Occidental College acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

Occidental College is a private college in California that admits roughly 44% of applicants, which puts it in the selective range. A rate like this means it admits a minority of applicants; the bar is less about clearing a single cutoff and more about how your full profile compares to admitted students.

Use this page to see what Occidental College weighs, where it ranks among California schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1420, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

Occidental College application deadlines, 2026-27 · Occidental College supplemental essays, 2026-27

What are my chances at Occidental College with a 3.5 GPA and a 1450 SAT?

About 71% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.5 unweighted GPA and a 1450 SAT, the middle of Occidental College's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.8 GPA with a 1520 SAT comes out near 85%. 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/occidental-college.

Source: Occidental College Common Data Set 2023-24. Every figure appears verbatim in the document. See how early rounds compare across colleges in the Early Decision rankings.

Getting into Occidental College comes down to four decisions, each one visible in the data on this page.

6,573 students applied to Occidental College for fall 2023; 2,622 were admitted (39.9%). 532 enrolled. Only about 20% 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. Occidental College enrolls about 1,877 undergraduates in total, 59% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1.

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

Admitted students at Occidental College post SAT scores of 1380 to 1520 in the middle 50%, with an average of 1452. On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 31 to 34. A score above 1520 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 1380 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. Occidental College 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.

Occidental College signals that it values rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and application essay above the rest of the file. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Occidental College'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 Occidental College (tuition, fees, housing, food, books) is about $84,800 a year. Tuition and fees alone are $66,274. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $38,263 a year, and it ranges from $20,705 for families earning under $30,000 to $54,959 for families earning over $110,000. 17% 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 Occidental College students ten years after entry are $75,951 ($52,209 at the six-year mark). 81% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 90% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $23,000; 37% 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 61 California schools we track, Occidental College ranks #15 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like California Institute of Technology (3%) and Stanford University (4%) sit nearby, which makes California a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list.

If Occidental College is on your list, schools with a similar admit profile are worth a look: Texas Christian University, Morehouse College, and Union 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.