Temple University is a large, urban research institution in the heart of Philadelphia. About half of the 25,000 students live in campus, while some live in apartments adjacent to campus and some commute from the local area. Seventy percent of Temple students are from Pennsylvania. Public transit, including trains and the city subway, are within two blocks.
There are 12 colleges and 122 majors at Temple. While the university isn’t known specifically for one major over any others, they have a wide variety of academic options for students, including architecture, tourism and recreation management, journalism, communications, music and dance. Fine and performing arts majors require an audition or a portfolio. The full list of majors is here.
The general education requirements are similar to other schools, about 45 credits of required work, but students have choices to fulfill them. For example, a course called ‘Philadelphia in the 1960s’ fulfills a social science requirement.
Temple is a public university in the same system as Penn State, so tuition is higher for out of state students. Additionally, some majors cost more than others (business, for example). Admitted students’ average GPAs are 3.4, and SAT scores range from 500-600. Temple’s admissions staff considers just the critical reading and math sections of the SAT, but if an applicant’s writing score is higher than the critical reading, they will average the two scores. Recommendations are not required, and the Temple online application essay asks students to consider that they are at their ten year college reunion, and discuss what they will tell former classmates they have accomplished. Temple will join the Common App as of fall, 2013.