Temple University

Public · Moderately Selective · PA

Photo: Dorevabelfiore (CC BY-SA 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePublic

LocationPA · Northeast

SettingUrban

Undergrads20,970

Student:faculty12:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate59.2%

6-yr grad rate75%

Drop-out rate17.4%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$23k

Out-of-state tuition$39k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity59.7%

Gender diversity55.6%

International3.9%

Identity—

Overview

Temple is Philadelphia's large public research university, built into the city's North Philadelphia neighborhoods rather than set apart from them behind gates. Cherry and white, with the Owl as mascot, mark a school with a strong commuter and first-generation tradition that has grown a genuinely residential core over the past two decades without losing that identity. Temple's founding mission — night classes for working Philadelphians who couldn't afford a traditional college — still shows up in the school's practical, career-oriented character, even as it has become a major research university with a law school, a medical school, and its own teaching hospital.

Academics

The Klein College of Media and Communication, the Fox School of Business, and the Tyler School of Art and Architecture are Temple's most recognized units, each with real name recognition in its field, and the Boyer College of Music and Dance and Beasley School of Law add further depth. Temple's health professions programs — nursing, medicine, pharmacy, public health — run through the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and Temple University Hospital, giving students direct clinical access rather than an arranged partnership with an outside system. Temple Rome, one of the longer-running American university campuses in Italy, and Temple Japan give the university an unusually well-established study-abroad infrastructure for a public school its size.

Campus & student life

Life at Temple blends a defined Main Campus core — quads, dining halls, a growing number of residence halls — with constant, easy access to the rest of Philadelphia, and students lean on that access hard for internships, museums, and professional sports. Owls football and basketball, competing in the American Athletic Conference with football played at Lincoln Financial Field, draw real spirit despite the commuter roots. The surrounding North Philadelphia neighborhood is genuinely urban rather than a sealed-off campus bubble, which is part of the point for students who choose Temple.

Getting in

Temple's process is holistic but practical: academic record matters most, but demonstrated interest in a specific college — Fox, Tyler, Klein — carries real weight, and some programs layer on portfolio review or supplemental essays. The university has built a reputation for being broadly accessible while still running genuinely selective, competitive programs within its walls, so the admitted-student experience can vary a lot by major even though the university overall isn't hard to get into.

After graduation

Graduates place strongly into Philadelphia's media, business, healthcare, and design industries, helped by deep local employer relationships and by Temple's own hospital and health system, which regularly hires its own nursing and allied-health graduates directly. The alumni network is especially strong across the mid-Atlantic corridor — Philadelphia, New York, and Washington — rather than nationally diffuse, and Fox and Klein graduates in particular tend to stay regionally connected.

Worth knowing

The health professions pipeline through Temple's own hospital system is a genuine differentiator for pre-health students who want clinical exposure without an external partnership. Temple Rome's decades-long history makes study abroad an unusually normal, well-integrated part of the Temple experience rather than a bolt-on program. Students who want a traditional, self-contained college-town feel rather than a city-as-campus philosophy should look elsewhere.

temple.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate80.4%

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot used

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Early actionNov 1

Regular decisionFeb 1

Applying (2026-27 cycle)

Apply through Common App.

Financial aid formsFeb 1

Early Action is non-binding and comes with a decision by Jan. 10, so there's no commitment required to apply early.

Verified from the school’s admissions pages ↗