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.
Central Washington University was awarded 46 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is physical education teaching & coaching.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
According to College Factual's 2025 analysis, CWU is ranked #339 out of 2,152 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when CWU held the #357 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
CWU also holds the #6 spot on the Best Colleges in Washington ranking.
With an acceptance rate of 93%, CWU has a fairly liberal admissions policy. However, don't just assume you'll get in! Put together a good application and make sure you include all requested documents and materials.
The student to faculty ratio at Central Washington University is about average at 14 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.
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 Central Washington University is 74%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
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 Central Washington University is 68%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At CWU this rate is 34%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Central Washington University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 10,518 undergraduates at CWU with 9,235 being full-time and 1,283 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,471 | $13,120 | $15,541 | $21,039 | $24,287 |
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 CWU, 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 CWU, approximately 52% of students took out student loans averaging $5,690 a year. That adds up to $22,760 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for Central Washington University.
See which majors at Central Washington University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Central Washington University.
Contact details for CWU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 400 East University Way, Ellensburg, WA 98926 |
| Phone: | 509-963-1111 |
| Website: | www.cwu.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Business Administration & Management | 276 | $49,791 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 246 | $47,359 |
| Teacher Education Subject Specific | 211 | $49,177 |
| General Psychology | 181 | $36,964 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 144 | $44,172 |
| Health & Physical Education | 133 | $35,268 |
| Accounting | 107 | $55,215 |
| Air Transportation | 107 | $40,025 |
| Sociology | 74 | $36,466 |
| Computer Information Systems | 71 | $56,049 |
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, 6,394 students took at least one online class at Central Washington University. This is a decrease from the 7,332 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 6,394 | 2,498 |
| 2021-2022 | 7,332 | 2,921 |
| 2020-2021 | 10,833 | 7,145 |
| 2018-2019 | 10,706 | 3,033 |
Learn more about online learning at Central Washington University.
If you’re considering Central Washington University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against CWU? 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.