by our College Data Analytics Team
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.
American University was awarded 94 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is political science & government.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
The American University is ranked #61 out of 2,152 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2025 Best Colleges list. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country. This is an improvement over the previous year, when The American University held the #129 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Out of the 7 colleges in District of Columbia, The American University is ranked at #3.
American University has an acceptance rate of 41%, which means the school is serious about who it admits. Take your time in putting together a strong application that highlights why you are a good fit for The American University.
About 25% of students accepted to The American University submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 660 and 730. Math scores were between 630 and 700.
The student to faculty ratio is often used to measure the number of teaching resources that a college or university offers its students. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1, but at The American University it is much better at 11 to 1. That's good news for students who want to interact more on a personal level with their teachers.
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 American University is 56%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
American University has a freshmen retention rate of 86%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at The American University for first-time, full-time students is 74%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at American University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 7,953 undergraduates at The American University with 7,453 being full-time and 500 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,678 | $22,059 | $30,528 | $34,332 | $50,571 |
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 The American University, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 The American University, approximately 45% of students took out student loans averaging $9,129 a year. That adds up to $36,516 over four years for those students.
See which majors at American University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of American University.
Contact details for The American University are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 4400 Massachusetts Ave Nw, Washington, DC 20016-8001 |
| Phone: | 202-885-1000 |
| Website: | www.american.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| International Relations & National Security | 749 | $47,551 |
| Business Administration & Management | 339 | $58,299 |
| Law | 320 | NA |
| Political Science & Government | 246 | $48,034 |
| Public Relations & Advertising | 166 | $50,026 |
| Public Administration | 164 | NA |
| Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies | 153 | $49,486 |
| Economics | 140 | $58,151 |
| Legal Research | 136 | NA |
| Educational Administration | 130 | NA |
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 2022-2023, 4,023 students took at least one online class at American University. This is a decrease from the 7,217 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 4,023 | 1,516 |
| 2021-2022 | 7,217 | 1,934 |
| 2020-2021 | 4,609 | 1,597 |
| 2018-2019 | 1,027 | 478 |
If you’re considering American University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against The American University? 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!
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.