Central Washington University Data & Information Overview

Get the facts about Central Washington University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more. All you need to do to learn more about a stat is click on its tile, and you'll be taken to another page that analyzes that data more closely. Also, you can use the links below to scroll to any section of this page.

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

How Well Is Central Washington 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.

Central Washington University was awarded 55 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is education.

Overall Quality

CWU is ranked #782 out of 1,715 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2021 Best Colleges list.

CWU also holds the #18 spot on the Best Colleges in Washington ranking.

See all of the rankings for Central Washington University.

Is It Hard to Get Into CWU?

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 86%, 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.

Average Test Scores

About 97% of students accepted to CWU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 430 and 530. Math scores were between 480 and 570.

CWU received ACT scores from 20% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 17 and 24.

Learn more about Central Washington University admissions.

Central Washington University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

At Central Washington University, the student to faculty ratio is 19 to 1. Compared to the national average of 15 to 1, this is somewhat high. This could mean that class sizes may be larger than they are at other colleges or universities or that professors may be required to teach more classes.

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 Central Washington University is 72%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Central Washington University

Freshmen Retention Rate

Central Washington University has a freshmen retention rate of 73%. 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.

Graduation Rate

When we say that a student has graduated on time, we mean that they have finished their bachelor's degree within four years. The on-time graduation rate at CWU is 24%. That's lower than the national rate of 33.3%

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Central Washington University.

Excellent Overall Diversity at CWU

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 11,419 undergraduates at CWU with 10,040 being full-time and 1,379 being part-time.

CWU Diversity Score

When calculating the overall diversity score for a school, College Factual does not just look at the percentage of women and racial-ethnic minorities*. Instead, it looks to see how good of a mixture a school has with regard to gender, ethnicity, age, and location of origin.

With an overall score of 86.79 out of 100, CWU is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Central Washington University.

How Much Does Central Washington University Cost?

The overall average net price of CWU is $15,175. 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 CWU

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$9,810	$11,443	$15,549	$20,027	$20,955

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.

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 CWU, approximately 59% of students took out student loans averaging $6,019 a year. That adds up to $24,076 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at CWU is 5.8%. 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 Central Washington University.

How Much Money Do CWU Graduates Make?

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from CWU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $46,500 in their early years. This is good news for future CWU graduates since it is 17% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at Central Washington University make the most money.

Location of Central Washington University

Central Washington University is a public institution located in Ellensburg, Washington. The charming, small-town atmosphere of Ellensburg draws many to the area.

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 98926-7501
Phone:	509-963-1111
Website:	www.cwu.edu
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/cwu.wildcats
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/CentralWashU

Central Washington University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 110 majors graduated from Central Washington University. Of these students, 2,789 received undergraduate degrees and 297 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
Teacher Education Grade Specific	319	$43,000
Business Administration & Management	308	$38,700
General Psychology	192	$30,900
Accounting	139	$43,900
Criminal Justice & Corrections	139	$36,200
Teacher Education Subject Specific	110	$42,000
General Social Sciences	92	$36,400
Marketing	75	NA
Information Technology	68	NA
Finance & Financial Management	61	NA

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

Online Learning at CWU

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, 11,052 students took at least one online class at Central Washington University. This is an increase from the 4,770 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	11,052	3,180
2016-2017	4,770	1,855
2015-2016	4,050	1,743
2014-2015	3,816	1,638
2013-2014	3,463	1,506

Learn more about online learning at Central Washington University.

Related Schools

If you’re considering Central Washington University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

• California State University - Chico
• California State University - Sacramento
• Humboldt State University
• Southern Oregon University
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro

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!

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

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Bobak Ha’Eri under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.