Roanoke College Overview

Roanoke College is a private not-for-profit institution located in Salem, Virginia. Salem is considered a suburb and offers tranquility and safety near the excitement of a city center.

What Is Roanoke College Known For?

• The 4% student loan default rate at Roanoke 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.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the bachelor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Roanoke.
• In 2017-2018, 82% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, Roanoke bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $44,700 a year. That's about 10% more than their peers at other schools.
• It takes the average Roanoke student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Roanoke College Rankings

Roanoke landed the #355 spot in our 2022 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 2,587 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. Roanoke also holds the #13 spot on the Best Colleges in Virginia ranking.

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.

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#48	Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#48	Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#116	Best General Biology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#125	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#47	Highest Paid History Graduates	College Factual
#47	Highest Paid History Graduates	College Factual
#47	Highest Paid General History Graduates	College Factual
#143	Highest Paid Biology Studies Graduates	College Factual
#146	Highest Paid General Biology Graduates	College Factual
#150	Highest Paid Biological & Biomedical Sciences Graduates	College Factual

Where Is Roanoke College?

Contact details for Roanoke are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	221 College Lane, Salem, VA 24153-3794
Phone:	540-375-2500
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/roanoke
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/RoanokeCollege

How Do I Get Into Roanoke?

You can apply to Roanoke online at: https://www.roanoke.edu/apply

Admission Requirements for Roanoke

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	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 Roanoke?

The acceptance rate at Roanoke College is 78%. This means that is not quite as selective as some schools, but you'll still need to submit a good application if you want to be considered by the admissions department.

Approximately 37% of accepted students are men and 63% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 77%, and the acceptance rate for women is 79%.

Average Test Scores

About 75% of students accepted to Roanoke submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 530 and 630. Math scores were between 510 and 610.

Roanoke received ACT scores from 24% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 21 and 27. Math scores were between 20 and 27. Composite scores were between 21 and 28.

Can I Afford Roanoke College?

The overall average net price of Roanoke is $36,130. 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

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Roanoke, approximately 73% of students took out student loans averaging $9,612 a year. That adds up to $38,448 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Roanoke is 3.5%. 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.

Roanoke College Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 1,920 undergraduate students at Roanoke, with 1,883 being full-time and 37 being part-time.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,883 full-time undergraduates at Roanoke, 43% are male and 57% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Roanoke College students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	29
Black or African American	99
Hispanic or Latino	103
White	1,535
International Students	33
Other Races/Ethnicities	84

Geographic Diversity

Virginia students aren't the only ones who study at Roanoke College. At this time, 29 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 33 countries are represented at Roanoke. The most popular countries sending students to the school are South Korea, China, and Canada.

Online Learning at Roanoke College

In 2019-2020, 1,890 students took at least one online class at the school.

Online Growth Rankings of Roanoke

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Roanoke College was 6,950.0%. This is the #17 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Roanoke 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%.

Roanoke College Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	85	85
Health & Physical Education	47	47
General Psychology	37	37
General Biology	36	36
Communication & Media Studies	28	28
Sociology	22	22
History	21	21
Public Health	18	18
Romance Languages	17	17
Criminal Justice & Corrections	16	16
Political Science & Government	15	15
Natural Resources Conservation	14	14
Economics	11	11
International Relations & National Security	11	11
Fine & Studio Arts	11	11
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	10	10
Physics	9	9
Teacher Education Grade Specific	8	8
General English Literature	8	8
Writing Studies	8	8
Computer Information Systems	7	7
Mathematics	7	7
Interdisciplinary Studies	7	7
Chemistry	6	6
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	4	4
Philosophy	4	4
Religious Studies	4	4
Drama & Theater Arts	3	3
Teacher Education Subject Specific	2	2
Allied Health Professions	2	2
Computer Science	1	1
Teaching English or French	0	0
Data Science	0	0
Music	0	0
TOTAL	479	479

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 roanokecollege under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.