What kind of school it is, in a nutshell
Gordon College is a private, nonprofit, four-year college focused on the arts and sciences. It is neither a large school nor a small one: with 1,610 students enrolled, it falls right in the middle of the medium-sized range, and compared with similar schools, its size is among the most common. Of that total, 1,293 are undergraduates and 317 are graduate students. It is primarily a bachelor’s-degree institution, although it also reports graduate offerings.
One thing that is important to understand from the outset: its official classification describes it as “highly residential.” That means at least half of degree-seeking students live in institution-owned or institution-affiliated housing, and at least 80 out of every 100 attend full time. If your child attends this school, they will probably live there rather than commute from home every day. And the cost of living on campus is almost never listed alongside tuition in the brochure. Ask for it separately, including the meal plan, before comparing this school with any other.
The setting also tells part of the story. Gordon College is in a rural area near a city, within Essex County. It is not an urban school. If your family does not live nearby, you will have to determine separately where your child would live and how they would get to campus; the location information does not tell you how long that trip takes.
A simple but useful note: Gordon College is not classified as a historically Black college or university, a tribal college or university, or a land-grant institution. That does not tell you which students it serves or how your child will feel there. Ask directly which cultural centers and student organizations exist today.
Who else will be in the classroom with your child
Here is something many Latino families want to know first: how many people like us are there? The answer, based on fall 2023 data, is that 12 out of every 100 undergraduate students are Hispanic or Latino. It is a small minority. Compared with similar selective private schools, that number is above the midpoint of the group but does not reach the highest quartile.
That does not take the school off the list. But if your child will be one of the few, it is worth asking during the visit what exists for Latino students: a student group, a cultural center, or someone in the office who speaks Spanish.
Other community data: there are almost no adult students; only 2 out of every 100 are between 25 and 64 years old. There are more women than men, 58 out of every 100. And fewer than half of first-time students, 35 out of every 100, reported permanent residence in Massachusetts. The rest come from other states or other countries, or their residence was not reported. That does not measure distance or travel cost, but if your child would consider this school from far away, it is a sign that arriving from elsewhere is normal here. Build your budget around actual trips, not assumptions.
How academic life is organized
The year at Gordon College is organized into semesters: two long terms of about 15 weeks each. The school accepts credits from AP exams, but it did not indicate that it accepts credit for life experience. And pay attention to something important: saying that it accepts AP does not mean it awards credit for every exam or that the credit will count toward the program your child wants to study. Ask for the equivalency evaluation in writing before enrolling. Do not budget for the savings until you have it in hand.
As for what students can study: in the most recently reported year, the school awarded 275 bachelor’s degrees across 22 fields-of-study families. The largest was biological and biomedical sciences, with 21 out of every 100 degrees awarded that year, but no family accounts for the majority. Compared with similar schools, Gordon College falls in the quartile with the greatest variety of fields-of-study families represented in its catalog. That does not mean there are exactly 22 majors or that all of them have active students: verify the specific program that interests your child.
The ratio of students to instructional staff is 11 to 1, a low figure compared with similar schools. That does not mean classes are exactly that size; it is an institutional average, not the size of a first-year classroom.
And here is something worth knowing if it interests your child: the institution reports structured opportunities such as study abroad, undergraduate research with a professor, and pathways to teacher certification, including state approval for initial teacher certification. If a master’s degree is a path your child is considering, this is something to ask about in greater depth.
Getting in: what the gate requires
Gordon College does not have open admissions. That means it reviews several components before saying yes. Of nine possible considerations, it marks five as required: the high school transcript, GPA, completion of the required college-preparatory coursework, the personal essay, and an English-proficiency exam for applicants who must submit one. Put simply: gathering paperwork is not enough here. The essay is required, so your child has to write. Have them start it in the summer, not the week of the deadline. The first draft is never the one to submit.
The published application fee is $0, so that is not an obstacle.
Now, the numbers on who gets in. In the 2023 cycle, Gordon College received 2,579 applications and offered admission to 1,516 applicants. That is 59 out of every 100. Compared with similar selective private schools, it falls on the low side: seven out of ten of those schools, or more, admitted a larger percentage of their applicants. The tally is split almost in half. Admission is not a sure thing, but neither is it a lottery. The application is reviewed.
But being admitted is not the same as enrolling, and this is where the data become interesting. Out of every 100 admitted applicants, only 22 enrolled. Put another way: out of every 5 young people who receive a yes from this school, about one ends up attending. The others had a place and did not take it. And do not read that as a mark against the school. The federal record does not say why each person chose what they chose. What others decided does not tell you what the school will offer you. Wait for your letter with the net price, which is what the year will actually cost you. That number will determine whether this school stays on the list.
About tests: the SAT and ACT are not required. Among enrolled students, only 18 out of every 100 submitted SAT scores, and among them, the middle half scored between 598 and 690 in reading and writing and between 570 and 680 in mathematics. Those numbers describe students who enrolled and submitted scores, not all applicants. That 598 is not a minimum, and that 690 does not guarantee anything.
And a note for families whose students are already coming from another college: in fall 2023, 46 students transferred to Gordon College. That is a count of people, not a proportion, and compared with similar schools, it falls in the lower half. How many credits the school accepted from them is a separate question to ask the school directly.
The list price and what you would actually pay
At Gordon College, among 28 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 $18,678. Among 27 students in the same population with EFC family income from $48,001 to $75,000, it was $23,051; among 95 students with EFC family income above $110,000, it was $27,522. For dependent students, the range combines their parents’ income with their own.
The difference between the average for the lowest-income range (28 students) and the average for the highest-income range (95 students) is $8,844. Among first-year students who received any grant or scholarship aid, the average was $25,250.
$18,678 was the average net price for the lowest-income families in 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.
None of these figures is a quote for your child. The income ranges 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 for students receiving aid, when shown, describes first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received federal, state, local, or institutional grants or scholarships. The figure that matters is the financial aid letter you receive. In the meantime, use the net price calculator on the school’s website.
The aid that actually arrives and the debt that must be faced
Almost all students receive something: 99 out of every 100 at Gordon College receive some grant or scholarship aid that does not have to be repaid. Among those who receive it, the average for the year was $15,583. That is not distributed across all students; it counts only those who received something.
The federal Pell Grant, for families with demonstrated financial need, reached 22 out of every 100 students. Notice the contrast: aid in general reaches almost everyone, but aid tied directly to low family income reaches fewer than one in four. The difference may come from other federal or state sources or from the institution itself. Ask which programs make up that difference and what each one requires.
And now the part that must be said plainly, because this is where the most families stumble: 56 out of every 100 undergraduate students at Gordon College received a federal student loan in the 2022-23 school year. More than half. Of those who borrowed, each received an average of $6,384 that year. If your child borrowed a similar amount in each of the four years, the total would be around $25,536, not including interest. That number is decided before the first signature, not at the end.
That average, moreover, covers only federal loans in the student’s name. It does not include PLUS loans that parents sometimes sign for, bank debt, or credit cards. And it is not the debt a student has upon graduation; calculating that would require adding all the years together, and that information is not here.
There is no way to soften this: financing with debt is common at this school. That does not mean it is a bad decision for your family. It means you need to do the full calculation, calculator in hand, before committing.
The institution also offers a tuition installment payment plan, if that helps organize the family budget.
Campus life: housing, sports, and everything else
Gordon College does have its own housing and meal plans, although the number of meals per week varies by the plan selected. The reported maximum capacity of institutional housing is 1,268 students. The availability of rooms does not guarantee a bed for your child: ask in writing for this year’s rate, the housing application deadline, and whether your child is guaranteed a place or will go on a waiting list.
If your child is interested in ROTC, the school reports opportunities in two branches: Army and Air Force. Navy is not listed. Its being marked does not mean the program is taught on this specific campus; ask about it by name before building a plan around this option.
In sports, Gordon College does compete at the intercollegiate level and is affiliated with the NCAA. The institution reports membership for basketball, baseball, and cross-country or track and field. If your child plays, write directly to the coach of that sport and ask whether there is room on the team, which division it competes in, and whether that sport offers scholarships. Get the answer in writing.
The school also offers distance education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, although in practice almost no one uses it exclusively: only 1 out of every 100 undergraduate students take all their classes remotely.
The library operates with paid staff, and its annual expenditures exceed the threshold that the government records as significant. It has physical and digital materials and participates in interlibrary lending. And the institution reports combined academic and career counseling, employment services for current students, and placement services for those who complete their programs.
Staying and graduating: what the later numbers say
This is where many families want to know one simple thing: if my child enrolls, will they stay? Will they graduate?
Of the full-time, bachelor’s-degree-seeking cohort that entered in fall 2022, 83 out of every 100 were still enrolled or had already graduated one year later. Compared with similar schools, Gordon College ranks near the top: it retained a larger share of students than most of its peers. That said, the source does not separate how many are still studying from how many have already graduated, nor does it explain what happened to the rest.
As for graduation: of 417 first-time, full-time students who began bachelor’s-degree programs in 2017, 282 had graduated from that same institution six years later. That is 68 out of every 100. At four years, the figure falls to 60 out of every 100. Compared with similar schools, half of the group or more reported the same proportion of graduates or a lower one.
One truth must be stated plainly: this count does not fully reconstruct what happened to the rest of those students. A missing row does not become a zero, and it does not authorize you to assume transfer, continued enrollment, a pause, or withdrawal. We simply do not know from these data.
There is an even longer view. IPEDS followed a cohort of 506 students who entered between July 2015 and June 2016. Eight years later, 73 out of every 100 had earned a degree or certificate from Gordon College. It is a strong figure, in the top quartile compared with similar schools.
But here is the counterweight I will not hide from you: within that same cohort, students who received a Pell Grant graduated at a rate of 57 out of every 100 within eight years. That is 22 points lower than the rate for those who did not receive Pell. That comparison describes what happened to that specific cohort between 2015 and 2023; your family’s qualifying for Pell today does not determine your child’s outcome. But if income-based federal aid will be a central part of your family’s plan, it is worth asking the school very directly what is specifically available for those students: is there an assigned counselor? Is emergency aid available? Does the institution’s own scholarship renew every year? And get the answers in writing.
What this article cannot tell you
We do not know what happens to a student after graduating from Gordon College: there are no data here about employment, income, or debt at the time of program completion. That is beyond what the official sources I used allow me to state.
In closing
You now know Gordon College in greater depth than most families ever do before deciding: you know its size, who else would be in the classroom with your child, what the admissions process requires, its list price and what it has cost on average for families with incomes similar to yours, how many people end up with debt, and how many graduate.
That is one piece of the plan, not the complete plan. What your child wants to study and what they have already built to get there are still missing. So is what your family can and is willing to pay, and only you know that. Put the three pieces together, and that is where a decision that truly belongs to your family begins to emerge.
Source note: The information in this article comes from data reported by Gordon College to the U.S. Department of Education’s IPEDS system, primarily from the 2022-23 and 2023-24 cycles, with some figures from earlier cohorts as indicated in each section. Best College Aid does not represent Gordon College or any government agency; this article organizes and explains public data and does not replace official information that the college itself provides to you in writing.