by our College Data Analytics TeamCornell College is a private not-for-profit institution in Mount Vernon, Iowa enrolling 1,086 undergraduates. It accepts 80% of applicants and has an on-time graduation rate of 62%, above the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #926 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 18%), and its Value for Your Money analysis rates it a Fair Price.
Source: IPEDS 2025; College Scorecard July 2026; College Factual rankings 2027. Data as of: July 2026.
Cornell College ranks #926 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 18%.
College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.
Cornell College was awarded 2 badges in the 2027 rankings.
Cornell College is ranked #926 out of 5,159 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation.
Cornell College also holds the #21 spot on the Best Colleges in Iowa ranking.
See all of the rankings for Cornell College.
Cornell College has an acceptance rate of 80%, which makes it somewhat selective. Make sure it’s not the only school you apply to, even if it’s your school of choice. Whether you get in or not will largely depend on how you compare to other applicants.
About 8% of students accepted to Cornell College submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 575 and 655. Math scores were between 545 and 630.
Cornell College received ACT scores from 17% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 23 and 30.
Learn more about Cornell College admissions.
With a student to faculty ratio of 14 to 1, Cornell College is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it’s a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.
In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at Cornell College is 100%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Cornell College has a freshmen retention rate of 80%. That’s a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It’s also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Cornell College the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 62%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Cornell College.
During the most recent academic year, there were 1,086 undergraduates at Cornell College.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Cornell College.
The average net price of Cornell College is $17,140. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $16,409 | $18,513 | $20,177 | $22,944 | $29,298 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid. Note that the net price is typically less than the published price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Cornell College, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
It’s not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Cornell College, approximately 65% of students took out student loans averaging $6,861 a year. That adds up to $27,444 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 2.9%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you’ll be able to pay back your student loans. Get more details about paying for Cornell College.
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from Cornell College make around $53,460 per year during the early years of their employment. This is in the same neighborhood of the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year. However, certain majors may produce higher-paying graduates.
See which majors at Cornell College make the most money.
Cornell College is a private not-for-profit institution found in Mount Vernon, Iowa. The surrounding location of Mount Vernon is ideal for students who enjoy the charms of a college town. Get more details about the location of Cornell College.
Contact information for Cornell College are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 600 First St. SW, Mount Vernon, IA 52314 |
| Phone: | 3198954334 |
| Website: | www.cornellcollege.edu |
| Wikipedia: | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_College |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/CornellCollege |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/CornellCollege |
In the latest year of available data, students from 20 majors graduated from Cornell College. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.
| Most Popular Majors | Completions | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Disciplinary Studies | 329 | NA |
| Health & Physical Education | 43 | $34,478 |
| Biochemistry & Biophysics | 31 | $36,103 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 28 | $32,721 |
| Fine & Studio Arts | 22 | NA |
| General Engineering | 15 | NA |
| Writing Studies | 14 | NA |
| Finance & Financial Management | 13 | NA |
| History | 13 | NA |
| Computer Science | 12 | NA |
Want to see how other colleges compare to Cornell College? Match them up using College Combat, our free tool for head-to-head college comparisons.
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
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