Union College

Private · Selective · NY

Photo: Jirka Matousek (CC BY 2.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationNY · Northeast

SettingUrban

Undergrads2,046

Student:faculty9:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate72.9%

6-yr grad rate80.4%

Drop-out rate9.8%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$69k

Out-of-state tuition$69k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity37.3%

Gender diversity46.9%

International10.6%

Identity—

Overview

Union College in Schenectady, New York occupies an unusual niche as a small liberal arts college with a genuine engineering tradition dating back further than most peer schools ever attempted the combination — it was chartered in 1795 as one of the first colleges founded to be nondenominational rather than tied to a single religious sect, which is where its name comes from. The campus itself, planned around the sixteen-sided Nott Memorial, gives it a distinct visual identity among liberal arts colleges, and its proximity to Schenectady's long General Electric legacy has historically fed graduates directly into engineering and corporate careers.

Academics

Students can move fluidly between humanities, sciences, and engineering rather than choosing one track early, and undergraduate research access is extensive even by liberal-arts-college standards. The trimester calendar compresses terms and changes the rhythm of coursework compared to semester schools, giving students more discrete terms to study abroad, intern, or shift focus without losing a full semester to do it. Union is also one of relatively few liberal arts colleges whose engineering programs carry full ABET accreditation, which matters to employers and to students who might otherwise worry an engineering degree from a liberal arts college is watered down.

Campus & student life

Campus life mixes traditional Greek and residential-college social patterns — Union is often cited as one of the birthplaces of the American college fraternity system — with a more recent alternative, the Minerva House system, which groups students into smaller residential communities with their own programming and faculty ties. The athletic quirk everyone mentions is Division I hockey despite Union competing in Division III in every other sport, which gives hockey weekends an outsized role in campus culture.

Getting in

Applications are read holistically, with attention to whether a student's interests span the liberal arts and technical sides of the curriculum, since that flexibility is part of what the school is selling. Essays and demonstrated intellectual curiosity carry real weight, and admissions readers tend to notice applicants who show genuine interest in Union's specific engineering-plus-liberal-arts identity rather than treating it as a generic small college.

After graduation

Graduates move into engineering, medicine, law, business, and research at rates that reflect the dual liberal-arts/engineering identity, and the alumni network is tight-knit and regionally strong in the Northeast corporate and engineering worlds, with a long historical thread running through General Electric and the broader upstate New York industrial base.

Worth knowing

The trimester calendar and the Division I hockey anomaly are the two things prospective students most need to understand going in — both meaningfully shape the academic and social calendar in ways a semester-based, all-Division-III peer school would not. The Minerva House system is also worth knowing about upfront for students weighing whether they want a Greek-dominated social scene or an alternative to it.

union.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate43.9%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1310–1480 · ACT 29–33

Test policyoptional

Rec letters2

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Early decisionNov 15

Regular decisionJan 15

Verified from the school’s admissions page ↗

Applying (2026-27 cycle)

Apply through Common App or Coalition (Scoir).

Early decision IIJan 15

Priority / scholarshipDec 1

Financial aid formsJan 15

Early Decision I and II are binding commitments to enroll if admitted; Regular Decision is non-binding, and a separate priority deadline (December 1) applies for scholarship consideration.

Interviews: Interviews are optional but encouraged, with an admissions counselor or a trained senior intern, as a way to round out your application.

Verified from the school’s admissions pages ↗