Central College Admission
Central College Undergraduate Program
Central College Application

The Facts

Central College is a small, private institution located in the town of Pella, Iowa, and is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America. The college is home to over 1,800 undergraduate students and approximately 50 graduate and part-time professional students who are able to take courses in both the liberal arts and sciences as well as preprofessional studies. The school offers academic programs in the areas of the applied arts, behavioral sciences, cross-cultural studies, the fine arts, humanities, and natural sciences. These academic divisions offer broad majors in the areas of biological science, business (an always-popular program offering majors including business administration and international business management), communication and the arts (home to a great performing arts program), computer and physical sciences, education (home to a popular program in music education), engineering and environmental design (which only offers a major in environmental science), health professions (the only major offered in this program is exercise science), and social sciences. Central College offers its students a fairly wide range of majors in both the liberal arts and sciences as well as preprofessional studies; the most popular choices include business, management, elementary education, and exercise science.

Admission to Central College is not particularly competitive; however, the number of qualified students who apply has been increasing with each passing admissions cycle. Last year, over 500 students applied for admission to the school, and approximately 420 of those students were accepted; of those, about 300 of the admitted students enrolled for the coming Fall semester. The admitted students had an average combined SAT score ranging from 1050 to 1100, and an average comprehensive ACT score ranging from 22 to 28. Additionally, more than 60% of those admitted were ranked in the top 10% of their high school graduating class with an average high school GPA of about a 3.6.

Central College has a fairly high student to faculty ratio of 18:1; and while some of the general education courses are held in large lecture halls, they are usually supplemented by a significantly smaller seminar course in which students are able to discuss the content of the previous lecture.

The Social Scene

The town of Pella, Iowa is quite suburban and family-oriented, and doesn’t really offer students much in the way of entertainment; however, the city of Des Moines is only about 45 minutes away by car, and many students head into the more urban area to take advantage of its more numerous social and cultural offerings. The college is home to six local fraternities and sororities, which are quite popular with students and basically govern the on-campus social life. The parties they throw on the weekends are very well-attended, and very well-stocked with alcohol.

The dating scene isn’t particularly fantastic, but the people are friendly, and pretty good-looking across the board...

What’s Good

“The school is just the perfect size for me. You still have wonderful resources, but you’re not overwhelmed.”

“I really like the campus. It’s always in great shape, and it’s quite lovely as well.”

“There’s a certain feeling of calm here. People aren’t always rushing about to get things done.”

What’s Bad

“There’s nothing to do around here. You have to be confined to campus in order to have any fun.”

“If you ever try to get into Des Moines, be prepared to sit through a lot of traffic!”

“I wish there was a bit more diversity. You see the same people day in and day out.”

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