Agnes Scott College

Decatur, GA

Agnes Scott College

Decatur, GA

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The SUMMIT advantage

As a school featured in Colleges That Change Lives, Agnes Scott College will guide you down the pathway to becoming a more reflective, intelligent, and compassionate global citizen and a fearlessly confident future leader by the end of your four years of study. 

At Agnes Scott, you’ll grow as a person, discovering your strengths and building confidence. Through SUMMIT, our unique approach to a liberal arts education, you’ll receive personalized advising that will guide you to choose a major, build leadership skills, and gain global perspectives.

As a Scottie (as Agnes Scott students are called), you’ll spend four years with brilliant students who won’t suffer fools, stand for injustice, or tolerate prejudice;  who never settle; who question, confront, and debate. All of this in an inclusive women’s college setting located not far from the southern hub of Atlanta.

This is a place where curiosity meets exploration. This is where strength, honor, and compassion are melded into leadership and where you’ll be immersed in a culture that puts emphasis on scholarship while encouraging you to advocate for what you believe in. Here, “leading everywhere” is more than just a tagline—it’s a way of life.

If our style of life-changing undergraduate learning experience interests you, read on, future Scottie.

Our unique SUMMIT experience
Our alumns often refer to their Agnes Scott experience as transformative. That’s the power of a small liberal arts inclusive women’s college in a large metropolitan city.

Our SUMMIT experience—which earned the College the designation as the #1 “Most Innovative Liberal Arts College” in the country by U.S. News & World Report—reinvents a liberal arts education for the 21st century and is exclusively available at Agnes Scott. SUMMIT allows every student to dive into a core curriculum focused on global learning, leadership development, and professional success that integrates coursework with experiences in Atlanta and around the world. This ensures all our students, regardless of major, are prepared to become leaders in our global society.

Under SUMMIT, the College has been recognized as the #1 First Year Experience in the country for five consecutive years. Here, you’ll read and learn as widely as possible and then discuss and debate new ideas, guided by professors who will expect a lot and push you to be your best.

In addition, successful leaders are prepared by strong mentors and broad social networks. That’s why all Agnes Scott students receive customized advising from day one, including peer advising, major advising, and close work with a SUMMIT Advisor and career advisors. Your personalized advising experience will help you adjust to college and design an educational plan that will prepare you for postgraduate success.

Your first year will include foundational courses in global learning and leadership development in addition to an immersive leadership retreat during orientation. In the spring, you’ll also go on a weeklong, faculty-led global immersion experience to a location like Northern Ireland, France, Ghana, Iceland, New York City, Peru, or Martinique. The cost of this travel experience is included in Agnes Scott’s tuition, making it a possibility for all our students.

Our campus life
While on campus, our students enjoy a vibrant living-learning community within our 100-acre tree-filled campus. The beauty of our campus is so notable that more than 30 movies and television shows have been filmed at Agnes Scott. Even better than studying while surrounded by our stunning Gothic architecture, through your involvement in our time-honored campus traditions and student organizations, you’ll forge lifelong friendships while living in close proximity to a little over 1,000 brilliant, diverse students.  

The SUMMIT advantage
To be truly successful in their fields, our Scotties are challenged to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real-world situations. Eighty percent of our students complete either an internship or mentored research project (and some both!). You’ll find opportunities to polish your writing, research, and speaking skills by presenting at academic conferences, either one in your field or at our Spring Annual Research Conference (SpARC). You’ll gain further appreciation of world cultures by participating in a faculty-led or independent study abroad.

Post-graduation, our alums follow their passions all the way to the top, whether that means summiting the highest peaks on each of the seven continents; leading a Fortune 500 company; serving as a chief justice; winning a Pulitzer Prize, Oscar, Grammy, or Tony; or starting a mobile bookstore. Since the 1920s, Agnes Scott has been in the top 6% of American colleges whose graduates go on to earn PhDs or a terminal degree in their field. With 96% of our students in graduate school or a job placement a year out from graduation, our graduates are ready to take on the world as soon as they walk across the stage. There is no limit to what an Agnes Scott graduate can accomplish.

Make Atlanta your home
The Agnes Scott campus is located in Decatur, Georgia, an intimate community that’s just six miles from downtown Atlanta. Our students enjoy Decatur Square, just a short walk from campus and filled with great restaurants, local shops, concerts, and a MARTA station (Atlanta’s public transportation system). A short train or car ride away, Atlanta offers so much to Scotties, from internships and concerts to shopping, cultural attractions, and the world’s busiest airport. With 16 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the Atlanta area (including four Global 500s) and an airport that offers direct flights to 150 US cities and more than 50 countries, the world is easily within your reach.

If you’ve read this far, why not plan a campus visit? We’d love to meet you, and you deserve a chance to see campus for yourself! Schedule your campus tour today at agnesscott.edu/visit. Can’t make it to campus? Take our virtual campus tour instead at agnesscott.edu/virtualtour.

ACCOLADES

USN Badge

For an unprecedented sixth year in a row, Agnes Scott College has been recognized as the nation’s #1 most innovative liberal arts college according to the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings

USN badge

#27 Best Value School | U.S. News & World Report

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#3 First-Year Experience | U.S. News & World Report

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#11 Undergraduate Teaching | U.S. News & World Report

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#4 Learning Communities | U.S. News & World Report

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#2 Top Performers in Social Mobility | U.S. News & World Report

Princeton Review badge

Agnes Scott College was again named to The Princeton Review’s Best 389 College rankings for 2024

Location

Decatur is a historic city with a small-town feel located just six miles from downtown Atlanta. With a population of about 25,000, Decatur is known as a community of “homes, schools and places of worship." The Agnes Scott campus is within easy walking distance to restaurants, shops, music venues and the MARTA station (Atlanta’s public transportation system).

QUICK FACTS

History: Founded in 1889, Agnes Scott College is an independent national liberal arts college for women affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Location: Decatur, Georgia, six miles from downtown Atlanta; the campus consists of 24 buildings and an apartment complex on 100 beautifully landscaped acres.

Enrollment: 1,115 total students

Student-faculty ratio: 11:1

Diversity: Agnes Scott is an intentionally diverse campus; there is no racial or ethnic majority on campus, and 58% of our students identify as students of color.

First-year travel: 100% of Agnes Scott students participate in a faculty-led first-year travel experience.

Study abroad: Agnes Scott has partnerships with 123 universities across the globe. Seventy-eight percent of our Scotties study abroad after the first year.

Internships: 70% of Agnes Scott students gain experience through internships.

Student life: More than 60 student clubs and organizations make it easy for students to get involved.

Athletics: Six NCAA Division III varsity teams are available: basketball, cross-country, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball. 

Class of 2026 profile:
• Middle 50% range of SAT: 1140-1340
• Middle 50% of ACT: 24-30
• Mean GPA: 3.76
• 51% of students apply test optional

An Inside Look

What students are saying about us...

  • “Being at Agnes prepared me really well to come into this level of freedom, actually being able to prioritize and set tasks for myself. If I didn't have those habits now I would have no idea what I would be doing with my time. I am so self-driven—Agnes really prepared me well for that.”

    • Sophia Elzie '20
      Classical Languages
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  • “The rigor of the dance process and all the classes I took at Agnes Scott prepared me for having a career in the arts,” Patel said. “They challenged me to not be afraid to ask for a better world, to ask the difficult questions. I think I became an activist at Agnes Scott.”

    • Bhumi Patel '12
      Dance/English Literature-Creative Writing
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  • “I think if I would’ve gone to a bigger college, I might not have been exposed to some of the things I was exposed to at Agnes. I couldn’t replicate that elsewhere.”

    • Leah Trotman '21
      International Relations
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  • “The best part of Agnes Scott is how it emboldens you to try something that you didn’t think that you could achieve in your regular life”

    • Amira Daugherty '19
      Political Science
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