Denison University

Private · Highly Selective · OH

Photo: Pbass1956 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationOH · Midwest

SettingSuburban

Undergrads2,380

Student:faculty9:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate72.5%

6-yr grad rate78.9%

Drop-out rate11.5%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$67k

Out-of-state tuition$67k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity39.7%

Gender diversity52.2%

International17.5%

Identity—

Overview

Denison is a private liberal arts college on a wooded hilltop above Granville, Ohio, a New England-style village east of Columbus. It combines a highly residential, close-knit campus culture with a distinctive recent investment in career preparation and data analytics, emphases less common at traditional liberal arts colleges, while still holding onto a genuinely rural, self-contained setting that shapes almost everything about daily student life.

Academics

Economics, the sciences, and creative writing are particular strengths, and the college has built out a widely used data analytics program that lets students layer quantitative skills onto almost any liberal arts major rather than treating data science as a separate track. Denison also maintains a large on-campus biological reserve that supports hands-on environmental science and field biology work rare for a college of its size. Class sizes are small and taught entirely by faculty, with an emphasis on close mentorship and undergraduate research starting early.

Campus & student life

The hilltop campus overlooking Granville is scenic and largely self-contained, and because there isn't much beyond campus itself, student life is highly residential, with strong participation in campus organizations, Greek life, and Division III athletics. The village setting fosters a tight-knit, everyone-knows-everyone atmosphere, and the short walk down the hill into Granville's small-town square is one of the few off-campus outlets students have.

Getting in

Admissions is holistic, and the college has leaned deliberately into showing applicants a clear path from liberal arts study to concrete career outcomes, which shows up clearly in how it markets itself to prospective students and families. Essays that connect intellectual interests to specific goals, rather than staying purely abstract, tend to land well with an admissions office that emphasizes practical outcomes alongside traditional liberal arts values.

After graduation

The heavily resourced Knowlton Center for Career Exploration gives Denison graduates an unusually structured path from coursework into internships and first jobs, and the data analytics program in particular has become a selling point with employers looking for liberal arts graduates with real quantitative skills. Outcomes lean toward business, consulting, and analytics roles, with a smaller but steady stream into graduate school in the sciences.

Worth knowing

Denison's investment in career services and data analytics is a genuine point of differentiation among small liberal arts colleges, aimed at answering the "what will I do with this degree" question more directly than most peers. The on-campus biological reserve is also a real, distinctive resource for students interested in environmental science or field-based biology, not just a marketing feature.

denison.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate17.4%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1320–1490 · ACT 30–33

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

Early Decision is a binding commitment to enroll (admitted students must withdraw applications elsewhere), and Regular Decision shares the same January 15 deadline as Early Decision II.

Interviews: An interview isn't required for admission, but most successful applicants complete one, and Denison recommends sitting for an interview if you're serious about the school.

Verified from the school’s admissions pages ↗