Simpson College Overview

Located in Indianola, Iowa, Simpson College is a private not-for-profit institution. The charming, small-town atmosphere of Indianola draws many to the area.

What Is Simpson College Known For?

• The 3% student loan default rate at Simpson College 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 Simpson College is the master's degree.
• For the 2019-2020 academic year, 55% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from Simpson College with a bachelor's degree make about $50,628 a year. That's 24% more than those who graduate from other schools.
• It takes the average Simpson College student 4.0 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Simpson College Rankings

Simpson College is ranked #168 out of 2,018 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2023 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. It is also ranked #6 out of 36 schools in Iowa.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#169	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 Simpson College.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#5	Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Law Enforcement & Firefighting Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best Health & Physical Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#15	Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#24	Best Radio, TV & Digital Communication Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#64	Best Liberal Arts & Humanities Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#102	Best Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#117	Best General Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#147	Best Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#152	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#5	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting	College Factual
#5	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for Criminal Justice & Corrections	College Factual
#47	Best Criminal Justice Studies Schools	College Factual
#79	Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools	College Factual
#81	Best Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting Schools	College Factual
#111	Best Schools	Grad Degree

Where Is Simpson College?

Contact details for Simpson College are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	701 North C St, Indianola, IA 50125
Phone:	515-961-6251
Website:	www.simpson.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/SimpsonCollege
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/simpsoncollege

How Do I Get Into Simpson College?

You can apply to Simpson College online at: admissions.simpson.edu/apply/

Admission Requirements for Simpson College

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	considered but not required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Simpson College?

Simpson College has the high acceptance rate of 87%, which means it is fairly easy to gain admittance as long as you submit a complete application with requested materials.

Approximately 43% of accepted students are men and 57% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 83%, and the acceptance rate for women is 90%.

Average Test Scores

About 8% of students accepted to Simpson College submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 540 and 610. Math scores were between 530 and 590.

Simpson College received ACT scores from 71% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 19 and 25. Math scores were between 18 and 25. Composite scores were between 20 and 26.

Can I Afford Simpson College?

The overall average net price of Simpson College is $31,449. 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 Simpson College, approximately 75% of students took out student loans averaging $7,897 a year. That adds up to $31,588 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Simpson College is 3.4%. 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.

Simpson College Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 1,225 undergraduate students at Simpson College, with 1,108 being full-time and 117 being part-time.

There are also 42 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,108 full-time undergraduates at Simpson College, 48% are male and 52% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	17
Black or African American	39
Hispanic or Latino	79
White	877
International Students	17
Other Races/Ethnicities	79

Geographic Diversity

Iowa students aren't the only ones who study at Simpson College. At this time, 18 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 11 countries are represented at Simpson College. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Mexico, France, and Nigeria.

Online Learning at Simpson College

In 2019-2020, 89 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 34th 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 Simpson College

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Simpson College was 113.3%. This is the #388 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Simpson College regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Simpson College majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Criminal Justice & Corrections	9%
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting	7%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Simpson College ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at Simpson College.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Management Information Systems	#1
Criminal Justice & Corrections	#58
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting	#84
Business Administration & Management	#180
Business, Management & Marketing	#241

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%.

Simpson College Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	39	0	0	39
Accounting	29	2	0	31
Criminal Justice & Corrections	18	0	5	23
Teacher Education Grade Specific	14	0	6	20
Management Information Systems	18	0	0	18
Political Science & Government	17	0	0	17
Liberal Arts General Studies	14	0	0	14
General Psychology	14	0	0	14
Health & Physical Education	13	0	0	13
Computer Information Systems	9	1	0	10
History	10	0	0	10
Economics	10	0	0	10
General Biology	9	0	0	9
Public Relations & Advertising	9	0	0	9
Health Sciences & Services	9	0	0	9
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	8	0	0	8
Computer Science	7	0	0	7
General English Literature	7	0	0	7
Philosophy	7	0	0	7
Music	7	0	0	7
Teacher Education Subject Specific	6	0	0	6
Romance Languages	6	0	0	6
Human Services	6	0	0	6
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	5	0	0	5
Mathematics	5	0	0	5
Natural Resources Conservation	5	0	0	5
Sociology	4	0	0	4
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	3	0	0	3
Journalism	3	0	0	3
Interdisciplinary Studies	3	0	0	3
Religious Studies	3	0	0	3
Physics	3	0	0	3
International Relations & National Security	3	0	0	3
Design & Applied Arts	3	0	0	3
Drama & Theater Arts	3	0	0	3
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	2	0	0	2
Germanic Languages	2	0	0	2
International Business	1	0	0	1
Marketing	1	0	0	1
Health & Medical Administrative Services	1	0	0	1
Chemistry	1	0	0	1
Engineering Physics	0	0	0	0
Allied Health Professions	0	0	0	0
Applied Mathematics	0	0	0	0
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	337	3	11	351

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 GrandpaDave under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.