Drake University acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

With an acceptance rate near 64%, Drake University is a moderately selective private college in Iowa. Because it admits more applicants than it rejects, admission turns on the strength of your whole profile rather than any one number.

Use this page to see what Drake University weighs, where it ranks among Iowa schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1300, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

What are my chances at Drake University with a 3.1 GPA and a 1230 SAT?

About 77% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.1 unweighted GPA and a 1230 SAT, the middle of Drake University's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.4 GPA with a 1350 SAT comes out near 95%. Courses, activities, essays and the application round move the number; the free calculator includes them.

Estimates, not guarantees. Get yours with your real courses and activities. Assistants and developers can fetch this table from the free API: /api/v1/colleges/drake-university.

Here is how to get into Drake University, built from what its admitted class actually looks like and what the school says it weighs.

For the fall 2023 entering class, Drake University received 7,741 applications and admitted 4,964, an acceptance rate of 64.1%. 639 enrolled. Only about 13% of admitted students enrolled, so the school admits several students for every seat it expects to fill, which is why its acceptance rate reads higher than its selectivity feels. Drake University enrolls about 2,543 undergraduates in total, 61% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 11 to 1.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS 2023 admissions and enrollment.

Admitted students at Drake University post SAT scores of 1110 to 1350 in the middle 50%, with an average of 1292. On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 24 to 29. A score above 1350 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 1110 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. Drake University is test-optional: scores are considered if you submit them but not required. Send a score at or above the middle of the admitted range; otherwise apply without one and let your transcript lead.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10.

In its review, Drake University leans most on rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and class rank. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Drake University's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

The full sticker price at Drake University (tuition, fees, housing, food, books) is about $64,835 a year. Tuition and fees alone are $52,130. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $29,127 a year, and it ranges from $25,824 for families earning under $30,000 to $33,126 for families earning over $110,000. 22% of undergraduates receive a federal Pell Grant.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Net price is what students receiving aid paid after grants, by family income.

Median earnings for Drake University students ten years after entry are $71,901 ($58,233 at the six-year mark). 74% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 84% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $23,000; 44% of undergraduates take federal loans.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Earnings cover students who received federal aid.

Among the 21 Iowa schools we track, Drake University ranks #3 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like Grinnell College (15%) and William Penn University (52%) sit nearby, which makes Iowa a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list.

Build around Drake University with peers at a comparable selectivity, such as Berry College, Clark Atlanta University, and Coe College. Running the same profile against each one in the free calculator is the fastest way to see where you are a reach, a match, or a likely.

Acceptance rate, application counts, admitted test ranges, cost, and outcomes reflect publicly reported federal data (U.S. Department of Education: IPEDS 2023 and the College Scorecard) and each school's Common Data Set; figures are rounded and lag the current cycle by one to two years, so confirm deadlines and policies on the school's own site. The typical-admit GPA and SAT are CollegeCalcAI's modeled estimates. Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.