Paul Quinn College

Private · Selective · TX

Photo: 2C2KPhotography (CC BY 2.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationTX · South

SettingUrban

Undergrads620

Student:faculty20:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate17.2%

6-yr grad rate26.9%

Drop-out rate51%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$13k

Out-of-state tuition$13k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity92.9%

Gender diversity64.3%

International0%

IdentityHBCU · African Methodist Episcopal

Overview

Paul Quinn College in Dallas is a historically Black college founded in 1872, affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and recognized as the nation's first urban work college: every residential student holds a job as a required part of the academic model. Its scrappy, servant-leadership ethos, closely associated with the tenure of president Michael Sorrell, has made it a widely cited national story in college innovation and reinvention, and one of the smallest, most closely watched HBCUs in the country as a result.

Academics

The work-college model structures the curriculum around paid, on-campus and partner-employer jobs that double as career preparation, integrating professional experience directly into the degree rather than treating it as an extracurricular add-on. This gives graduates a built-in resume of practical work experience uncommon at a school of its size, and it means academics are explicitly organized around a New Urban College Model that blends a liberal-arts core with career-readiness and community-service requirements from the first semester on.

Campus & student life

The former football field was repurposed into the WE over Me farm, which supplies fresh produce to the campus and surrounding under-resourced Dallas neighborhood, a visible symbol of the college's community-service identity that has drawn national media attention. Campus culture emphasizes servant leadership and collective responsibility over traditional college social life built around athletics, and because the student body is so small, it functions more like a tight cohort than a typical college class.

Getting in

Admissions are need-aware and mission-driven, looking for students genuinely willing to buy into the mandatory work-college model rather than treating it as a formality. Because the college is small and its financial model depends on the work program, prospective students should expect the application and enrollment process to include real conversation about the job placement itself.

After graduation

Graduates leave with an unusually concrete resume of paid work experience layered on top of their degree, which the college has leaned on as a differentiator in a competitive HBCU landscape. Many students' work placements convert into post-graduation job offers directly with the partner employers they worked for during school.

Worth knowing

The mandatory work-college requirement is central to understanding the school: students should expect a structured job as a non-negotiable part of enrollment, which shapes both the daily schedule and the financial model of attending, and sets Paul Quinn apart from every other HBCU of its size.

pqc.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate40.3%

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot used

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Applying