George Washington University Data & Information Overview

Want the scoop on George Washington University? We've put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors GWU offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much 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.

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

How Well Is George 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.

George Washington University was awarded 157 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is criminal justice and corrections.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked GWU as #115 out of 1,715 colleges and universities in the country on its 2021 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

GWU also holds the #2 spot on the Best Colleges in District of Columbia ranking.

See all of the rankings for George Washington University.

Is It Hard to Get Into GWU?

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at George Washington University is a competitive 41%, so make sure you take your application seriously when putting it together. Even leaving out a minor detail could be a reason to move you to the rejection pile.

Average Test Scores

About 46% 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 640 and 720.

GWU received ACT scores from 42% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 29 and 32.

Learn more about George Washington University admissions.

George Washington University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 13 to 1, George Washington University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

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 51%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at George Washington University

Freshmen Retention Rate

George Washington University has a freshmen retention rate of 91%. 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

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at GWU for first-time, full-time students is 76%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

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

Excellent Overall Diversity at GWU

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 12,546 undergraduates at GWU with 11,334 being full-time and 1,212 being part-time.

GWU 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 98.06 out of 100, GWU is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

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

How Much Does George Washington University Cost?

The overall average net price of GWU is $33,734. 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 +
$16,156	$18,513	$21,676	$28,968	$44,887

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

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 GWU, approximately 43% of students took out student loans averaging $7,383 a year. That adds up to $29,532 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at GWU is 1.9%. 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?

The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from GWU make about $69,600 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future GWU graduates since it is 75% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

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

Location of George Washington University

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.

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

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 119 majors graduated from George Washington University. Of these students, 3,644 received undergraduate degrees and 5,671 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	647	$43,500
Nursing	311	$66,200
Political Science & Government	286	$45,500
Economics	186	$53,900
Child Development & Psychology	138	NA
Finance & Financial Management	126	$67,800
General Biology	110	$30,200
International Business	98	$58,500
Public Health	76	NA
Accounting	73	NA

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

Online Learning at GWU

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, 6,791 students took at least one online class at George Washington University. This is an increase from the 6,485 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	6,791	5,374
2016-2017	6,485	5,014
2015-2016	5,732	4,422
2014-2015	4,784	3,738
2013-2014	3,739	2,914

Learn more about online learning at George Washington University.

Related Schools

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

• American University
• Bucknell University
• Southern Methodist University
• University of Miami
• University of Rochester

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

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Michiel1972 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.