Elmira College

Private · Moderately Selective · NY

Photo: Lvklock (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationNY · Northeast

SettingUrban

Undergrads708

Student:faculty11:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate60.3%

6-yr grad rate64.7%

Drop-out rate30.2%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$39k

Out-of-state tuition$39k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity31.8%

Gender diversity66.4%

International6.4%

Identity—

Overview

Elmira College is a small private liberal arts college in Elmira, New York, in the state's Southern Tier near the Pennsylvania border. Its defining association is with Mark Twain, who spent more than twenty summers writing at his sister-in-law's farm nearby; the college later relocated his octagonal writing study onto its own campus, where it remains open to visitors. Elmira has been coeducational since the 1960s but keeps some traditions from its earlier decades as one of the first American colleges to grant women degrees equal to men's.

Academics

Nursing, business, and education are the largest professional programs alongside a traditional liberal arts core. Class sizes are small enough for close faculty contact, and the college has historically emphasized a strong general-education foundation before students specialize.

Campus & student life

The compact campus sits on a hillside above the city of Elmira, with the Chemung River and rolling Southern Tier countryside nearby. The college leans on long-running traditions, including a ring ceremony and other class-year rituals carried over from its history as a women's college, that give the small student body a strong shared identity. Housing is largely on campus, particularly for underclassmen.

Getting in

Admission emphasizes fit with a small, tradition-conscious campus more than a formula-driven review; nursing applicants go through a more competitive, capacity-limited process than the general applicant pool.

Worth knowing

The preserved Mark Twain study is a genuine campus landmark, not just a marketing point, and Twain-related events and scholarship are part of campus intellectual life. The college's early history as a pioneering women's college still shapes some of its traditions even though it has long been coed.

elmira.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate77%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1090–1385 · ACT 26–29

Test policyoptional

Rec letters1

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying