Centre College is a 1,385-student liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky, chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1819 and among the oldest colleges west of the Alleghenies. For its size it has an improbable record in public life: alumni include two U.S. vice presidents, a Chief Justice of the United States and an associate justice, thirteen U.S. senators and forty-three representatives, and the college hosted the national vice-presidential debates in both 2000 and 2012. The academic year is built around CentreTerm, a three-week January session for a single intensive course, an internship or a study-abroad program — Centre runs 20 semester-long programs in 13 countries plus New York and Washington, and nearly every student goes abroad at least once. The college meets 100% of a family's calculated financial need. Almost everyone lives on campus and the Greek system takes in roughly half the student body, so the social world is dense and close.
Mascot: Colonel
Notable Alumni
Fred M. Vinson (Chief Justice of the United States, 1946-1953)•John C. Breckinridge (14th U.S. Vice President, the youngest ever elected)•John Marshall Harlan (Supreme Court justice known as the Great Dissenter)
At a Glance
Cost
Published sticker prices for 2025-2026. Actual cost after aid varies.
Top Programs & National Ranking
Approximate national ranking based on departmental rankings, research output, and program reputation.
Highlights
Campus Experience
Greek life is the defining structure here — roughly 52% of men and 50% of women affiliate, among the highest rates in the country, and the chapters organize most of the weekend. With 98% of students living on campus in a town of 17,000, that concentration is the whole social experience rather than one option among many. Academics are genuinely demanding for a school this size, and the study-abroad culture means large parts of the junior class disappear for a term. If you want anonymity, this is the wrong college; if you want to be known by name by every professor, it is close to the best version of that.
A compact, walkable campus of red brick and white columns built around Old Centre, the college's 1820 signature building and a national historic landmark, with the modern Norton Center for the Arts on one edge. The scale is the appeal — you can cross the whole thing in ten minutes — and it runs straight into Danville's historic downtown.
Based on Niche reviews, Princeton Review surveys, student forums, and institutional data.
Safety
Centre's Department of Public Safety keeps at least one officer on duty at all times with a staff of nine, and runs escorts on foot, by golf cart or by vehicle on request. Officers do not carry arrest powers — their authority comes from the college — so serious matters go to Danville police. On a residential campus of under 1,400 in a small town, reported incidents are overwhelmingly policy rather than crime.
Danville is a town of about 17,000 with a historic downtown three blocks from campus and crime rates typical of small-town Kentucky. There is very little to navigate: the campus and the town center are effectively the same walk.
Based on Clery Act data, student surveys, and local crime statistics.
Plan Your Visit
Schedule: Monday to Friday plus selected Saturdays; Front & Centre open houses for juniors and seniors in the fall
Duration: About 2 hours with add-ons
Check in at the Welcome Center on the 2nd floor of Old Centre. Seniors can add a meeting with a faculty member, a coach or an admission counsellor, or sit in on a class, when they register. Tours fill and there is a waitlist — book early. A campus visit coordinator handles questions.
Book a TourThe campus is small, open and walkable, and Centre publishes a detailed map with labeled buildings and parking. Old Centre and the Norton Center are the two things to see if you have an hour.
Tour ResourcesLate September through October, or April. Fall gives you the campus in color and the Front & Centre open house; April gives you spring in the Bluegrass. Avoid the three weeks of CentreTerm in January and the summer, when a college this small is genuinely empty.
Guest parking for scheduled tours is in two lots next to Old Centre; the main visitor lot is beside the Admission Office near Bingham Hall at 127 Maple Avenue. Report to Old Centre, directly across Maple Avenue from the parking. Danville is about 35 minutes southwest of Lexington on US-127 and the Bluegrass Parkway; Blue Grass Airport (LEX) in Lexington is the nearest, around 45 minutes, and Louisville (SDF) is about 90 minutes.
Location
Similar Colleges
Find the right college for you
Explore 170 colleges by degree, filter by acceptance rate, SAT range, and more.
Explore Colleges