College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
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Whittier College Data & Information Overview

Great Price Value for Your Money
82% Acceptance Rate
3% Student Loan Default Rate
Get the facts about Whittier College. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is Whittier College Ranked?

#989 Best Colleges in Nation
#121 Best Colleges in CA
General Social Sciences Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

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Overall Quality

According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, Whittier is ranked #989 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality.

Whittier also holds the #121 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.

See all of the rankings for Whittier College.

Is It Hard to Get Into Whittier?

82% Acceptance Rate
54% Of Accepted Are Women
11% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

When it comes to admittance, Whittier College is somewhat selective. Its acceptance rate is 82%, which means you'll face some strong competition during the admissions process. Do what you can to make your application stand out.

Average Test Scores

About 11% of students accepted to Whittier submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 590 and 680. Math scores were between 530 and 660.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Whittier College  ( 590 to 680 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Whittier College  ( 530 to 660 )
200
800
Whittier received ACT scores from 9% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 23 and 28.

ACT Composite Scores for Whittier College  ( 23 to 28 )
1
36

Learn more about Whittier College admissions.

Whittier College Faculty

11 to 1 Student to Faculty
73% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to measure the number of teaching resources that a college or university offers its students. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1, but at Whittier it is much better at 11 to 1. That's good news for students who want to interact more on a personal level with their teachers.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Whittier College is 73%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  73 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Whittier College

82% Freshmen Retention
66% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Whittier College has a freshmen retention rate of 82%. 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  82 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 Whittier for first-time, full-time students is 66%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  66 out of 100
0
100

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

Whittier College Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,455 Full-Time Undergraduates
72.7% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
57.4% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,490 undergraduates at Whittier with 1,455 being full-time and 35 being part-time.

How Much Does Whittier College Cost?

$26,740 Net Price
65% Take Out Loans
$26,012 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Whittier is $26,740. 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 Whittier

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$20,807 $21,666 $24,135 $27,339 $33,931

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 for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Whittier, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

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 Whittier, approximately 65% of students took out student loans averaging $6,503 a year. That adds up to $26,012 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Whittier is 2.5%. 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 Whittier College.

How Much Money Do Whittier Graduates Make?

$54,871 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from Whittier make about $54,871 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future Whittier graduates since it is 29% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Whittier College make the most money.

Location of Whittier College

California State
1,455 Full-Time Undergraduates
Suburb Campus Setting
Located in Whittier, California, Whittier College is a private not-for-profit institution. Whittier is a good match for students who enjoy the safety and convenience of the suburbs.

Get more details about the location of Whittier College.

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Contact details for Whittier are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 13406 E Philadelphia Street, Whittier, CA 90601
Phone: 562-907-4205
Website: www.whittier.edu/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/whittiercollege
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhittierCollege

Whittier College Majors

30 Majors With Completions
422 Undergraduate Degrees
24 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 30 majors graduated from Whittier College. Of these students, 422 received undergraduate degrees and 24 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Business Administration & Management 64 $36,650
Health & Physical Education 53 $25,185
General Biology 41 $22,976
General Psychology 40 $27,562
General Social Sciences 29 $23,267
General English Literature 25 $22,750
Human Development & Family Studies 19 NA
Political Science & Government 16 $30,364
Fine & Studio Arts 14 NA
Romance Languages 12 $27,103

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

Online Learning at Whittier

26% Take At Least One Class Online
1% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 362 students took at least one online class at Whittier College. This is an increase from the 192 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 362 12
2019-2020 192 0
2018-2019 160 0
2017-2018 0 0
2016-2017 130 0

Learn more about online learning at Whittier College.

If you’re considering Whittier College, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Whittier? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes 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

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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