College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
       Unbiased Factual Guarantee

George Washington University Data & Information Overview

1,384 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
43% Acceptance Rate
This overview covers the essential stats on George Washington University, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and 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.

How Well Is George Washington University Ranked?

#40 Best Colleges in Nation
#2 Best Colleges in DC
Education/Teaching of Individuals in Secondary Special Education Programs Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2023 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.

George Washington University was awarded 1,384 badges in the 2023 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is education/teaching of individuals in secondary special education programs.

Overall Quality

GWU is ranked #40 out of 2,241 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2023 Best Colleges list. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country. This is an improvement over the previous year, when GWU held the #86 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

GWU is also ranked #2 out of 8 schools in District of Columbia.

See all of the rankings for George Washington University.

Is It Hard to Get Into GWU?

43% Acceptance Rate
64% Of Accepted Are Women
50% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

If you're applying to George Washington University you'll face some tough competition, since the school's acceptance rate is only 43%. Definitely don't wait until the last minute to submit your application, since applying early may be in your favor.

Average Test Scores

About 50% of students accepted to GWU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 640 and 720. Math scores were between 630 and 730.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for George Washington University  ( 640 to 720 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for George Washington University  ( 630 to 730 )
200
800
GWU received ACT scores from 27% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 30 and 33.

ACT Composite Scores for George Washington University  ( 30 to 33 )
1
36

Learn more about George Washington University admissions.

George Washington University Faculty

13 to 1 Student to Faculty
53% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At George Washington University, this ratio is 13 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

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 George Washington University is 53%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  53 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at George Washington University

88% Freshmen Retention
74% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 88% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like George Washington 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  88 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At GWU the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 74%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  74 out of 100
0
100

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

George Washington University Undergraduate Student Diversity

10,141 Full-Time Undergraduates
36.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
63.5% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 11,763 undergraduates at GWU with 10,141 being full-time and 1,622 being part-time.

How Much Does George Washington University Cost?

$32,563 Net Price
35% Take Out Loans
$35,656 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of GWU is $32,563. 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 GWU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$17,673 $14,889 $21,174 $29,225 $47,056

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

Student Loan Debt

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 GWU, approximately 35% of students took out student loans averaging $8,914 a year. That adds up to $35,656 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at GWU is 1.3%. 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 George Washington University.

How Much Money Do GWU Graduates Make?

$80,606 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from GWU make about $80,606 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future GWU graduates since it is 90% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

undefined

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

Location of George Washington University

District of Columbia State
10,141 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
George Washington University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Washington, District of Columbia. The city atmosphere of Washington makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.

Get more details about the location of George Washington University.

undefined

Contact details for GWU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1918 F Street, Nw, Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-1000
Website: https://www.gwu.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgewashingtonuniversity
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/GWtweets

George Washington University Majors

122 Majors With Completions
3,631 Undergraduate Degrees
5,661 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 122 majors graduated from George Washington University. Of these students, 3,631 received undergraduate degrees and 5,661 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
International Relations & National Security 563 $45,627
Political Science & Government 321 $44,076
Nursing 273 $68,769
Economics 174 $57,078
Finance & Financial Management 166 $67,909
Child Development & Psychology 143 NA
General Biology 113 $28,669
International Business 111 $60,116
Public Health 97 NA
Marketing 82 $54,148

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

Online Learning at GWU

25% Take At Least One Class Online
20% Take All Classes Online

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 2019-2020, 6,868 students took at least one online class at George Washington University. This is an increase from the 6,254 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2019-2020 6,868 5,311
2018-2019 6,254 4,989
2017-2018 6,791 5,374
2016-2017 6,485 5,014
2015-2016 5,732 4,422

Learn more about online learning at George Washington University.

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

Curious on how these schools stack up against GWU? 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

More about our data sources and methodologies.

Popular Reports

College Rankings
Best by Location
Degree Guides by Major
Graduate Programs

Compare Your School Options