Notes

These are items that bear looking into more closely.

• This institution has limited or no participation in the federal Title IV program. This prevents students from receiving some types of federal aid. Some institutions are ineligible for various reasons (for example, US military academies like West Point, where everything is covered). Others could be eligible but choose not to receive federal funds in order to avoid following the requirements that go along with them, such as guidelines on how to respond to sexual assault or bans on some kinds of discrimination.

• This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 76.8%, so approximately 1/5 of undergrads who enroll do not earn a bachelors degree from here.

• There are apparently no tenure stream faculty. This can indicate a risk to academic freedom and thus educational quality, as faculty members may be able to lose their positions because of their speech, publications, or research findings.

• This institution’s full-time undergraduate enrollment has tended to decrease over time.

Overview of institution

This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.

• Institution kind: Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus

• Undergrad program: Arts & sciences plus professions, no graduate coexistence

• Graduate program: Not classified (Exclusively Undergraduate)

• Enrollment profile: Exclusively undergraduate four-year (see more details below)

• Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $18,039 . This is 90% the average cost of Harvard.

• Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.

• Size and setting: Four-year, very small, highly residential

• In state percentage: 3.3% of first year students come from Illinois (note that 6.6% have no residence reported)

• In US percentage: 44% of first year students come from the US (note that 6.6% have no residence reported)

• Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 76.8% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)

• Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 59.8%

• Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 21%

• Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: Unknown (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]

• Student to faculty ratio: 5.0 (undergrads to all faculty)

• Degrees offered: Bachelor’s degree

• Schedule: Semester

• Institution provides on campus housing: Yes

• Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 530 students

• Freshmen required to live on campus: No

• Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes

• Disabilities: 3 percent or less of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.

Map

Comparisons

The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. In fields where there is a common view that higher (or lower) values are better, the best values are in blue, the worst values are in red. If there isn’t a sense of a particular value being better, values are shown in varying shades of green. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.

• Principia College lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Northland College, Greenville University, Blackburn College
• Principia College compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Barnard College, Pomona College, Williams College, Wellesley College, Amherst College, Davidson College, Hamilton College, Colgate University, Colorado College, Babson College, Vassar College, Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, College of the Holy Cross, Denison University, Skidmore College, Macalester College, College of the Ozarks, Oberlin College, Trinity College, Mount Holyoke College, Kenyon College, Occidental College, Connecticut College, Emerson College, Union College, Illinois Wesleyan University, Cedarville University, Elon University, St Lawrence University, Augustana College, Wheaton College, The College of Wooster, Taylor University, Messiah University, Hope College, Sarah Lawrence College, Lake Forest College, Calvin University, DePauw University, Webster University, Methodist College, Wabash College, Butler University, Stonehill College, Saint Anselm College, Drury University, Lawrence University, Hobart William Smith Colleges, Spring Arbor University, Lincoln University, North Central College, Siena College, St. Joseph’s University-New York, Carroll University, University of St Francis, Huntington University, Manhattan College, Anderson University, Aurora University, Kalamazoo College, Le Moyne College, Trinity Christian College, Elmhurst University, Knox College, Viterbo University, Vanguard University of Southern California, Capital University, Saint Norbert College, McKendree University, Bellin College, Beloit College, Earlham College, Alma College, Thomas Aquinas College, Westmont College, Kettering University, Olivet Nazarene University, Hartwick College, Andrews University, Assumption University, Quincy University, Judson University, Millikin University, Albion College, Hanover College, Carthage College, North Park University, Pacific Union College, Emmanuel College, Valparaiso University, Gordon College, Columbia College Chicago, Keene State College, Ohio Christian University, Fresno Pacific University, Houghton University, Cornell College, Dominican University of California, Marymount Manhattan College, The College of Saint Rose, Illinois College, Los Angeles Pacific University, Rochester University, Manchester University, St. Francis College, Rockford University, Northeastern Illinois University, Dominican University, Lincoln Christian University, Heidelberg University, University of Mount Saint Vincent, Saint Xavier University, Goucher College, Iona University, Wilberforce University, Aquinas College, Colby-Sawyer College, Mount Saint Mary College, Westminster College, Marietta College, Ripon College, Franklin College, Alverno College, Eastern Nazarene College, Edgewood College, Fontbonne University, Goshen College, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Wilmington College, Madonna University, The University of Olivet, Central Methodist University-College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Monmouth College, Oakland City University, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Northeastern University Oakland, National Louis University, Defiance College, Trinity International University-Illinois, Eureka College, Allegheny Wesleyan College, Great Lakes Christian College, Hilbert College, Keuka College, Anna Maria College, Ursuline College, Hannibal-LaGrange University, Hiram College, Culver-Stockton College, Elmira College, Cleary University, Martin University, Azusa Pacific University, Hampshire College, Lakeland University, Trine University, Kuyper College, Albertus Magnus College, Missouri Valley College, Wells College, Simpson University, Concordia University Ann Arbor, Bluffton University, Wisconsin Lutheran College, Curry College, Tiffin University, East-West University, Antioch College, Fisher College, Providence Christian College
• These institutions compare themselves to Principia College, but not vice versa: Martin Luther College, New Saint Andrews College

Enrollment

General

Teaching

Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.

Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.

Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.

Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.

Geography

This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated.

Financial Aid

Graduation

Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).

Library

Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.

Diversity

The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.

Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).

These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.

Overall diversity

Freshman profile

Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.

Freshman geography

Test scores

SAT scores

ACT scores

Majors

This presents information on the number of majors and the median earnings one and five years after graduation for people who got a degree from this institution in that field. The earnings are for those who are working and not enrolled in further education. The earnings data (from the federal college scorecard) also has information on earnings for those categorized as ‘MALE’ and ‘NOMALE’ – for readability, these are recategorized here as “Men” and “Women”, respectively, which adopts the gender binary used in other federal data. “W/M earnings ratio” is the median earnings of women divided by men, as a percentage.

Bachelors

Masters

Doctorate

Certificate

Associates