by our College Data Analytics Team
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.
Portland State University was awarded 53 badges in the 2025 rankings.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
Portland State University landed the #399 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Portland State University held the #462 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Portland State University also holds the #5 spot on the Best Colleges in Oregon ranking.
With an acceptance rate of 93%, Portland State University is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.
The student to faculty ratio at Portland State University is about average at 17 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.
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 Portland State University is 52%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Portland State University is 72%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
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 Portland State University is 27%. That's lower than the national rate of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Portland State University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 18,656 undergraduates at Portland State University with 12,752 being full-time and 5,904 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $16,348 | $15,690 | $15,229 | $17,385 | $19,205 |
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 Portland State University, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Portland State University, approximately 38% of students took out student loans averaging $5,868 a year. That adds up to $23,472 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at Portland State University is 1.0%. 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 Portland State University.
See which majors at Portland State University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Portland State University.
Contact details for Portland State University are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 724 Sw Harrison St., Portland, OR 97201 |
| Phone: | 503-725-3000 |
| Website: | www.pdx.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 422 | NA |
| General Psychology | 373 | $33,179 |
| Social Work | 366 | $41,594 |
| Business Administration & Management | 363 | $51,358 |
| General Social Sciences | 247 | $35,093 |
| Computer Science | 246 | $78,669 |
| Accounting | 234 | $58,069 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 233 | $23,253 |
| Marketing | 209 | $41,395 |
| Health Sciences & Services | 190 | $37,709 |
Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.
In 2022-2023, 12,056 students took at least one online class at Portland State University. This is an increase from the 9,915 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 12,056 | 3,937 |
| 2021-2022 | 9,915 | 2,812 |
| 2020-2021 | 8,595 | 1,890 |
| 2018-2019 | 8,521 | 2,112 |
Learn more about online learning at Portland State University.
If you’re considering Portland State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against Portland State University? 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!
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.