What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$22,694 to $34,947 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $40,903 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $17,953.Aid and debt
61.5%
receive need-based grants
$42,571
average debt at graduation
4,432
students got merit aid
about 21% of undergraduates
$9,403
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Transfer Deadlines
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1030–1310 · 19% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 23–30 · 1% of the class submitted
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- Considered
- SAT/ACT scores
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Demonstrated interest
- Not considered
- Class rank
What this means for you
Temple rates course rigor as Very Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong.
Temple rates demonstrated interest 'Considered' — it can tip a close decision, without being decisive.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Temple just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Temple essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
42.9% of Temple classes have fewer than 20 students.
42.9%
under 20 students
51.6%
20 to 49
5.5%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Temple CDS 2025–26, I-3.
15:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
33.5%
first-years from out of state
22.46%
live on campus
3.28%
of men in fraternities
4.58%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White33.8%
- Black23.9%
- Asian15.4%
- Hispanic12.1%
- Unknown / other6.6%
- Multiracial3.5%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Temple CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
58.2% of Temple students graduate in 4 years.
58.2%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
73%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
81.8%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
65% finish in 6 years, against 73% of all students.
An 8-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Philadelphia.
Temple's Main Campus runs along Broad Street in North Philadelphia, with its own SEPTA Regional Rail station on the eastern edge of campus feeding directly into 30th Street Station and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor — New York and Washington are each a short train ride away.
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Only 22.5% of undergraduates live in university housing, so most of the 21,031-student body commutes in from the city and its suburbs, and the campus reads more like a piece of the city than a walled-off quad. The Broad Street subway line runs straight through campus, with a stop at the edge of it. What Temple offers in exchange for that lack of a traditional campus bubble is direct access to a major media, health-care and financial city for internships and part-time work without leaving North Philadelphia.
The City
Major city
Philadelphia, PA
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Bob Saget
Comedian, actor and director best known for Full House and hosting America's Funniest Home Videos; won a Student Academy Award for a film he made while at Temple's film school.
Class of 1978
Tamron Hall
Broadcast journalist who anchored at MSNBC and NBC's Today show before launching her own nationally syndicated, Daytime Emmy-winning talk show, after a broadcast journalism degree here.
Class of 1992
Bill Mensch
Electrical engineer who co-designed the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, the chip that powered the Apple II, Commodore 64 and original Nintendo Entertainment System.
Class of 1966
Daryl Hall
Half of Hall & Oates, one of the best-selling musical duos in history, who met songwriting partner John Oates while both were undergraduates here.
John F. Street
Former Mayor of Philadelphia (2000–2008) who earned his law degree here after nineteen years on Philadelphia's City Council.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
The Owl
Temple's mascot since the 1880s and the first owl mascot adopted by any U.S. school, tracing back to founder Russell Conwell's description of Temple's original mission as a night school: "the owl of the night makes the eagle of the day." Hooter T. Owl works the sidelines at games, and Stella, a live great horned owl hatched in 2009, is one of only two live owl mascots in Division I athletics.
The Bell Tower
A 110-foot tower that is the visual icon of campus, overlooking Beury Beach, the central lawn where students gather between classes and for outdoor events.
Cherry, first in the nation
Temple was the first school in the U.S. to officially adopt cherry as a school color, standardized in 2008 to Pantone 201. Cherry shows up everywhere on campus, from the fan club nicknamed the Cherry Crusade to the campus directory.
Founder's Garden
The burial site of founder Russell Conwell, marked by a bust and set within O'Connor Plaza, which was renovated in 2017 to add a large bronze owl statue and an inlaid Temple "T" logo in the brickwork.
Weekend escapes from Philadelphia
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Philadelphia
New York City
1.5 hours by trainTemple's own Regional Rail station connects to 30th Street Station and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor — close enough for a day trip.
Washington, DC
2 hours by trainThe other direction on the same corridor from 30th Street Station, equally doable in a weekend.
The Jersey Shore
1.5 hoursOcean City, Wildwood and Cape May — the standard Philadelphia summer and early-autumn escape.
The Poconos
2 hoursThe nearest mountains for hiking, skiing and a weekend out of the city.
Baltimore, MD
2 hoursHarbor, museums and a cheaper night out than Philadelphia, an easy drive or train ride south.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
25 minutes from campus
Flies international — you can start a trip abroad from here.
Pro sports nearby
- Philadelphia Eagles NFL
- Philadelphia Phillies MLB
- Philadelphia 76ers NBA
- Philadelphia Flyers NHL
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Temple's Fox School of Business and Klein College of Media and Communication both lean directly on Philadelphia's job market. The city is a major health-care and insurance hub, and Temple runs its own large health system — Temple University Hospital and the Lewis Katz School of Medicine — which is itself one of the region's biggest employers. Comcast's headquarters sits downtown, a short ride from campus on the Broad Street Line, and Temple's broadcasting and journalism alumni list runs through Philadelphia newsrooms and beyond. New York and Washington are each a short Amtrak ride from Temple's own on-campus Regional Rail station, which widens the internship map well past the city itself.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Comcast
- Temple University Health System
- Independence Blue Cross
- Vanguard
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Center City Philadelphia — about 15 minutes south via the Broad Street Line; Temple's own Regional Rail station puts New York and Washington within a day trip
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Temple's Main Campus runs along Broad Street in North Philadelphia, with its own SEPTA Regional Rail station on the edge of campus feeding straight into 30th Street Station and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. Only 22.5% of undergraduates live in university housing, so most of the 21,031-student body commutes in from the city and its suburbs, and campus life centers on Beury Beach and the 110-foot Bell Tower rather than a residential quad. Greek life is small — 3.3% of men and 4.6% of women — which fits a campus that reads as a piece of the city more than a self-contained bubble. The owl has been Temple's mascot since the 1880s, tracing back to founder Russell Conwell's line about the school's original mission as a night school for working students who couldn't attend class by day: "the owl of the night makes the eagle of the day." That accessibility is still the defining fact about Temple — an 86.2% admit rate is wide open by any measure, and it's a test-optional school on top of that. The trade-off shows up in the aid math rather than the admissions odds: Temple meets only 60.6% of demonstrated need, and its graduates carry about $42,571 in debt on average, so a family that needs real aid should price this one as carefully as a far more selective school. Academically it runs mid-sized for a public this large — 42.9% of sections under 20 students, a 15:1 ratio — and 81.8% of first-years return, with 73.0% finishing within six years.