nation in 2017. Fellow Tri-Co member schools Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore offer plenty of additional chances for social connection, both formal and informal. All that the city of Philadelphia has to offer is only eight miles away. The Main Line area itself offers plenty of dining, cultural, and entertainment choices. The college’s Honor Code and governing Honor Council are central to the life at Haverford. Tenets of the code include un-proctored exams, no RAs in dorms, and tolerance of people of all backgrounds and orientations.
Career Services
The Center for Career & Professional Advising (CCPA) employs four individuals who specialize in career counseling, pre-law advising, and health professions advising; another four staff members are part time. With a 338:1 student-to-advisor ratio, Haverford compares favorably against most of the other colleges featured in this guide. The resources are deployed efficiently as in a given year the CCPA engages in 800+ advising sessions, reaches over 80 percent of the student body in some capacity, and makes a great effort to reach first-year students. In fact, 94 percent of freshmen report engaging with the office. The level of personalized advising is also evident by the annual number of resume critiques, 600+.
In hosting 150 information sessions and workshops per year, there are almost daily opportunities for students to sharpen their pre-professional skills and connect with potential employers. Large- scale career fairs are typically a joint effort of the Tri-College Consortium, along with Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore. Haverford alone draws more than one hundred employers to campus for its career fairs. The CCPA funds more than 140 internships per year and helps facilitate 190 on-campus interviews. Additionally, the college has more than 1,000 alumni association volunteers who provide hundreds of job-shadowing and externship experiences to current students. The CCPA delivers ample personalized attention to undergraduates and does an unsurpassed job assisting students with acceptance into top graduate schools.
Professional Outcomes
Six months after leaving Haverford 63 percent of the Class of 2018 had found employment, 18 percent had enrolled in graduate school, and 9 percent were still job hunting. Among the employed, education was the most common industry (22 percent) followed by business (12 percent), the sciences (10 percent), community services (9 percent), and health care (9 percent). Employers hiring multiple recent Haverford grads include Google, The Vanguard Group, IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, Amazon, the National Institutes of Health, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Midcareer salaries are comparable to other elite liberal arts schools such as Wesleyan, Colby, Swarthmore, and Bates; the median income at age thirty-four is $57,200. Staying in the Philly metro area is the number one choice of alumni. New York City, various international destinations, Boston, and DC are next in popularity.
Almost a quarter of Haverford grads continue to advanced degree programs right out of undergrad. In 2018, the most commonly entered fields of study were STEM (41 percent), medicine (18 percent), law (16 percent), and arts and humanities (12 percent). Graduate schools accepting the highest number of recent alumni include Yale, Columbia, the University of Chicago, Penn, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Those applying to medical school have extraordinary success as the college’s 90 percent rate of acceptance from 2015-18 more than doubles the national average of 42 percent. Haverford undergrads average MCAT scores in the 85th percentile of all test takers. In the last three years 100 percent of those applying to law school received at least one letter of acceptance. Of that cohort, 32 percent were accepted into a top fifteen law school, and 94 percent had found homes at a top one hundred law school.
Admission
Admissions for a place in the Class of 2022 was the most selective round in the school’s history; a record 4,682 applications were received, and only 18.7 percent were accepted. A staggering 95 percent of enrolled freshmen earned a place in the top 10 percent of their high school class and sported a mid-50 percent test score of 1370-1530 on the SAT and 32-34 on the ACT. Five years ago, the acceptance rate was a slightly higher 22 percent, but the academic profile of the average admitted applicant was similar to that of a 2018 enrollee.
According to the admissions committee the most important factors in the decision-making process are rigor of coursework, GPA, essays, recommendations, extracurricular activities, and character/personal qualities. Class rank, standardized test scores, talent/ability, work experience, and volunteer work make up the second rung of considered data points. Items like the interview, first-generation status, or legacy status are given a lesser degree of consideration. Applying early decision can be a significant advantage. In the most recent cycle ED applicants were accepted at a far more generous 44 percent clip and comprised 55 percent of that year’s incoming freshmen. Even with a self-selecting applicant pool that results in modest application numbers, Haverford is an exceptionally difficult school to gain acceptance into. A near 19 percent acceptance rate is almost misleadingly encouraging, and applicants sizing up their chances will be better informed by the high level of academic achievement displayed by successful applicants. Applying ED should be given serious consideration if Haverford is among your top choices.
Worth Your Money?
Haverford’s annual cost of attendance is among the highest in the country at $76,414 but, on the positive end, it meets 100 percent of demonstrated need for those who qualify. The total average annual grant is over $52,000, helping make the school affordable for those not in the highest income brackets. However, an estimated 40 percent of attending students come from families in the top 5 percent of annual income nationwide and, typically, those individuals will pay full price. If you can afford the upfront costs, or if you receive a sufficiently sized financial aid award, becoming part of this elite institution will likely prove worth the investment in the long run.