Grand Valley State University Data & Information Overview

Find out more about how Grand Valley State 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 Grand Valley State University Ranked?

2020 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Grand Valley State University was awarded 112 badges in the 2020 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is computer information systems.

Overall Quality

GVSU landed the #522 spot in College Factual's 2020 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 1,727 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This is an improvement over the previous year, when GVSU held the #533 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Out of the 43 colleges in Michigan, GVSU is ranked at #13.

See all of the rankings for Grand Valley State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into GVSU?

Acceptance Rate

When it comes to admittance, Grand Valley State University is somewhat selective. Its acceptance rate is 81%, which means you'll face some strong competition during the admissions process. Do what you can to make your application stand out.

Average Test Scores

About 76% of students accepted to GVSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 530 and 620. Math scores were between 520 and 610.

GVSU received ACT scores from 54% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 21 and 26.

Learn more about Grand Valley State University admissions.

Grand Valley State University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Grand Valley State University is about average at 16 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.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students 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 Grand Valley State University is 67%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Grand Valley State University

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 83% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Grand Valley State 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.

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At GVSU this rate is 37%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Grand Valley State University.

Below Average Overall Diversity at GVSU

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 21,937 undergraduates at GVSU with 19,373 being full-time and 2,564 being part-time.

GVSU Diversity Score

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

The overall diversity score for GVSU is 35.90 out of 100. This is below average when compared to other schools in the United States.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Grand Valley State University.

How Much Does Grand Valley State University Cost?

The overall average net price of GVSU is $16,975. 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 GVSU

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$11,604	$12,507	$15,385	$19,127	$20,966

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 GVSU, 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 GVSU, approximately 63% of students took out student loans averaging $6,284 a year. That adds up to $25,136 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at GVSU is 3.9%. 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 Grand Valley State University.

How Much Money Do GVSU Graduates Make?

The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from GVSU make about $42,800 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is right on par with the average college graduate's salary of $40,800 per year. Also, graduates in your major field may make more.

See which majors at Grand Valley State University make the most money.

Location of Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley State University is a public institution situated in Allendale, Michigan. GVSU is located in a safe and convenient suburb.

Get more details about the location of Grand Valley State University.

Contact details for GVSU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1 Campus Dr, Allendale, MI 49401-9403
Phone:	616-331-2020
Website:	www.gvsu.edu
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/grandvalley
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/gvsu

Grand Valley State University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 89 majors graduated from Grand Valley State University. Of these students, 5,383 received undergraduate degrees and 1,088 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
Marketing	308	$41,800
General Psychology	295	$28,000
Health/Medical Prep Programs	266	$28,900
Health & Physical Education	262	NA
General Education	254	$34,800
Other Health Professions	243	$28,900
Finance & Financial Management	227	$45,700
Nursing	214	$56,800
Criminal Justice & Corrections	173	$35,400
Accounting	169	$47,100

Learn more about the majors offered at Grand Valley State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at GVSU

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 2017-2018, 2,406 students took at least one online class at Grand Valley State University. This is an increase from the 1,786 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	2,406	291
2016-2017	1,786	347
2015-2016	1,474	290
2014-2015	1,269	261
2013-2014	1,121	282

Learn more about online learning at Grand Valley State University.

Related Schools

If you’re considering Grand Valley State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

• Eastern Michigan University
• James Madison University
• Saint Cloud State University
• University of Michigan - Flint
• University of South Florida - Main Campus

Curious on how these schools stack up against GVSU? 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 Demhem under License