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University of the Southwest Data & Information Overview

13 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
12% Student Loan Default Rate
Want the scoop on University of the Southwest? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors USW offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

How Well Is University of the Southwest Ranked?

#1,754 Best Colleges in Nation
#14 Best Colleges in NM
General Business Administration and Management Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

University of the Southwest was awarded 13 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general business administration and management.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

USW is ranked #1,754 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list.

USW also holds the #14 spot on the Best Colleges in New Mexico ranking.

See all of the rankings for University of the Southwest.

Is It Hard to Get Into USW?

Open Admissions Policy

Acceptance Rate

If you are worried about getting into University of the Southwest, don't be. The school has a liberal open admissions policy, which means you only need to meet basic requirements in order to be admitted. Still, be sure to submit a complete application and provide any other requested materials.

Learn more about University of the Southwest admissions.

University of the Southwest Faculty

19 to 1 Student to Faculty
100% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used as a measure to gauge how much access students will have to their professors - the lower the number, the better. At University of the Southwest, this rate is 19 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at University of the Southwest is 100%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  100 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of the Southwest

69% Freshmen Retention
23% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at University of the Southwest is 69%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  69 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full time students who obtain their bachelor's degree in four years or less. This rate is 23% for first-time, full-time students at USW, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  23 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of the Southwest.

University of the Southwest Undergraduate Student Diversity

300 Full-Time Undergraduates
72.3% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
43.3% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 370 undergraduates at USW with 300 being full-time and 70 being part-time.

How Much Does University of the Southwest Cost?

$17,336 Net Price
62% Take Out Loans
$23,564 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of USW is $17,336. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for USW

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$17,556 $14,689 $15,640 $20,937 $15,310

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of USW, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At USW, approximately 62% of students took out student loans averaging $5,891 a year. That adds up to $23,564 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at USW is 12.2%. This is higher than the national default rate of 10.1% so you should proceed with caution when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for University of the Southwest.

How Much Money Do USW Graduates Make?

$43,241 Avg Salary of Grads
Average Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from USW make about $43,241 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is in the same neighborhood of the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year. However, certain majors may produce higher-paying graduates.

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See which majors at University of the Southwest make the most money.

Location of University of the Southwest

New Mexico State
300 Full-Time Undergraduates
Rural Campus Setting
University of the Southwest is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Hobbs, New Mexico. USW is located in the countryside, which is perfect for students who enjoy a rural lifestyle.

Get more details about the location of University of the Southwest.

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Contact details for USW are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 6610 North Lovington Hwy, Hobbs, NM 88240
Phone: 575-392-6561
Website: www.usw.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universityofthesouthwest
Twitter: https://twitter.com/USW_HobbsNM

University of the Southwest Majors

30 Majors With Completions
82 Undergraduate Degrees
240 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 30 majors graduated from University of the Southwest. Of these students, 82 received undergraduate degrees and 240 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Health & Physical Education 18 NA
General Biology 15 NA
Teacher Education Grade Specific 12 $31,861
Criminal Justice & Corrections 8 $31,409
Finance & Financial Management 6 NA
General Psychology 5 NA
Religious Studies 4 NA
Business Administration & Management 3 NA
International Business 3 NA
Accounting 3 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at University of the Southwest along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at USW

100% Take At Least One Class Online
61% Take All Classes Online

Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.

In 2020-2021, 1,064 students took at least one online class at University of the Southwest. This is an increase from the 904 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 1,064 650
2019-2020 904 534
2018-2019 875 544
2017-2018 888 617
2016-2017 810 621

Learn more about online learning at University of the Southwest.

If you’re considering University of the Southwest, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against USW? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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