Photo: Northwalker (CC0)
School data & stats
Outcomes
Cost
Community
Overview
Whittier College is a private liberal-arts college in the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier, founded by Quakers in the 19th century. It has become a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution with one of the more genuinely diverse student bodies among small liberal-arts colleges, and it carries the distinction of being Richard Nixon's undergraduate alma mater.
Academics
The signature academic feature is the Whittier Scholars Program, which lets students design an individualized, interdisciplinary major instead of choosing from a fixed list - a level of curricular flexibility unusual for a college this size. Beyond that program, Whittier offers a standard range of liberal-arts and pre-professional majors with small classes and close faculty contact.
Campus & student life
The campus sits in a quiet residential suburb roughly 20 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, giving students access to the city while keeping a self-contained, traditional college-campus feel. The student body's diversity, including a large share of first-generation and Hispanic students, shapes campus culture and support services.
Getting in
Admissions are holistic, with attention to first-generation status and life circumstance alongside academic record, consistent with the college's HSI identity and its Quaker-rooted mission of educational access.
After graduation
The college has a track record of producing first-generation graduates who go on to law, education, and public-service careers, and its small alumni network is unusually engaged for a college of its size.
Worth knowing
The Whittier Scholars self-designed-major track is worth flagging for any student who wants curricular flexibility without transferring to a much larger university; the Nixon connection is a historical footnote rather than a present-day theme.
Admissions
Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)
Applying
whittier.edu ↗High school coursework
RecommendedAt least 4 years of English · 3-4 years of mathematics · 2-3 years of one foreign language · 2-3 years of social studies · 2-3 years of laboratory science
Your fit, with your own numbers
With a free Dorado account, this tab fills in from your own profile and course plan:
- A chance band (Far Reach to Likely) calibrated against real admitted-student data — published test-score ranges and, where a school reports them, Common Data Set GPA profiles — with plain-English reasons.
- A fit breakdown across testing, grades, course rigor, activities, and honors, side by side with the numbers the school publishes.
- Deadline countdowns where verified application dates are on file.
Creating an account is free and takes no card — college search, list tracking, and fit are all included.
Create your free account