Buena Vista University Data & Information Overview

Want the scoop on Buena Vista University? We've put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors BVU offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more. Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you'll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump to any section on this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning

How Well Is Buena Vista University Ranked?

2021 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.

Buena Vista University was awarded 14 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is business, management and marketing.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked BVU as #1,103 out of 1,715 colleges and universities in the country on its 2021 Best Colleges list.

BVU is also ranked #24 out of 31 schools in Iowa.

See all of the rankings for Buena Vista University.

Is It Hard to Get Into BVU?

Acceptance Rate

Buena Vista University has an acceptance rate of 64%, 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 BVU.

Average Test Scores

About 12% of students accepted to BVU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 498 and 573. Math scores were between 488 and 570.

BVU received ACT scores from 88% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 19 and 24.

Learn more about Buena Vista University admissions.

Buena Vista University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

At BVU, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 9 to 1. That's much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunites to work closely with their professors and classmates.

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 Buena Vista University is 37%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Buena Vista University

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 77% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Buena Vista University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at BVU for first-time, full-time students is 43%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Buena Vista University.

Average Overall Diversity at BVU

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,804 undergraduates at BVU with 1,522 being full-time and 282 being part-time.

BVU Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

BVU scored 46.83 out of 100 for overall diversity. This is about average when compared to other colleges and universities in the United States.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Buena Vista University.

How Much Does Buena Vista University Cost?

The overall average net price of BVU is $20,087. 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 BVU

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$15,313	$15,563	$18,506	$22,124	$26,302

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 BVU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At BVU, approximately 85% of students took out student loans averaging $7,942 a year. That adds up to $31,768 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at BVU is 5.4%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Buena Vista University.

How Much Money Do BVU Graduates Make?

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from BVU make around $40,000 per year during the early years of their employment. This is in the same neighborhood of the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year. However, certain majors may produce higher-paying graduates.

See which majors at Buena Vista University make the most money.

Location of Buena Vista University

Located in Storm Lake, Iowa, Buena Vista University is a private not-for-profit institution. The surrounding location of Storm Lake is ideal for students who enjoy the charms of a college town.

Get more details about the location of Buena Vista University.

Contact details for BVU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	610 W 4Th St, Storm Lake, IA 50588
Phone:	712-749-2400
Website:	https://www.bvu.edu
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/buenavistauniversity
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/buenavistauniv

Buena Vista University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 55 majors graduated from Buena Vista University. Of these students, 643 received undergraduate degrees and 74 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
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	100	$28,000
General Psychology	70	$25,500
Business Administration & Management	62	$39,700
Teacher Education Grade Specific	58	$36,800
Accounting	44	$45,000
Human Resource Management	39	$39,300
Finance & Financial Management	38	NA
Marketing	25	NA
Criminal Justice & Corrections	23	$33,200
Teacher Education Subject Specific	22	$37,700

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

Online Learning at BVU

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2017-2018, 987 students took at least one online class at Buena Vista University. This is a decrease from the 1,058 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	987	902
2016-2017	1,058	876
2015-2016	1,137	958
2014-2015	1,012	749
2013-2014	866	617

Learn more about online learning at Buena Vista University.

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Ryan Harder under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.