Rhodes College
Memphis, Tennessee | Admissions Phone: 901-843-3700
E-mail: adminfo@rhodes.edu | Website: www.rhodes.edu
ADMISSION
Admission Rate: 45%
Admission Rate - Men: 40%
Admission Rate - Women: 48%
EA Admission Rate: 56%
ED Admission Rate: 63%
Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -13%
ED Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -23%
% of Admits Attending (Yield): 24%
Transfer Admission Rate: 22%
# Offered Wait List: 1,253
# Accepted Wait List: 306
# Admitted Wait List: 42
SAT Reading/Writing (Middle 50%): 630-700
SAT Math (Middle 50%): 610-710
ACT Composite (Middle 50%): 28-31
Testing Policy: ACT/SAT Required
SAT Superscore: Yes
ACT Superscore: Yes
% Graduated in Top 10% of HS Class: 54%
% Graduated in Top 25% of HS Class: 85%
% Graduated in Top 50% of HS Class: 99%
ENROLLMENT
Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,008
% Part-Time: 1%
% Male: 44%
% Female: 56%
% Out-of-State: 71%
% Fraternity: 34%
% Sorority: 40%
% On-Campus (Freshman): 97%
% On-Campus (All Undergraduate): 69%
% African-American: 9%
% Asian: 6%
% Hispanic: 6%
% White: 69%
% Other: 5%
% Race or Ethnicity Unknown: 2%
% International: 5%
% Low-Income: 15%
ACADEMICS
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 10:1
% of Classes Under 20: 71%
% of Classes Under 40: 98%
% Full-Time Faculty: 80%
% Full-Time Faculty w/ Terminal Degree: 98%
Top Programs
Biology
Business
Chemistry
International Studies
Neuroscience
Political Science
Psychology
Retention Rate: 90%
4-Year Graduation Rate: 82%
6-Year Graduation Rate: 85%
Curricular Flexibility: Somewhat Flexible
Academic Rating: 
FINANCIAL
Institutional Type: Private
In-State Tuition: $47,580
Out-of-State Tuition: $47,580
Room & Board: $11,403
Required Fees: $310
Books & Supplies: $1,125
Avg. Need-Based Aid: $32,532
Avg. % of Need Met: 93%
Avg. Merit-Based Aid: $26,103
% Receiving Merit-Based Aid: 66%
Avg. Cumulative Debt: $24,187
% of Students Borrowing: 48%
CAREER
Who Recruits
1. St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital
2. Raymond James
3. Methodist Healthcare
4. PeaceCorps
5. Teach for America
Notable Internships
1. Graystar Real Estate
2. Christie’s
3. FedEx
Top Industries
1. Business
2. Education
3. Operations
4. Social Services
5. Healthcare
Top Employers
1. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
2. Deloitte
3. EY
4. Raymond James
5. FedEx
Where Alumni Work
1. Memphis
2. Nashville
3. Atlanta
4. Washington, DC
5. New York City
Median Earnings
College Scorecard (Early Career): $53,600
EOP (Early Career): $52,000
PayScale (Mid-Career): $97,800
RANKINGS
Forbes: 150
Money: 282
U.S. News: 53 (T), Liberal Arts Colleges
Wall Street Journal/THE: 134 (T)
Washington Monthly: 171, Liberal Arts Colleges
Inside the Classroom
Rhodes College’s Memphis location places it among the rare liberal arts schools located in an urban setting. (Occidental in Los Angeles is another such school featured in this guide.) Just four miles from the world famous Beale Street, Rhodes, founded in 1848, is one of the top colleges in the region. A progressive, service-oriented student body of just over 2,000 students flocks to Rhodes for its small classes, awesome location, and nurturing environment that leads many on the path to top graduate and professional programs.
The school offers fifty majors and minors and a great deal of academic autonomy along the way. The foundations requirements can be meet by roughly 400 varied courses that cover target areas such as written communication, becoming an active and engaged citizen, gaining proficiency in a second language, and understanding scientific approaches to the natural world. As part of this experience students choose between two signature courses: The Search for Values in the Light of Western Religion and History and Life: Then and Now, both of which were developed after World War II. Freshmen also must engage in the first-year experience requirement, an integrative, year-long program focused on becoming an active student-citizen as well as a first year writing seminar.
A 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio leads to an amazingly intimate average class size of only fourteen students. Only 3.7 percent of course sections contain more than twenty-nine students. Ninety-eight percent of the 224 faculty members hold the highest degree available in their fields, so you will not be taught by TAs or adjuncts. A great deal of resources are committed to undergraduate education. For example, Rhodes puts an astounding sum of money into its physical science programs, having committed $34 million to a new science center in 2017. As a result, the school produces an incredible number of PhDs (more on this under “Professional Outcomes”). Three-quarters of students at this institution engage in some form of undergraduate research. Opportunities are plentiful in every academic discipline to collaborate with faculty on research projects, and the annual Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium is a chance to show off student projects. An affiliation with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital leads to intensive summer research opportunities for those in the hard sciences. A solid 65 percent of students elect to study abroad, and the school offers many Rhodes faculty-led locations around the world.
While the sciences may be the area for which Rhodes receives the greatest recognition (biology is the most popular major), business, psychology, and international studies are also strong and attract large numbers of undergrads. Since the turn of the millennium, Rhodes graduates have earned thirty-one Fulbright Scholarships, fourteen Goldwater Scholarships, eleven Watson Fellowships, five Truman Scholarships, five National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships, two Luce Scholarships, and one Rhodes Scholarship.
Outside the Classroom
This 123-acre wooded oasis in midtown Memphis is home to 70 percent of all undergraduates. Students are required to live in residence halls for their first two years. Most residence halls are intimate places of under one hundred students where everyone knows everyone. A 56/44 percent breakdown in favor of women certainly has an impact on student life. Greek life is a defining characteristic of social life at Rhodes with 40 percent of women joining a sorority and 34 percent of men pledging a fraternity. Participation in sports is also common with twenty-one men’s and women’s varsity teams competing in NCAA Division III athletics. The Bryan Campus Life Center offers ample facilities for recreational sports and fitness. For non-jocks, there are more than one hundred student-run organizations, and over 80 percent of students engage in community service activities. The mock trial team is exceptionally strong in national competitions. With the Lynx Lair serving as a hub for food, social events, and frequent concerts, lectures, and films there is rarely a dull moment around Rhodes. Of course, with Memphis as your backyard there are always exciting excursions for entertainment, culture, or dining. The Memphis Zoo, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and the National Civil Rights Museum are only a few miles away. Campus is walker-friendly, but bikes are popular as well. The city of Memphis has over 200 miles of bike infrastructure to help ensure safety.
Career Services
The Career Services Office at Rhodes has three full-time staff members—the director, a first- and second-year counselor, and a third- and fourth-year counselor. Its 663:1 student-to-advisor ratio does not compare favorably to other liberal arts schools featured in this guide, but the push for personalized service is evident everywhere you look. The school encourages meeting one-on-one with advisors two or three times in the freshman year as well during sophomore year. Few schools promote that level of contact so early in a student’s undergraduate career.
Every fall, representatives from over one hundred graduate and professional schools travel to Rhodes’ campus to attend the Graduate School Exposition. The 2019 Career Fair was attended by over fifty employers, including many national corporations such as AutoZone, Raymond James, and St. Jude’s Research Hospital. Over 80 percent of undergraduates complete at least one internship. Those numbers are bolstered by career services partnerships with over one hundred local, national, and global employers. Many of the 13,000 alums are willing to lend a hand to a current student or recent grad seeking to network.
Professional Outcomes
Within one year of receiving their diplomas, 98 percent of Rhodes grads have found their way into the world of employment or are pursuing an advanced degree program. Among the companies employing the largest number of alumni are St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, Deloitte, EY, FedEx, Raymond James, and PwC. Midcareer salaries are the second highest among any Tennessee institution, behind only Vanderbilt. Yet, it is worth noting that Vandy grads earn over $20k more by age thirty-four. Greater Memphis is where most graduates remain. Many others situate themselves in Greater Nashville, Atlanta, DC, New York, or Dallas.
A superb 86 percent of those applying to graduate school get into their top-choice institution. Medical and law school applicants are accepted at higher rates than the national average. Those with a 3.4 GPA and above the 57th percentile on the MCAT are accepted into medical school at an identical 86 percent clip and, overall, applicants enjoy a 65 percent acceptance rate. In 2018, an impressive forty-two graduates were accepted into med school. Rhodes is in the top 10 percent of science PhD-producing undergraduate schools in the country, and it is ranked fifteenth overall in the number of physics majors who go on to receive a doctorate in physics or astronomy. Recent graduates have been accepted into programs at elite universities including Brown, Columbia, Georgetown, Harvard Law School, New York University School of Law, and Yale Divinity School. Medical schools attended by recent grads include Tufts, Dartmouth, Boston University, Wake Forest, and UVA.
Admission
With a 45 percent acceptance rate for a place in the Class of 2022, Rhodes College is a rare school that provides an elite education without putting applicants through a harrowing admissions process with dreadfully unfavorable odds. The 5,092 hopefuls who submitted applications were a strong bunch, but those who were successful didn’t have to sport a perfect transcript. The SAT mid-50 percent range was 1240-1410, although the ACT was submitted more than twice as often; 28-31 was the mid-50 percent ACT score, and half of ACT takers had a composite score above 30. Three-quarters of admitted freshmen held a weighted GPA of 3.75 or higher, 54 percent finished in the top decile of their high school class, and 85 percent were in the top quartile. The average GPA of incoming 2018-19 freshman was 3.92.
Rigor of secondary school record, GPA, and class rank sit atop the list of most important factors in the eyes of the admissions office. Factors considered as “important” include standardized test scores, essays, recommendations, character/personal qualities, legacy status, and racial/ethnic status. Only 24 percent of those accepted actually enrolled, thus the college values those who demonstrate interest, particularly in the form of committing through early decision. As a result, 63 percent of ED applicants were accepted in 2018. In their own words, Rhodes uses a “holistic approach to evaluate every facet of your application to get a better sense of the whole you.” Obviously, the school is looking for students with strong grades in a demanding curriculum, but students do not need to have perfect test scores and grades for consideration at this fine liberal arts institution.
Worth Your Money?
Rhodes sticker-price cost of attendance of almost $62,000 isn’t particularly tough to swallow, at least when considered against the cost of many comparable institutions. Yet, Rhodes delivers merit aid packages to two-thirds of its undergrads, lowering the cost by an average of $26k per year. Further, almost half of all students receive need-based aid at an average annual total of $33k. Given the cost that most people actually pay, Rhodes College is a fairly priced option that will afford you a one-of-a-kind educational experience.