by our College Data Analytics TeamDickinson College is a private not-for-profit institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania enrolling 2,273 undergraduates. It accepts 42% of applicants and has an on-time graduation rate of 80%, above the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #174 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 3%), 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.
Dickinson College ranks #174 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 3%.
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.
Dickinson College was awarded 194 badges in the 2027 rankings.
Dickinson is ranked #174 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 5% of all schools in the nation.
Dickinson is also ranked #12 on the Best Colleges in Pennsylvania list.
See all of the rankings for Dickinson College.
Dickinson College has an acceptance rate of 42%, which means the school is serious about who it admits. Take your time in putting together a strong application that highlights why you are a good fit for Dickinson.
About 23% of students accepted to Dickinson submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 670 and 740. Math scores were between 640 and 720.
Dickinson received ACT scores from 5% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 30 and 33.
Learn more about Dickinson College admissions.
The student to faculty ratio at Dickinson is an impressive 11 to 1. That’s quite good when you compare it to the national average of 15 to 1. This is a good sign that students at the school will have more opportunities for one-on-one interactions with their professors.
Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.
The full-time faculty percentage at Dickinson College is 81%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 92% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Dickinson College enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That’s certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Dickinson the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 80%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Dickinson College.
The current enrollment includes 2,273 undergraduates at Dickinson.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Dickinson College.
The typical net cost at Dickinson 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 + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,755 | $15,081 | $16,316 | $22,696 | $45,175 |
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 Dickinson, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Dickinson, approximately 39% of students took out student loans averaging $6,135 a year. That adds up to $24,540 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 1.7%. 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 Dickinson College.
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from Dickinson College make around $70,204 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future Dickinson College graduates since it is 43% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.
See which majors at Dickinson College make the most money.
Dickinson College is an private not-for-profit institution situated in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life. Get more details about the location of Dickinson College.
Contact details for Dickinson College are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | College and Louther Streets, Carlisle, PA 17013-2896 |
| Phone: | 7172435121 |
| Website: | www.dickinson.edu |
| Wikipedia: | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickinson_College |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/Dickinson |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/DickinsonCol |
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 19 majors graduated from Dickinson 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 | 778 | NA |
| International Business | 74 | $56,304 |
| Economics | 70 | $48,684 |
| Political Science & Government | 55 | $38,322 |
| Area Studies | 47 | NA |
| Natural Resources Conservation | 46 | $32,617 |
| General Psychology | 46 | $36,712 |
| Data Analytics. | 41 | NA |
| Computer Science | 35 | NA |
| Biochemistry & Biophysics | 30 | NA |
Interested in comparing Dickinson? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare colleges on the features that matter most to you.
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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