Catawba College is a private not-for-profit institution in Salisbury, North Carolina enrolling 1,235 undergraduates. It accepts 75% of applicants and has an on-time graduation rate of 47%, above the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #1,711 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 33%), and its Value for Your Money analysis rates it a Fair Price.
Source: IPEDS 2025; College Scorecard July 2026; College Factual rankings 2027. Data as of: July 2026.
Catawba College ranks #1,711 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 33%.
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.
Catawba College was awarded 16 badges in the 2027 rankings.
College Factual ranked Catawba as #1,711 out of 5,159 colleges and universities in the country on its 2027 Best Colleges list.
Within the state, Catawba holds the #33 spot on the Best Colleges in North Carolina ranking.
See all of the rankings for Catawba College.
Catawba College has an acceptance rate of 75%, which makes it somewhat selective. Make sure it’s not the only school you apply to, even if it’s your school of choice. Whether you get in or not will largely depend on how you compare to other applicants.
About 14% of students accepted to Catawba submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 520 and 650. Math scores were between 510 and 650.
Catawba received ACT scores from 33% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 17 and 25.
Learn more about Catawba College admissions.
The student to faculty ratio at Catawba College is about average at 13 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at Catawba College is 81%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 77% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Catawba College 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.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor’s degree is typically four years. This rate at Catawba for first-time, full-time students is 47%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Catawba College.
During the most recent academic year, there were 1,235 undergraduates at Catawba.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Catawba College.
The average net price of Catawba is $17,140. 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.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $13,618 | $17,495 | $15,412 | $17,440 | $24,420 |
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 price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Catawba, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 Catawba, approximately 53% of students took out student loans averaging $6,153 a year. That adds up to $24,612 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 9.6%. This is about the same as the national default rate of 10.1%. Get more details about paying for Catawba College.
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Catawba College with a bachelor’s degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $48,793 in their early years. This is in the same neighborhood of the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year. However, certain majors may produce higher-paying graduates.
See which majors at Catawba College make the most money.
Catawba College is an private not-for-profit institution located in Salisbury, North Carolina. Catawba is located in a safe and convenient suburb. Get more details about the location of Catawba College.
Get in touch with Catawba College are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 2300 W Innes St, Salisbury, NC 28144 |
| Phone: | 8002282922 |
| Website: | www.catawba.edu |
| Wikipedia: | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catawba_College |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/catawbacollege |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/catawbacollege |
In the latest year of available data, students from 19 majors graduated from Catawba College. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.
| Most Popular Majors | Completions | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Disciplinary Studies | 320 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 70 | $41,918 |
| Health & Physical Education | 64 | $23,672 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 32 | $34,677 |
| General Biology | 21 | $24,810 |
| Natural Resources Conservation | 20 | NA |
| Management Information Systems | 12 | NA |
| Nursing | 11 | NA |
| Communication & Media Studies | 10 | $28,770 |
| Mental & Social Health Services | 10 | NA |
475 students took at least one online class at Catawba College.
Online courses are 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.
Learn more about online learning at Catawba College.
Curious how schools stack up against Catawba? Match them up using College Combat, our free tool for head-to-head college comparisons.
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.