Augustana College Admission
Augustana College Undergraduate Program
Augustana College Application

The Facts

Augustana College is a small, private institution affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in the town of Rock Island, Illinois, and is home to over 2,500 undergraduate students and approximately 35 graduate and part-time professional students. Augustana College was founded in 1860, and since then has been offering students a chance to mix a solid liberal arts education with useful preprofessional studies. The college offers broad majors in the areas of biological science, business, communications and the arts (which includes a unique program in Scandinavian languages), computer and physical science, education, engineering and environmental design (home to a unique and innovative program in landscape architecture and design), health professions, and social sciences (which houses a wonderful Asian/ Oriental studies department). Augustana College offers its students a fairly wide range of majors in both the liberal arts and preprofessional studies; some of the most popular with students are in the areas of pre-medicine, business administration, education, as well as biology.

Admission to Augustana College is competitive among the students who apply, as they have usually been extremely academically successful in the past. Last year, over 2,725 students applied for admission to the school, and approximately 2,050 of those students were accepted; about 614 of the admitted students enrolled for the coming Fall semester. The admitted students had an average combined SAT score ranging from 1120 to 1250, and an average comprehensive ACT score ranging from 26 to 33. Additionally, more than 87% of the admitted students were ranked in the top 25% of their high school graduating class with an average high school GPA of about a 3.85.

Augustana College has a very manageable student to faculty ratio of 16:1, and many students agree that one of the best parts of attending the school are the small class sizes. The professors also get very high marks from their students in terms of accessibility and willingness to help out. In fact, the school prides itself on the dedication and personability of its staff as a whole.

The Social Scene

The town of Rock Island is quite suburban, and not really aimed toward entertaining a students population, however, the wonderful city of Chicago is only about 165 miles east, and most students own cars, making weekend access to the area pretty simple. The school is also home to 13 local fraternities and sororities, which over 20% of the student body join at some point. Needless to say, Greek life is a big part of campus life, and the Greeks basically dictate the social calendar throughout the year. Even though the administration purports to have a strictly enforced dry policy, it isn’t accurately reflected in party life. That is to say: drinking is the number one pastime of students. There are always parties on the weekends, however, if kegging isn’t your thing, there are over 110 groups on campus for you to get involved in.

The dating scene is a pretty vibrant one; if you’re into polo-shirt wearing jocks... hey; it could be worse...

What’s Good

“There is a really cozy, family feel here. It’s nice to have a college experience that is so tightly knit.”

“The professors couldn’t be friendlier. Not only are they incredibly intelligent, but they really look after you and make sure you’re doing all right.”

“The administration is amazing when it comes to getting your questions answered. There is a total lack of red tape of any sort.”

What’s Bad

“The campus is just too small for me. A little bit of anonymity would be nice sometimes.”

“The whole partying thing gets a bit out of hand. If you don’t like it, well that’s just too bad.”

“There’s nothing to do in the surrounding area, and if you don’t have a car, you’re pretty much screwed.”

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