Central Washington University Data & Information Overview

Find out more about how Central Washington University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below. If you're interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

• 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?

2020 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 29 badges in the 2020 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is teacher education subject specific.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked CWU as #805 out of 1,727 colleges and universities in the country on its 2020 Best Colleges list.

Out of the 23 colleges in Washington, CWU is ranked at #17.

See all of the rankings for Central Washington University.

Is It Hard to Get Into CWU?

Acceptance Rate

Central Washington University has an acceptance rate of 86%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you're a good fit for CWU.

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

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access student will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Central Washington University is 74%. 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.

Good Overall Diversity at CWU

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 12,080 undergraduates at CWU with 10,446 being full-time and 1,634 being part-time.

CWU 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.

The overall diversity score for CWU is 77.69 out of 100, meaning that is is more diverse than most schools in the country.

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 $14,382. 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 +
$8,896	$10,635	$14,269	$18,309	$19,501

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 60% of students took out student loans averaging $5,809 a year. That adds up to $23,236 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at CWU is 6.5%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out 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. That's great news for CWU students since it is 14% more than the average college graduate's salary of $40,800 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. Ellensburg is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

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 2017-2018 academic year, students from 87 majors graduated from Central Washington University. Of these students, 2,747 received undergraduate degrees and 300 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
Business Administration & Management	290	$38,700
Teacher Education Grade Specific	250	$43,000
General Psychology	184	$30,900
Criminal Justice & Corrections	137	$36,200
Accounting	111	$43,900
Teacher Education Subject Specific	108	$42,000
General Social Sciences	107	$36,400
General Biology	59	$26,000

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!

References

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