College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
       Unbiased Factual Guarantee

University of Southern Mississippi Data & Information Overview

442 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
96% Acceptance Rate
Want the scoop on University of Southern Mississippi? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors Southern Miss offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
If you’re interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

How Well Is University of Southern Mississippi Ranked?

#873 Best Colleges in Nation
#5 Best Colleges in MS
Liberal Arts General Studies Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

University of Southern Mississippi was awarded 442 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is liberal arts general studies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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

Overall Quality

According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, Southern Miss is ranked #873 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Southern Miss held the #888 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Out of the 26 colleges in Mississippi, Southern Miss is ranked at #5.

See all of the rankings for University of Southern Mississippi.

Is It Hard to Get Into Southern Miss?

96% Acceptance Rate
68% Of Accepted Are Women
0% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

University of Southern Mississippi has an acceptance rate of 96%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you're a good fit for Southern Miss.

Average Test Scores

Southern Miss received ACT scores from 99% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 19 and 26.

ACT Composite Scores for University of Southern Mississippi  ( 19 to 26 )
1
36

Learn more about University of Southern Mississippi admissions.

University of Southern Mississippi Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
99% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At University of Southern Mississippi, this ratio is 16 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at University of Southern Mississippi is 99%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  99 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of Southern Mississippi

70% Freshmen Retention
28% 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 Southern Mississippi is 70%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  70 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from Southern Miss have a four-year graduation rate of 28%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  28 out of 100
0
100

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

University of Southern Mississippi Undergraduate Student Diversity

9,644 Full-Time Undergraduates
38.3% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
65.8% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 11,451 undergraduates at Southern Miss with 9,644 being full-time and 1,807 being part-time.

How Much Does University of Southern Mississippi Cost?

$14,032 Net Price
55% Take Out Loans
$23,984 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Southern Miss is $14,032. 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 Southern Miss

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$12,382 $12,126 $14,959 $18,383 $18,602

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 Southern Miss, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Southern Miss, approximately 55% of students took out student loans averaging $5,996 a year. That adds up to $23,984 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Southern Miss is 7.6%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for University of Southern Mississippi.

How Much Money Do Southern Miss Graduates Make?

$40,541 Avg Salary of Grads
Average Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Southern Miss with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $40,541 in their early years. 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.

undefined

See which majors at University of Southern Mississippi make the most money.

Location of University of Southern Mississippi

Mississippi State
9,644 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
University of Southern Mississippi is a public institution situated in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The location of Southern Miss is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

Get more details about the location of University of Southern Mississippi.

undefined

Contact details for Southern Miss are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 118 College Drive # 0001, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
Phone: 601-266-1000
Website: https://www.usm.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usm.edu
Twitter: https://twitter.com/southernmiss

University of Southern Mississippi Majors

76 Majors With Completions
2,621 Undergraduate Degrees
862 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 76 majors graduated from University of Southern Mississippi. Of these students, 2,621 received undergraduate degrees and 862 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
Nursing 203 $55,957
Liberal Arts General Studies 178 $24,511
Business Administration & Management 176 $38,213
General Psychology 167 $25,247
Health & Physical Education 146 $25,638
Teacher Education Grade Specific 130 $33,313
General Biology 116 $22,817
Human Development & Family Studies 113 $21,898
Architectural Engineering Technology 84 $53,555
Accounting 79 $36,779

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

Online Learning at Southern Miss

68% Take At Least One Class Online
27% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2020-2021, 9,586 students took at least one online class at University of Southern Mississippi. This is a decrease from the 14,002 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 9,586 3,781
2019-2020 14,002 6,641
2018-2019 9,842 2,633
2017-2018 9,956 2,539
2016-2017 9,434 2,230

Learn more about online learning at University of Southern Mississippi.

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

Curious on how these schools stack up against Southern Miss? 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.

Popular Reports

College Rankings
Best by Location
Degree Guides by Major
Graduate Programs

Compare Your School Options