This article will not tell you whether Arcadia University is the right college for your child. No article can decide that, because it depends on what your child wants to study, what your child has built so far, and what your family can and is willing to pay. What I can do is put before you, as clearly as possible, the piece that can be known from a distance: what official United States government data say about this institution. With that in hand, you decide how it fits into your family’s plan.
Who and where: a small, private, highly residential school
Arcadia University is in Glenside, Pennsylvania, in Montgomery County, within the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area. It is not in the city of Philadelphia: its census code places it in a suburb, within the urbanized area but outside the principal urban center. If your child is considering living at home, this is exactly what you need to check by driving: get in the car on a weekday, at the time your child’s classes would take place, and measure the actual travel time. The map almost never tells the whole story.
It is a private, nonprofit institution offering programs of four years or more. The federal system that classifies colleges by what they do—Carnegie—lists it as a master’s university with larger programs, and its undergraduate profile places it in the selective admissions group. It also classifies it as highly residential: at the time of that measurement, at least half of degree-seeking undergraduates lived in housing owned, controlled, or affiliated with the institution, and at least 80 out of every 100 attended full time.
That matters for your budget in a concrete way: living on campus is not the same as paying tuition. Room and board are charged separately, and they are almost never included together in the first number you are shown. Ask for an itemized amount, including the meal plan, before comparing this school with any other.
The institution reports the doctorate as the highest level it offers, and it is classified as a school that awards primarily bachelor’s degrees or higher-level credentials. That is a general institutional fact: it does not tell you whether the specific major your child is interested in is available here or whether it connects undergraduate and graduate study. That must be verified program by program.
One note worth clarifying from the outset: Arcadia University is not listed as a historically Black college or university (HBCU), tribal college, or land-grant institution. Of the 3,012 colleges in this federal directory, 138 do have at least one of those three designations; this one does not. That says nothing about which communities it serves or how your child would feel there. Ask directly which cultural centers and student organizations exist today and, better yet, speak with someone who already studies there.
A medium-sized community with few Latino students
In fall 2023, Arcadia University had total enrollment of 3,142 students: 1,890 undergraduates and 1,252 graduate students. It is medium-sized, and compared with 941 similar selective private schools, it is on the larger side: between one and three out of every ten schools in that group have more students. But if your child is entering a bachelor’s-degree program, the relevant figure is not the total but the 1,890: half the school consists of people who have already completed an undergraduate degree and are in graduate school.
Among undergraduates, 10 out of every 100 students are Hispanic or Latino. That is a small minority, although compared with those same 941 selective schools, it ranks above the middle of the group without reaching the top quartile. That comparison has a real limitation: peers are grouped by type of school, not by state, and the comparison does not adjust for which part of the country each school is in. It also does not reach the level of individual majors.
Ten out of every 100 is a small number, and that does not remove the school from your list, but it does give you something to ask during a visit: what exists today for Latino students, whether there is a student group or cultural center, or whether someone in the office speaks Spanish.
There are more women than men—63 out of every 100—and almost no adult students: only 4 out of every 100 are between 25 and 64 years old. And 66 out of every 100 first-time students came from the same state.
How academics work
The academic year is organized into semesters: two long terms of about 15 weeks. The institution accepts credit from AP exams, but it did not indicate that it awards credit for life experience. Accepting AP does not mean it grants credit for every exam: we do not know what scores it requires or how many credits it awards. Ask for a written transfer-credit evaluation before enrolling, and do not count those savings in your budget until you have it in hand.
Its degree offerings are widely distributed: in the most recently reported year, the school awarded 400 bachelor’s degrees across 19 program families, and no family accounts for more than 17 out of every 100 degrees—the largest was biological and biomedical sciences. Nineteen active families do not mean nineteen specific majors: each family groups multiple programs. Verify the specific program that interests your child.
The ratio of students to instructional staff, with both measured as full-time equivalents, is 11 to 1. Compared with similar schools, it ranks below the middle of the group: it is a low ratio. But keep in mind that this is an institution-wide aggregate average; it does not tell you the actual size of first-year classes, which the federal report simply does not measure.
The institution also reports structured academic pathways: study abroad, teacher-certification preparation below the postsecondary level, and state approval for initial teacher certification.
Getting in: a more open door than you might think, with important fine print
Here is one of the figures that most changes the conversation at home. Arcadia University does not have open admissions—it reviews application materials before saying yes—but from the pool of 6,688 first-time applicants in the 2023 cycle, 5,296 received an offer of admission. That is 79 out of every 100. Compared with 942 similar selective private schools, that rate falls around the middle of the group, slightly above the midpoint.
Put plainly: this school receives thousands of applications and still says yes to eight out of ten applicants. Your child has a real reason to apply and also a reason to submit a complete application on time. But remember that the figure of 79 out of every 100 comes from a single cycle, not a permanent rule at the school. When it is your child’s turn, check the figure again for the applicable year.
Of the nine admissions considerations the government asks about, four are required here: the high school record, completion of the college-preparatory curriculum required by the university, a formal demonstration of work such as a portfolio or competency exam, and an English-proficiency exam for applicants to whom it applies. Other materials are not required but are considered if submitted: grade point average, class rank, an essay, letters of recommendation, and work experience. If your child studied outside the United States or attended high school in Spanish, ask now whether the English exam applies and what would provide an exemption—it is one of those things people discover late, making everything more complicated.
The SAT and ACT are optional: if submitted, they are considered; if not, the application still proceeds in the same way. Among those who enrolled, only 12 out of every 100 submitted SAT scores, and among them the middle half scored between 553 and 650 in reading and writing and between 530 and 660 in mathematics. Those figures describe students who had already enrolled and chose to submit their scores, not all applicants. They are neither a minimum that must be reached nor a guarantee of anything.
Now comes the figure that truly stops any attentive parent: out of every 100 admitted students, only 8 enrolled. Put another way, out of every 13 young people who received a yes, roughly one ended up attending. Compared with similar schools, this is one of the lowest rates: nine out of ten schools in that group rank above it.
Do not read that as a mark against the school. The fact that most admitted students did not enroll does not mean it is a bad school; the federal record does not explain why each person made that decision, and what others chose does not tell you what the school will offer your child. What matters is this: wait for your letter showing the net price—what it will actually cost your family—before deciding whether this school stays on the list.
And there is another figure worth keeping in mind if your child’s program might require changing schools partway through: of the cohort that entered in 2017 seeking a bachelor’s degree, 30 out of every 100 transferred to another institution without completing a degree here. That proportion is on the high side compared with similar schools. A student who transfers is not counted as a graduate of this school, even if that student completes a degree elsewhere—something worth remembering when we discuss graduation rates later.
The sticker price: $67,140, with everything included
At Arcadia University, among 64 first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received federal Title IV aid and whose EFC records showed family income below $30,000, the average net price was $18,744. Among 59 students from the same population with EFC family income from $48,001 to $75,000, it was $21,027; among 165 students with EFC family income above $110,000, it was $31,115. For dependent students, the income band combines their parents’ income with their own.
The difference between the average for the lowest-income band, which included 64 students, and the average for the highest-income band, which included 165 students, is $12,371. These are group averages, not a prediction of your family’s price. Among first-year students who received any grant or scholarship aid, the average was $26,994.
$18,744 was the average net price for families in the lowest-income band during the 2022-23 academic year. That does not mean it is what your family will pay. It helps you decide whether it is worth requesting the financial aid letter.
Because the price changes so much from one income band to another, identifying yours correctly comes first. The income bands in this profile describe first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received federal Title IV aid; at public institutions, they use the in-state or in-district rate. The overall average with aid, when shown, describes first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received grants or scholarships from federal, state, local, or institutional sources. The financial aid letter sent to you is what governs.
Aid and loans: nearly everyone receives something, and most borrow
93 out of every 100 degree-seeking students received some grant or scholarship aid that does not have to be repaid. Receiving something here is the norm, not the exception. Among those who received it, the annual average was $31,015—a large figure, but an average: it includes people who received much more and people who received much less. Pell, the federal aid program for low-income families, reached 30 out of every 100 students.
Now for the other side of the coin. Out of every 100 undergraduate students, 66 received a federal student loan during the 2022-23 school year—the majority. Compared with similar schools, this proportion is on the high side. Among those who borrowed, the average was $6,574 that year. If your child borrowed a similar amount in each of the four years, the total would be around $26,296, not counting interest and excluding loans taken out by parents or debt carried through a bank or credit card.
Financing with debt is common here. That does not determine whether your child will need it—that depends on the financial aid letter and the difference between the net price and what your family can contribute—but it does tell you to calculate the full amount before the first signature, not afterward. If debt appears in the letter, ask for an estimated monthly payment before accepting anything.
The institution also offers a tuition payment plan, in case your family prefers to spread the year’s expense across installments instead of paying it all at once.
Campus life: housing, athletics, and reported support services
Arcadia University has institution-controlled housing and does not require all full-time students to live there—although that does not rule out a requirement for a particular program or year. The reported maximum capacity is 1,085 students. Meal plans are available, and the largest plan has a fixed number of meals per week. The existence of housing does not guarantee that a bed will be available: ask in writing for the rate, the deadline, and whether a space is guaranteed or your child would be placed on a waiting list.
In athletics, the school competes at the intercollegiate level and is affiliated with the NCAA—not the NAIA or another association. It reports membership for basketball, baseball, and cross-country or track and field. If your child’s plan includes playing in college, write directly to the coach for that sport and ask whether there is space, which division the team competes in, and whether that sport awards scholarships.
Regarding ROTC, the school did not indicate any opportunity in its most recent report—neither the general option nor any branch—while 926 out of 1,786 four-year institutions in this guide did. That does not prove there is no nearby pathway; it only means none was reported in that field. If that scholarship matters to your family, ask about it directly before ruling it out.
The institution does offer distance education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, although few students use it exclusively: only 4 out of every 100 undergraduate students took all their classes remotely; the other 96 took at least one class in person. It also reported having at least one complete program that can be completed remotely—it is worth confirming the exact level and program.
The library has employed staff, and its annual spending exceeded the $100,000 threshold recorded by the government. It has physical and digital collections and participates in interlibrary lending. Exceeding that threshold does not guarantee that it has databases specific to your child’s program—ask using the program’s name.
Reported services include combined academic and career counseling, employment services for current students and placement services for graduates, participation in the Yellow Ribbon program for veterans, a dedicated point of contact for military families, and a published web address for services for people with disabilities.
They stay, they graduate, and some leave: the underlying numbers
Of the cohort that entered in fall 2022 seeking a bachelor’s degree full time, 81 out of every 100 remained enrolled or had already graduated one year later. That figure falls in the middle range compared with similar schools: neither among the best nor among the worst. This measure combines two different groups—those still here and those who had already completed their degrees—and does not distinguish between them or say what happened to everyone else.
As for graduation: of the 564 students who entered in 2017 as first-time, full-time bachelor’s-degree-seeking students, 361 graduated here within six years. That is 64 out of every 100—a little more than half. By four years, the figure had already reached 59 out of every 100, only five points lower. Compared with similar schools, this rate ranks above the group median.
Within that same cohort of 564, it is worth looking at the full breakdown: 169 transferred to another institution without completing a degree here, 2 remained enrolled without completing, and 32 fell into the federal category of “no longer enrolled”—which does not explain why and may include people who completed their degrees after the official deadline. This count follows only first-time, full-time students: it does not include transfer students or those who began part time.
There is a longer-term measure: following a cohort of 790 students who entered between 2015 and 2016, by the eight-year cutoff, 62 out of every 100 had earned a degree or certificate from this school. Among Pell grant recipients, that proportion falls to 58 out of every 100—seven points below the proportion among nonrecipients. Compared with similar schools, this eight-year figure ranks below the group median.
This eight-year cutoff is a snapshot on an exact date, not a bill or a measure of how long each person took to pay for school. Before your child signs any commitment, ask in writing how long the program of interest takes to complete, how its required courses are scheduled, and how the total cost would change if completion took longer than expected.
What you now know, and what remains yours to find out
You now know something real about Arcadia University: it is a private, medium-sized, highly residential school with a more open admissions door than its reputation might suggest, but with a very low enrollment rate among admitted students. Aid is nearly universal, but debt is also common. It has a small Latino community and broad academic offerings distributed across many fields.
None of this tells you whether your child should apply here, whether it would be a good fit, or whether the money will be enough. That depends on three things this article cannot know: what your child wants to study and has already built toward achieving it, what your family can and is willing to pay, and what the two of you decide together when the letter arrives with the actual figure.
You now have one of the three pieces of the map, and you know it thoroughly. Put it together with the other two, and from there comes a plan you can navigate together.
Source note: the information in this article comes from public databases maintained by IPEDS and the United States Department of Education. Best College Aid does not represent Arcadia University or any government agency; this article is an independent educational resource.