A
Overall Niche Grade
How are grades calculated?
  1. Academics
    A
  2. Value
    A
  3. Diversity
    A
  4. Campus
    B+
  5. Athletics
    C+
  6. Party Scene
    B
  7. Professors
    A-
  8. Location
    B+
  9. Dorms
    C+
  10. Campus Food
    A
  11. Student Life
    A-
  12. Safety
    C
View Full Report Card
Occidental College is ...
Private not-for-profit
Athletic Division
NCAA Division III (with football)
Athletic Conference
Southern California Intercoll Athletic Conference
Address
1600 Campus Rd
Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website
oxy.edu
From Occidental College

Occidental College's beautiful campus in Los Angeles serves as a springboard for putting theory into practice. In more than 40 majors and minors, students benefit from a small-classroom environment with stimulating faculty. Our distinctive approach offers a chance to explore new ideas, and the academic rigor on campus is enhanced by internships and partnerships across L.A. Consciously collaborative, our students seek to embrace difference and make a difference in the world. Occidental is reinventing the liberal arts and sciences for a new generation of problem solvers, creators, and thinkers.

Occidental College Rankings

Niche rankings are based on rigorous analysis of key statistics from the U.S. Department of Education and millions of reviews.

Admissions

Application Deadline
January 15
Acceptance Rate
45%
SAT Range
1200-1380
ACT Range
28-31
Application Fee
$65
SAT/ACT
Required
High School GPA
Recommended
Accepts Common App
Yes
Will You Get In?

Test Scores and GPA for Occidental College

Cost

Net Price
$31,645/ year
National
$15,403
Average cost after financial aid for students receiving grant or scholarship aid, as reported by the college.
Net Price by Household Income
  • <$30k
    $15,934/ year
  • $30-48k
    $18,824/ year
  • $49-75k
    $18,737/ year
  • $76-110k
    $24,790/ year
  • $110k+
    $42,740/ year

Academics

Professors
A-
Based on faculty accomplishments, salary, student reviews, and additional factors.
Student Faculty Ratio
10:1
Evening Degree Programs
No
89%
of students agree that professors put a lot of effort into teaching their classes.27 responses
68%
of students agree that it is easy to get the classes they want.31 responses
48%
of students agree that the workload is easy to manage.31 responses

Majors

Most Popular Majors
  • Economics
    66 Graduates
  • Biology
    44 Graduates
  • International Relations and National Security Studies
    43 Graduates
  • Psychology
    33 Graduates
  • Sociology
    32 Graduates
  • Political Science and Government
    28 Graduates
  • Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
    27 Graduates
  • Arts
    24 Graduates
  • Spanish Language and Literature
    23 Graduates
  • Mathematics & Statistics
    22 Graduates

Students

Full-Time Enrollment
1,999Undergrads
Undergrads Over 25
0%
Pell Grant
21%
Varsity Athletes
20%
Poll
What one word or phrase best describes the typical student at this school?
Based on 13 responses
Report
  • Passionate, with a lot of commitments
    38%
  • Always wants to be doing more
    15%
  • Involved
    15%
  • Homogenous
    8%
  • Liberal
    8%
  • Not very outgoing; smart in one particular field
    8%
  • Smart, passionate, drive, but shallow
    8%

Campus Life

Freshmen Live On-Campus
100%
Poll
50%
of students say that Greek life is average, and no one will treat you differently if you don't join.32 responses
Poll
63%
of students say varsity sporting events are attended, but not a huge part of campus life.38 responses
Poll
What one word or phrase best describes your school?
Based on 14 responses
Report
  • Liberal
    36%
  • Integrity
    21%
  • Academic
    14%
  • A community of people who become family
    14%
  • Demanding
    7%
  • There for you
    7%

After College

Median Earnings 6 Years After Graduation
$50,100/ year
National
$33,028
Graduation Rate
88%
National
48%
Employed 2 Years After Graduation
86%
National
83%
56%
of students feel confident they will find a job in their field after graduation.18 responses
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Occidental College Reviews

419 reviews
All Categories
Occidental is a great small liberal arts college. The faculty and administration truly care about the individual students. The population is diverse, and the college is very close to Los Angeles and Pasadena, so there is opportunity to get off campus and go into the city. Additionally, there are plenty of internships and opportunities to make contacts with businesses and firms that do business in Los Angeles.
Review Occidental College
There are a fair amount of good points for Oxy, most of which you'd have already heard or seen in other reviews repeatedly. I can't deny most of them. But then again, the disadvantages have stood out more to me over the past two years. Small and tight-knit is good, but not when it's small and cliquey, with people rarely leaving the vicinity of the campus, the neighborhood, or their social comfort zones. Diversity is just a statistic; people have passive-aggressive attitudes towards dissenting ideologies. Overall, Oxy is academically outstanding, but can be very socially demoralizing for a minority of students.
I enjoyed my experience. I loved the location of the campus, however there was a lot of traffic around the campus making it hard to get to. I loved how it was close enough to Universal City/Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles, and basically anything possible that you would like to do. The dorms did not have air conditioning which made the rooms very hot but I loved how they had the concept of the multicultural dorm. I thought that was very unique and a great idea for students. Overall I loved the campus and the food was very good and this college is a definite consideration for me to attend. My biggest setback is the cost.