Drake University Overview

Located in Des Moines, Iowa, Drake University is a private not-for-profit institution. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

What Is Drake University Known For?

• Drake has an impressive student to faculty ratio of 10 to 1.
• The 2% student loan default rate at Drake is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The highest award offered at Drake is the doctor's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 67% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from Drake with a bachelor's degree make about $58,300 a year. That's 43% more than those who graduate from other schools.
• It takes the average Drake student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Drake University Rankings

According to our 2022 analysis, Drake is ranked #107 out of 2,587 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. Out of the 45 colleges in Iowa, it is ranked at #1.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Drake has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#66	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#70	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#103	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Drake.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Best Curriculum & Instruction Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Educational Administration Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Public Relations & Advertising Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#5	Best Communication & Media Studies Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Management Sciences & Methods Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#11	Best Special Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#51	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#84	Best Health Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Drake has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#16	Best Educational Administration Schools	College Factual
#27	Best Teaching Schools	Teaching Degree Search
#40	Best Communication & Journalism Schools	College Factual
#74	Best Education Schools	College Factual
#107	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#167	Best Health Professions Schools	College Factual

Where Is Drake University?

Contact details for Drake are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	2507 University Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50311-4505
Phone:	515-271-2011
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/DrakeUniversity
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/drakeuniversity

How Do I Get Into Drake?

You can apply to Drake online at: www.drake.edu/admission

Admission Requirements for Drake

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	neither required nor recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	recommended
Recommendations	recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Drake?

Drake has an acceptance rate of 68%, which means it is fairly selective. Take that into account when you are working on your application and gathering requested materials. Do what you can to stand out among other applicants.

Approximately 40% of accepted students are men and 60% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 64%, and the acceptance rate for women is 71%.

Average Test Scores

About 26% of students accepted to Drake submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 560 and 660. Math scores were between 550 and 680.

Drake received ACT scores from 69% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 22 and 31. Math scores were between 22 and 29. Composite scores were between 23 and 30.

Can I Afford Drake University?

The overall average net price of Drake is $37,912. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Drake, approximately 53% of students took out student loans averaging $10,142 a year. That adds up to $40,568 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Drake is 2.2%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Drake University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 2,848 undergraduate students at Drake, with 2,731 being full-time and 117 being part-time.

There are also 1,926 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 2,731 full-time undergraduates at Drake, 40% are male and 60% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Drake University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	138
Black or African American	160
Hispanic or Latino	209
White	2,027
International Students	85
Other Races/Ethnicities	112

Geographic Diversity

Iowa students aren't the only ones who study at Drake University. At this time, 32 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 45 countries are represented at Drake. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Malaysia, China, and Vietnam.

Online Learning at Drake University

In 2019-2020, 4,272 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Drake has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 36th most popular in Iowa for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Growth Rankings of Drake

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Drake University was 805.1%. This is the #112 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Drake regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Drake University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Educational Administration	0	0	97	40	137
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	0	0	0	96	96
Law	0	0	0	95	95
Business Administration & Management	22	0	44	0	66
Teacher Education Grade Specific	21	0	43	0	64
Marketing	60	0	0	0	60
Accounting	37	0	20	0	57
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	53	0	0	0	53
Public Relations & Advertising	49	0	0	0	49
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	47	0	47
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	11	0	0	34	45
Finance & Financial Management	39	1	2	0	42
Data Analytics	37	0	1	0	38
Public Administration	0	0	36	0	36
Health Sciences & Services	34	0	0	0	34
Non-Professional General Legal Studies	31	0	2	0	33
Journalism	31	0	0	0	31
General Psychology	29	0	0	0	29
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	28	0	0	0	28
Natural Resources Conservation	27	0	0	0	27
General English Literature	25	0	0	0	25
Computer Information Systems	23	0	0	0	23
Writing Studies	23	0	0	0	23
Mathematics	23	0	0	0	23
Political Science & Government	21	0	0	0	21
Communication & Media Studies	0	0	20	0	20
Student Counseling	0	0	20	0	20
Drama & Theater Arts	19	0	0	0	19
General Biology	18	0	0	0	18
History	18	0	0	0	18
Music	17	0	0	0	17
Teacher Education Subject Specific	8	0	8	0	16
Economics	15	0	0	0	15
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	14	0	0	0	14
International Business	14	0	0	0	14
Chemistry	12	0	0	0	12
International Relations & National Security	12	0	0	0	12
Physics	11	0	0	0	11
Sociology	11	0	0	0	11
Anthropology	9	0	0	0	9
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	8	0	8
Design & Applied Arts	7	0	0	0	7
Liberal Arts General Studies	5	1	0	0	6
Entrepreneurial Studies	5	0	0	0	5
Legal Professions (Other)	0	0	5	0	5
Fine & Studio Arts	5	0	0	0	5
Other Business, Management & Marketing	4	0	0	0	4
Romance Languages	4	0	0	0	4
Health & Physical Education	3	0	0	0	3
Religious Studies	3	0	0	0	3
Management Information Systems	2	0	0	0	2
Special Education	0	0	2	0	2
Philosophy	2	0	0	0	2
Astronomy & Astrophysics	2	0	0	0	2
Other Visual Art	1	0	0	0	1
TOTAL	845	2	355	265	1,467

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Limitingflame1 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.