Every student who applies to Saint Anselm College has a unique story to tell. In order to understand these stories as thoroughly as possible, we take an individualized, holistic approach to reviewing each application. When evaluating an application we will look at the following admission documents:

High School Transcript(s)

The high school transcript is the most important part of your application. When we evaluate a transcript, we will look at the strength of curriculum, individual course grades, overall GPA, and class rank (if available and provided). Below are the academic requirements for admission.

  • Four Years of English
  • Three or more years of a laboratory science
  • Three or more years of mathematics
  • Two or more years of social science and additional credit electives
  • Two years of the same foreign language; however, it is recommended that you pursue as many additional years of the same language as possible.

The Office of Admission will recalculate your grade point average. This will allow us to review each application fairly. Grades in each core subject area will be used in the recalculation. In addition to those courses, we will recalculate religion courses from Catholic high schools and elective courses taken at an advanced level (AP or IB).

If class rank is provided, it may be used in the review process. Many schools do not report high school rank and therefore, your application will not be penalized if this information is not provided.

Activities & Leadership

In addition to evaluating who you are as a student, we want to see who you are outside of the classroom. An evaluation of your involvement is an important part of the application review process. When we are looking at your list of involvements, we are looking to better understand who you are as a person what kind of impact you will have on our campus. Your involvement is not limited to clubs, sports, and organizations within your school. Other areas of impact may include service and volunteer opportunities, faith formation, part-time employment, and/or family responsibilities and commitments.

Personal Statement/College Essay

The Common Application requires you to complete a personal statement. You may select any of the prompts provided on the application. When we evaluate your essay, we seek to learn more about you. This is your chance to share something with us that we may not be able to see in other pieces of your application. We are also reviewing your writing ability. Saint Anselm is a writing-intensive college, so the ability to express yourself in the written word is incredibly important. When writing your essay, make sure that it is written to the best of your ability.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are an important part of our holistic review process. It is important for us to better understand who you are as a student and as a person. Many types of recommendation letters will provide valuable information about your development as a student in high school. It is preferred that you have recommendations submitted by your school counselor and a teacher you have had in your last two years. However, we will also accept recommendations from coaches, clergy members, employers, alumni, etc. 

Saint Anselm College's president also invites parents/guardians to write a letter about their child. This optional letter offers parents/guardians the chance to highlight qualities, characteristics, and achievements that they believe makes their child a model Anselmian. This parent/guardian letter is not an admission requirement. An application will not be impacted should this letter not be submitted.

Test Scores

Typically, Saint Anselm College is test-optional for incoming first-year domestic students, with the exception of those applying who were homeschooled or applying for our nursing program. In light of the impact caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic, Saint Anselm College has adopted a temporary test-optional policy for ALL Fall 2021 domestic applicants, including nursing and homeschooled applicants. We know these last few months have been difficult for many and it is our hope to make the application process for all students as simple, fair, and transparent as possible. A test-optional decision has not yet been made for students interested in Fall 2022 admission and beyond. The Office of Admission will continue to monitor the situation over the next year and update our policies as necessary.

Applicants may submit self-reported test scores for use during the admission process. Self-reported scores can come directly from the Common Application or a student can send us a PDF copy of their student score report. We will not accept self-reported scores in an email from the student unless the email includes the students’ score report as indicated above.

For both the SAT or ACT exam, we suggest that students take the optional essay/writing section. The essay/writing portion of the SAT is not an admission requirement. We will super-score the SAT and ACT exams.

SAT and ACT test dates prior to November 15th will release results in time for scores to be considered with early action or early decision applications. For students applying regular decision, test dates through December 15th will provide results in time for scores to be considered with their application.

If you have any questions about the admission review process, please contact the Office of Admission.