Admissions & selectivity
Drake University Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at Drake University?
Drake University’s reported acceptance rate is 63.8%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 63.8%
Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
Drake University admits 63.8% of applicants, a rate that sits below the median of 71.2% for comparable institutions (same type and size).
What SAT and ACT scores do Drake University students report?
The middle half of enrolled students who submitted SAT scores scored between 1,110 and 1,350. For the ACT, the middle half of submitters scored from 24 to 29.
These ranges describe the score distribution of recent enrolled students who chose to submit results, not a minimum threshold for admission. They offer one way for an applicant to see where their own scores sit among those who enrolled.
An applicant can compare their results with Drake's own SAT range of 1,110 to 1,350. The ACT range of 24 to 29 provides a separate point of reference. Both ranges describe recent enrolled submitters, not every admitted student.
The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at Drake University. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.
- Approximate lower endpoint
- 1110
- Approximate upper endpoint
- 1350
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.
- 25th percentile
- 24
- 75th percentile
- 29
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff.
Figures cover fall 2024.
Who enrolls at Drake University?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 21.7%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 16.3%
- First-year retention
- 84.1%
Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.
About these student measures
The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.
Drake University enrolls 2,543 undergraduates, a scale where the composition of the student body shapes the experience as much as the admission rate does. 21.7% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants, and an estimated 16.3% arrive as transfers or part-time students.
Those two groups together mean a substantial share of the student body did not follow a single traditional path into the university.
At Drake University, the six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 74.0%, against a peer median of 68.8% for comparable institutions (same type and size). First-year retention is 84.1%, just above the peer median of 83.4%.
The picture shifts for Pell recipients. Their six-year completion rate is 46.7%, which is 27.3 percentage points below the overall rate.
A student who enrolls can expect persistence and completion that run slightly ahead of the peer group, but the wide gap for Pell recipients means the experience is not uniform.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.
Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.
Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.
Figure notes link to sources and limitations. About College Azimuth.