Millsaps College — Admission Snapshot 2026
A complete at-a-glance picture of every metric that matters for your 2026 application
Millsaps College, founded in 1890 in Jackson, Mississippi, is a private liberal arts college ranked #136 in National Liberal Arts Colleges by U.S. News. Known for its rigorous academics and Honor Code system, Millsaps offers distinctive programs in business administration through its Else School of Management and neuroscience through its partnership with the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The college's 100-acre campus, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, blends Gothic architecture with modern facilities like the newly renovated Olin Science Hall and the Hargrove Memorial Organ. Millsaps' 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio ensures personalized attention, with 100% of students participating in internships, research, or study abroad through the college's Faith and Work Initiative.
The college's location in Mississippi's capital provides unparalleled access to government, healthcare, and legal internships, including opportunities at the State Capitol and numerous Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Jackson. Millsaps is one of only 40 colleges nationwide with a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and maintains strong traditions like the Millsaps Arts & Lecture Series. NCAA Division III athletics and over 80 student organizations foster a vibrant campus community, while the college's Methodist heritage informs its commitment to social justice and ethical leadership. The Millsaps-Wilson Library houses special collections including Civil Rights Movement archives and the Eudora Welty Collection.
Millsaps College Acceptance Rate
Millsaps College is selective but reasonable. About 49% of applicants (49 per 100) are admitted each cycle.
What Millsaps Admissions Looks For
- Solid, Not Perfect: A GPA trending upward matters more than one that's flat.
- Holistic Read: Recommendations and community involvement carry real weight here.
Selectivity at a Glance
Selective
Slightly below-average GPA? A strong test score or clear leadership track record can still keep you competitive.
Recommended Academic Profile
Source: IPEDS & College Scorecard (Nov 2025).
Millsaps College Application Deadlines & Admission Dates 2026
The application deadline for Millsaps College is November 15 for Early Decision I applicants, with additional plans listed below. Admission decisions are typically released by December 15.
Key Admission Dates
⏳ 99 days left — Early Decision I💡 The scholarship deadline (December 1, 2026) often falls before the regular admission deadline. Submit your application and FAFSA early to be considered for maximum aid.
Deadlines are verified from official institutional sources but may change each cycle. Always confirm final dates on the official website.
Millsaps GPA Requirement
The average GPA of admitted students at Millsaps is 3.65. That makes admissions here highly selective. Most admitted students carry mostly A's with the occasional B.
Between 3.35 and 3.65? A strong standardized test score is worth prioritizing.
Most schools report GPA on a weighted or unweighted 4.0 scale differently. For an unweighted profile like this, students with AP/IB coursework typically carry a weighted GPA of 3.85–4.05.Millsaps GPA & Admission Outlook
Assessment: Selective; solid academic performance is expected.
Recommended Strategy: Focus on a Strong 'Spike' in extracurriculars or research.
Where your GPA falls in this range shapes what the rest of your application needs to do:
Evaluation Metrics That Matter Here
- Acceptance rate approximately 43-49% (IPEDS 2024-25: 1,009 admitted of 2,340 applicants); $0 application fee; test-optional; rolling admissions with priority dates of March 1 (fall) and November 1 (spring); personal essay and letters of recommendation are recommended but not required.
- Millsaps ranks #1 in Mississippi for graduate earnings 10 years after starting college; has the highest four-year graduation rate of any college or university in the state; and was the first Mississippi school to earn a Phi Beta Kappa chapter (1989).
- Else School of Management holds AACSB accreditation - rare for an institution of Millsaps' size (~620 undergrads); qualified students may complete a fifth-year master's degree in accounting (M.Acc.) on the same campus.
- Community Engaged Learning (CEL) is integrated across all disciplines (not a separate program), and Millsaps operates a 4,500-acre biocultural research reserve in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula - both are distinctive experiential features for a 100-acre urban campus in Jackson, MS.
- Rigor Over Raw Number: A slightly lower GPA (say 3.8) paired with multiple AP or IB courses often outweighs a flat 4.0 from a standard curriculum.
- Trajectory Matters: A lower start in 9th or 10th grade, followed by a clear upward trend senior year, reads as academic resilience rather than a weakness.
Data verified via IPEDS, College Scorecard (Nov 2025) and the Common Data Set (CDS). Expert Review led by Sohaib Khan and Dr. Waseem.
Check Your Admission Chances at Millsaps
Admission Chance Predictor
Real-Time Sensitive Analysis — based on Millsaps College's verified institutional data
Adjust the sliders to see how every decimal point affects your outcome.
✅ Verified Data: Institutional records for 2026.
Calculated via College Portal's Human-Intelligence (HI) Methodology & Editorial Standards. Verified by Sohaib Ahmad Khan.
Millsaps College (Millsaps) Test Requirements
Standardized scores still matter here: aim for the middle 50% range of the 2026 admitted class below, and if Millsaps is test-optional, a high score submitted voluntarily still helps with merit scholarships.
Can I Get Into Millsaps Without SAT or ACT?
Millsaps College Average SAT Score: 1245
The average SAT score of admitted students at Millsaps College is 1245 on the 1600-point scale.
SAT Competitiveness
This sits close to the national average SAT score.
If your score is below 1205, retaking the SAT is strongly recommended to improve your chances at Millsaps. Retaking multiple times is completely normal. Most competitive applicants sit for it two or three times. There's no official limit on attempts.
SAT Scores Breakdown by Sections
| Section | Average | 25th Percentile | 75th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT Math | - | - | - |
| SAT Reading | - | - | - |
| SAT Composite | 1245 | 1205 | 1275 |
Below 1205, you're behind most admitted students; at 1275 or above, you're ahead of 75% of them. (25th/75th percentile = the score below which that share of admitted students fall.)
View list of all colleges with average SAT score of 1250
Can I get into Millsaps College (Millsaps) with a 1300 SAT?
A 1300 SAT puts you ahead of most of Millsaps's admitted class, but admissions still weighs GPA, course rigor, and essays alongside it. A strong score opens the door; the rest of your profile decides what happens next.
Your 2026 Admissions Roadmap for Millsaps
Selective Strategy: Competitive Positioning
At Millsaps, admissions looks for reliable, high-achieving students. The goal is to land as a top-tier applicant. That's what triggers both admission and the best merit aid.
Millsaps uses rolling admissions with a $0 application fee, test-optional policy, and no hard supplemental essay requirement for standard first-year admission. Personal essay and letters of recommendation are listed as recommended but not required. This creates a real strategic opening: students who submit strong optional materials (a well-crafted personal statement that goes beyond the Common App essay and a specific, credible recommendation letter) distinguish themselves in a process where many applicants submit only the transcript. Priority deadlines are March 1 for fall and November 1 for spring; financial aid and merit scholarship consideration is strongest for on-time applicants. Millsaps had 2,340 applicants for the 2024-25 cycle with an acceptance rate around 43%; submitting an optional essay that references specific Millsaps programs, faculty, or the Community Engaged Learning structure adds meaningful signal in a holistically reviewed process.
Millsaps integrates Community Engaged Learning (CEL) across all academic disciplines - this is not a service-learning add-on or an optional track, but a curriculum-wide program where students partner with Jackson-area organizations to do real policy, health, arts, and civic work as part of their coursework. Recent CEL course work has included writing policy papers for Mississippi legislators, facilitating activities for disabled adults, and drafting business plans for local startups. For business-track students, ELSEWorks is the Else School of Management's entrepreneurship program, operating since 2011 to revitalize the Midtown neighborhood adjacent to campus. Both programs signal that Millsaps expects students to bring their academic work to bear on real community problems - an expectation that applicants should acknowledge explicitly in any optional essay, particularly when applying to business, public policy, government, or social science tracks.
Millsaps has cooperative agreements with regional professional schools that offer automatic acceptance to qualified Millsaps students across a range of pre-health paths including medicine, dentistry, nursing, veterinary medicine, public health, physical and occupational therapy, pharmacy, and chiropractic care. These are not simply strong recommendations or preferred pathways - they are formal agreements in which meeting the partner institution's criteria triggers automatic acceptance. Millsaps ranks #1 in Mississippi for earnings ten years after graduation and has the highest four-year graduation rate of any college in the state; for pre-health students, those outcomes reflect a combination of the 9:1 student-faculty ratio, average class size of 10, and the pre-health cooperative framework. Identify your specific health career target and ask admissions to provide the current list of cooperative agreement institutions before making enrollment decisions.
Millsaps' Else School of Management holds AACSB accreditation, the gold standard for business schools internationally. At an institution of approximately 621 undergraduates, this is unusually distinguished: fewer than 5% of business programs worldwide hold AACSB accreditation, and most that do are much larger schools. Business majors include accounting, business administration, business analytics, and economics, with concentrations in areas like financial services and analytics. Qualified students may complete a fifth-year master's degree (M.Acc. or M.Acc.A.) on the same campus. Millsaps was also the first school in Mississippi to have a Phi Beta Kappa chapter (1989). For students comparing Millsaps against larger Mississippi public schools, the AACSB distinction and Phi Beta Kappa membership are concrete institutional quality markers that survive the size comparison and should be invoked in any application narrative for business or honors tracks.
Millsaps College (Jackson, MS, UNITID 175980) is sometimes confused in search results with Mississippi State University (MSU, Starkville) or with other "Millsaps"-named entities because the college name is identical to the surname of its Confederate-veteran founder, Major Reuben Webster Millsaps, and the abbreviation "MC" overlaps with Mississippi College (also in Jackson, a Baptist institution). The two Jackson-area colleges - Millsaps (United Methodist affiliated, non-sectarian in practice, liberal arts, ~620 undergrads) and Mississippi College (Baptist, comprehensive university, ~3,000+ students) - share a city but are otherwise entirely different institutions. Confirm UNITID 175980 and millsaps.edu before referencing any admissions data or financial aid estimates.
Millsaps Profile
Is a Millsaps Degree Worth It?
At $61,025/year against a $53,848 median graduate salary, Millsaps is worth weighing against your specific program and financial situation. The numbers below give you a real basis for that decision.
The average household income among admitted students is $56,800, with a graduate unemployment rate of 3.79%.
How much does a degree from Millsaps Cost?
The sticker price is $61,025/year, but the average net price students actually pay, after Pell and federal grants, is typically much lower.
35.6% of students receive a Pell Grant and 61.2% take federal loans at Millsaps. File your FAFSA early and list Millsaps as a choice to be considered for both.
How much does a Millsaps Graduate earn?
Median earnings 10 years after enrollment (roughly 4–6 years post-graduation) are $53,848. That's about 33% above the U.S. median graduate income.
Compare Similar Colleges
Less Competitive Schools
These schools have lower average SAT or ACT scores than Millsaps College. If your SAT or ACT score is slightly lower, you'll be competitive for these schools.
| School | Location | SAT | ACT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham-Southern College | Birmingham, AL | 1197 | 24 |
| University of Mobile | Mobile, AL | 1220 | 24 |
| Samford University | Birmingham, AL | 1203 | 26 |
| John Brown University | Siloam Springs, AR | 1222 | 26 |
| Ouachita Baptist University | Arkadelphia, AR | 1212 | 25 |
| California Lutheran University | Thousand Oaks, CA | 1224 | 26 |
| University of Redlands | Redlands, CA | 1231 | 28 |
| Eastern Connecticut State University | Willimantic, CT | 1200 | NA |
| University of Hartford | West Hartford, CT | 1207 | 29 |
| Quinnipiac University | Hamden, CT | 1212 | 27 |
Equally Competitive Schools
These schools have the same range of average SAT or ACT scores as Millsaps College. If your SAT or ACT score is competitive, you'll be competitive for these schools also.
| School | Location | SAT | ACT |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Alabama at Birmingham | Birmingham, AL | 1251 | 26 |
| University of South Florida | Tampa, FL | 1235 | 27 |
| Covenant College | Lookout Mountain, GA | 1254 | 27 |
| Bradley University | Peoria, IL | 1237 | 28 |
| DePaul University | Chicago, IL | 1254 | 29 |
More Competitive Schools
These schools have higher average SAT or ACT scores than Millsaps College. If you improve your SAT or ACT score, you'll be competitive for these schools.
| School | Location | SAT | ACT |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Alabama in Huntsville | Huntsville, AL | 1321 | 28 |
| The University of Alabama | Tuscaloosa, AL | 1287 | 28 |
| Auburn University | Auburn, AL | 1318 | 28 |
| University of the Pacific | Stockton, CA | 1303 | 27 |
| Point Loma Nazarene University | San Diego, CA | 1278 | 26 |
Degree Programs at Millsaps
Bachelor Degree Programs
Frequently Asked Questions About Millsaps Admissions
Median graduate earnings at Millsaps College run about $53,848 a year.
At about $61,025 a year, Millsaps College's cost is on the higher end; look closely at aid options.
About 35.6% receive a Pell Grant at Millsaps College. The odds are moderate and largely income-dependent, but an early FAFSA filing still helps.
At 49%, Millsaps College's acceptance rate is on the more attainable end compared to top-tier selective schools.
Admitted students at Millsaps College average a 3.65 GPA.
Millsaps College doesn't publish a hard GPA floor, but landing at or above 3.35 keeps you in the typical applicant range; below it, lean on essays and recommendations.
Below 3.25, Millsaps College becomes a harder reach, though a strong test score, meaningful activities, and AP/IB coursework can still make a real case.
A strong SAT score matters at Millsaps College — aim above 1245, ideally within the 1205–1275 range admitted students typically fall in.
The application deadline for Millsaps College is November 15 for Early Decision I applicants. Admission decisions are released by December 15.
The scholarship/financial aid priority deadline is December 1, 2026. Submit FAFSA before then for maximum consideration.
Yes, transfers are common. Have transcripts, recommendation letters, and a solid personal statement ready to make your case.
Strong academics, a focused extracurricular profile, and standout essays move the needle most, along with a competitive SAT/ACT score where relevant.
