by our College Data Analytics TeamPrincipia College is a private not-for-profit institution in Elsah, Illinois enrolling 339 undergraduates. It has an on-time graduation rate of 74%, above the national average of 33%. It awarded 186 undergraduate degrees across 18 majors in the most recent reporting year.
Source: IPEDS 2025; College Scorecard July 2026; College Factual rankings. Data as of: July 2026.
Principia College was not ranked in College Factual’s Best Colleges report.
In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
Principia was not ranked in College Factual’s Best Overall Colleges report. This could be for a number of reasons, including lack of data.
See all of the rankings for Principia College.
Learn more about Principia College admissions.
At Principia, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 6 to 1. That’s much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunities to work closely with their professors and classmates.
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 Principia College is 81%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 83% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Principia 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 Principia the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 74%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Principia College.
During the most recent academic year, there were 339 undergraduates at Principia.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Principia College.
The typical net cost at Principia is $17,140. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. 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 Principia, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
Principia College is an private not-for-profit institution located in Elsah, Illinois. The rural area surrounding Principia is great for students who love a peaceful atmosphere. Get more details about the location of Principia College.
Get in touch with Principia College are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1 Maybeck Place, Elsah, IL 62028-9799 |
| Phone: | 6183742131 |
| Website: | www.principiacollege.edu |
| Wikipedia: | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_College |
| Facebook: | facebook.com/Principia.College |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/princollege |
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 18 majors graduated from Principia 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 | 93 | NA |
| General Education | 10 | NA |
| Ecology & Systematics Biology | 9 | NA |
| Communication & Media Studies | 8 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 8 | NA |
| Economics | 7 | NA |
| Entrepreneurial Studies | 6 | NA |
| Philosophy | 5 | NA |
| Fine & Studio Arts | 4 | NA |
| Natural Resources Conservation | 3 | NA |
73 students took at least one online class at Principia College.
Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.
Learn more about online learning at Principia College.
Curious how schools stack up against Principia? Pit them head to head with College Combat, a free interactive tool for comparing colleges on the features you care about.
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.
References