Livingstone College

Private · Moderately Selective · NC

Photo: Ncpappy (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationNC · South

SettingSuburban

Undergrads924

Student:faculty14:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate17.5%

6-yr grad rate28.2%

Drop-out rate29.4%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$18k

Out-of-state tuition$18k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity97.9%

Gender diversity41.8%

International5.2%

IdentityHBCU · African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

Overview

Livingstone College is a historically Black college in Salisbury, North Carolina, founded in 1879 and affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. It offers a liberal-arts foundation alongside professional programs on a small, tight-knit campus, and carries a long institutional identity rooted in Black educational uplift and church-affiliated service.

Academics

The curriculum blends a liberal-arts core with career-track majors such as business, education, and criminal justice, taught in small classes with close faculty contact. Hood Theological Seminary, an AME Zion seminary, shares the campus and gives students exposure to ministry and theological study alongside the undergraduate college.

Campus & student life

Campus life carries strong HBCU traditions — marching band, homecoming, Greek life, and campus ministry tied to the AME Zion Church. Livingstone's football program has deep historical significance, having taken part in the first recorded game between two Black colleges in 1892, and athletics remain a source of campus pride.

Getting in

Admission emphasizes access and potential over formula, with support structures for first-generation students common across the college's applicant pool.

After graduation

Graduates carry a strong sense of alumni identity into regional education, ministry, and public-service careers, supported by the college's ties to the AME Zion Church network across the Southeast.

livingstone.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate59.2%

Enrolled mid-50%850

Test policynot used

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying