Prescott College

Private · Moderately Selective · AZ

Photo: TellingAdmire (CC BY-SA 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationAZ · West

SettingUrban

Undergrads219

Student:faculty8:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate35.6%

6-yr grad rate55.6%

Drop-out rate26.1%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$36k

Out-of-state tuition$36k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity36.1%

Gender diversity72.2%

International0%

Identity—

Overview

Prescott College is a private college in Prescott, Arizona, built around experiential and environmentally focused education rather than a conventional lecture-and-exam model. Field-based courses, self-directed study, and considerable student input into shaping a personal course of study are central to how the college works, and it has long attracted students drawn to sustainability, environmental and social justice, and outdoor-oriented learning.

Academics

Environmental studies, sustainability, adventure and outdoor education, and psychology are among its recognized strengths, and many students design an individualized major built from the college's course offerings rather than choosing from a fixed list. Coursework often moves off campus entirely, into the surrounding high-desert and mountain landscape of central Arizona, for extended field components, and the college also runs limited-residency and online options for adult and working students alongside its traditional-age program.

Campus & student life

Every incoming student takes part in a wilderness orientation expedition — a multi-day backcountry trip — in place of a conventional welcome week, setting the tone for a culture built around small groups, self-reliance, and direct experience outdoors. The campus itself is modest in scale, and Prescott's high-desert setting gives ready access to national forest land used regularly for coursework. Campus culture leans progressive, with sustainability and social-justice framing woven through student life generally, not confined to the classroom.

Getting in

The college is known to value demonstrated interest in self-directed learning and outdoor or environmental engagement over a conventional resume of achievements, and an application narrative that explains why a student wants Prescott's specific model tends to carry real weight.

Worth knowing

Prescott's self-designed-major option and adult-degree-completion programs are unusual enough that a student weighing it against a traditional environmental-studies program elsewhere should understand how much independent structuring of one's own path the model expects.

prescott.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate94.5%

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot used

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying