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Portland State University Data & Information Overview

432 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
98% Acceptance Rate
Find out more about how Portland State University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
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How Well Is Portland State University Ranked?

#462 Best Colleges in Nation
#7 Best Colleges in OR
Health Services Administration Highest Ranked Major

2024 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.

Portland State University was awarded 432 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is health services administration.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Portland State University as #462 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list.

Out of the 30 colleges in Oregon, Portland State University is ranked at #7.

See all of the rankings for Portland State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Portland State University?

98% Acceptance Rate
65% Of Accepted Are Women
9% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 98%, 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.

Average Test Scores

About 9% of students accepted to Portland State University submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 510 and 640. Math scores were between 490 and 610.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Portland State University  ( 510 to 640 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Portland State University  ( 490 to 610 )
200
800
Portland State University received ACT scores from 8% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 17 and 24.

ACT Composite Scores for Portland State University  ( 17 to 24 )
1
36

Learn more about Portland State University admissions.

Portland State University Faculty

19 to 1 Student to Faculty
54% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used as a measure to gauge how much access students will have to their professors - the lower the number, the better. At Portland State University, this rate is 19 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 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 Portland State University is 54%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  54 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Portland State University

76% Freshmen Retention
22% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 76% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Portland 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  76 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full time students who obtain their bachelor's degree in four years or less. This rate is 22% for first-time, full-time students at Portland State University, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  22 out of 100
0
100

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

Portland State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

12,752 Full-Time Undergraduates
42.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
57.3% Percent Women

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.

How Much Does Portland State University Cost?

$12,498 Net Price
40% Take Out Loans
$22,728 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Portland State University is $12,498. 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 Portland State University

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$10,716 $11,059 $12,964 $16,102 $19,523

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.

Student Loan Debt

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 40% of students took out student loans averaging $5,682 a year. That adds up to $22,728 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Portland State University is 4.7%. 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.

How Much Money Do Portland State University Graduates Make?

$51,902 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 Portland State University make about $51,902 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for Portland State University students since it is 22% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Portland State University make the most money.

Location of Portland State University

Oregon State
12,752 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
Portland State University is a public institution located in Portland, Oregon. The location of Portland State University is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

Get more details about the location of Portland State University.

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Contact details for Portland State University are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 724 Sw Harrison, Portland, OR 97201
Phone: 503-725-3000
Website: www.pdx.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/portlandstatefans
Twitter: http://twitter.com/portland_state

Portland State University Majors

90 Majors With Completions
5,358 Undergraduate Degrees
1,595 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 90 majors graduated from Portland State University. Of these students, 5,358 received undergraduate degrees and 1,595 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
General Psychology 405 $30,278
Business Administration & Management 393 $46,148
General Social Sciences 256 $31,905
Liberal Arts General Studies 232 $31,991
Marketing 222 $36,870
Health Sciences & Services 213 NA
Computer Science 211 $76,452
Accounting 205 $47,209
General Biology 191 $30,441
Biological & Physical Science 185 $32,021

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

Online Learning at Portland State University

43% Take At Least One Class Online
12% Take All Classes Online

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 2020-2021, 9,915 students took at least one online class at Portland State University. This is an increase from the 8,595 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 9,915 2,812
2019-2020 8,595 1,890
2018-2019 8,671 2,141
2017-2018 8,521 2,112
2016-2017 7,732 1,984

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!

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.

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