Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri (CC BY 3.0)
School data & stats
Outcomes
Cost
Community
Overview
Coe College is a liberal-arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second-largest city, giving it more urban access than most small Iowa colleges. It has built a strong reputation for undergraduate writing and research.
Academics
Coe guarantees every student an internship or research experience, backed by a genuine writing tradition that runs through the curriculum beyond just the English department. Small classes and close faculty mentorship support this hands-on approach, and the sciences and pre-health tracks benefit from the same guaranteed-experience model.
Campus & student life
The campus sits in a residential Cedar Rapids neighborhood, so students get small-college intimacy with a real city's amenities and internship opportunities close by rather than isolated in a rural town. Traditions and Division III athletics fill out a fairly traditional small-college social calendar.
Getting in
Coe reviews applications holistically, and essays that show genuine writing ability tend to stand out given the college's own emphasis on the skill; interviews are encouraged though not always required.
After graduation
The guaranteed internship/research model gives Coe graduates a concrete, portfolio-ready credential heading into the job market or graduate school, and the college has a solid record of law school and graduate placement tied to its writing strength.
Worth knowing
The guaranteed-experience promise is a real structural feature, not marketing language — students should expect to actually complete an internship or research project as part of their Coe education.
Admissions
Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)
Applying
coe.edu ↗High school coursework
Recommended4 years of English/Language Arts · 3 years of Science · 3 years of Mathematics · 3 years of Social Studies · 2 years of Foreign Language
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