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Swarthmore College Complete Information Guide

39 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
8% Acceptance Rate

If you want to know more about Swarthmore College, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.

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* Rankings

How Does Swarthmore College Stack Up?

#134 Best Colleges in Nation
#10 Best Colleges in PA
Swarthmore College ranking badge

2026 Rankings

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.

Swarthmore College was awarded 39 badges in the 2026 rankings.

Overall Quality

Swat is ranked #134 out of 3,449 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual’s 2026 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation.

Within the state, Swat holds the #10 spot on the Best Colleges in Pennsylvania ranking.

See all of the rankings for Swarthmore College.

Is It Hard to Get Into Swarthmore College?

8% Acceptance Rate
7% Of Accepted Are Women
39% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Swarthmore College has a very low acceptance rate of 8%, making it one of the most selective out of all the colleges and universities in the nation. It’s probably a good idea to apply to other schools in addition to Swat just in case you don’t make the cut.

Standardized Test Scores

About 39% of students accepted to Swat submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 740 and 770. Math scores were between 750 and 790.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Swarthmore College  ( 740 to 770 )
200
800
SAT Math Scores for Swarthmore College  ( 750 to 790 )
200
800

Swat received ACT scores from 16% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 33 and 35.

ACT Composite Scores for Swarthmore College  ( 33 to 35 )
1
36

Learn more about Swarthmore College admissions.

Teaching Staff at Swarthmore College

7 to 1 Student to Faculty
94% Full Time Teachers

Faculty Accessibility

At Swat, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 7 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.

Full-Time Instructors

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 Swarthmore College is 94%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  94 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Swarthmore College

97% Freshmen Retention
94% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 97% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Swarthmore 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  97 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor’s degree is typically four years. This rate at Swat for first-time, full-time students is 94%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  94 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Swarthmore College.

Undergraduate Diversity at Swarthmore College

1,627 Undergraduate Students
53.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
52.1% Percent Women

In the current academic year, there are 1,627 undergraduates at Swat.

Get more detailed information on the diversity at Swarthmore College.

What Does Swarthmore College Cost?

$16,772 Net Price
11% Take Out Loans
$24,024 Total Student Loans

The average net price of Swat is $16,772. 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.### Net Price by Income Group for Swat

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$8,580 $5,592 $8,292 $20,977 $47,429

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 Swat, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Swat, approximately 11% of students took out student loans averaging $6,006 a year. That adds up to $24,024 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 0.0%. 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 Swarthmore College.

Post-Graduation Earnings for Swarthmore College

$80,257 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Swarthmore College with a bachelor’s degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $80,257 in their early years. That’s great news for Swarthmore College students since it is 63% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.

See which majors at Swarthmore College make the most money.

Location of Swarthmore College

Pennsylvania State
1,627 Undergraduate Students
Suburb Campus Setting

Swarthmore College is a private not-for-profit institution found in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Swat is located in a safe and convenient suburb. Get more details about the location of Swarthmore College.

Location of Swarthmore College

Contact information for Swarthmore College are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 500 College Ave, Swarthmore, PA 19081
Phone: 6103288000
Website: www.swarthmore.edu
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SwarthmoreCollege
Twitter: twitter.com/swarthmore

Swarthmore College Majors

17 Majors With Completions
1,200 Undergraduate Degrees

In the most recent reporting year, students from 17 majors graduated from Swarthmore 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 600 NA
Computer Information Systems 87 $97,897
Economics 78 $56,029
Mathematics 56 $59,964
General Biology 33 $34,425
General Engineering 29 $68,963
Political Science & Government 29 $43,119
Child Development & Psychology 25 NA
Fine & Studio Arts 24 NA
General English Literature 18 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Swarthmore College along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Comparable CollegesCurious how schools stack up against Swat? 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.

Data Sources and References

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

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