Davidson College

Yes — Davidson is highly selective, admitting about 12.6% of applicants in the most recent cycle. It offered admission to roughly 1,127 of nearly 8,900 applicants and enrolled about 531 first-years. With admission this competitive, Davidson weighs the rigor of your high school record, recommendations, and personal qualities as very important factors.

Admitted first-years at Davidson average about a 3.85 high school GPA on a 4.0 scale. There is no hard cutoff, but the rigor of your course load is weighed as a very important factor alongside your grades, so a demanding schedule matters as much as the number.

A 1490 is competitive — it sits in the upper half of enrolled students who submitted scores, just below the 75th percentile of 1500. The middle 50% of enrolled first-years scored 1410–1500 on the SAT and 32–34 on the ACT. Davidson is also test-optional, so strong applicants can apply without scores at all.

No. Davidson is test-optional, so you may apply without submitting SAT or ACT scores. Among enrolled first-years who did submit, the middle 50% scored 1410–1500 on the SAT and 32–34 on the ACT, and standardized test scores are only a considered factor in the review.

Davidson offers two binding Early Decision rounds (ED I and ED II) and no Early Action. Its most recent ED pool drew 1,232 applications and admitted 358 — an ED admit rate of roughly 29%, well above the overall 12.6% rate, so applying ED is a meaningful signal of interest for a top-choice applicant.

Tuition and required fees run about $73,990 per year, with the total cost of attendance higher once housing and food (about $18,780 for first-years) are added. Davidson meets 100% of demonstrated financial need with a no-loan aid program; about 57% of first-years receive aid, with an average first-year package near $74,826.

The social sciences are the single most popular area at about 23% of degrees, followed by the biological sciences (13%) and psychology (11%). Computer science and English round out the most-conferred fields, reflecting Davidson's breadth as a liberal arts college.

Yes. Davidson rates the application essay as an important factor in its holistic review — above test scores, which are only considered, and just below the very important factors of course rigor, recommendations, and personal qualities. With a 12.6% admit rate, a specific, well-revised essay is one of the clearest places to stand out.

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