Talladega College

Private · Moderately Selective · AL

Photo: Rivers Langley; SaveRivers (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationAL · South

SettingRural

Undergrads701

Student:faculty17:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate20.4%

6-yr grad rate30.9%

Drop-out rate45.6%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$16k

Out-of-state tuition$16k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity94.9%

Gender diversity40.5%

International14.7%

IdentityHBCU · United Church of Christ

Overview

Talladega College, in Talladega, Alabama, is the state's oldest private historically Black college, founded in 1867 by two formerly enslaved men shortly after emancipation. It remains a small, close-knit campus whose history is inseparable from the broader story of Black education in the Reconstruction-era South.

Academics

The college offers a traditional liberal arts foundation alongside professional programs, with small class sizes typical of an institution its size. Its library houses the Hale Woodruff murals depicting the Amistad rebellion and its aftermath, a set of paintings considered among the most significant works of African American art housed on any college campus, and a genuine point of academic and cultural pride that draws visiting scholars and researchers.

Campus & student life

Choral music has long been a strength of campus life, with the college choir carrying a performance tradition that predates most of its current buildings. More recently, the marching band has become a source of major visibility for the college, drawing national attention to a program that was, for decades, a smaller campus tradition.

Getting in

Admission is relatively accessible, and the college positions itself as a place that takes seriously its founding mission of educating students who might not have had the opportunity elsewhere.

Worth knowing

The Amistad murals are a legitimate cultural landmark, not just a campus curiosity, and are worth knowing about independent of any specific major; they are part of why the college has a national profile disproportionate to its size.

talladega.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate85.4%

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot used

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying