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Salem University Complete Information Guide

Fair Price Value for Your Money
19% Student Loan Default Rate

If you want to know more about Salem University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.

Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

* Rankings

Where Does Salem University Rank?

#2,739 Best Colleges in Nation
#24 Best Colleges in WV
Salem University ranking badge

2026 Best Colleges 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.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Salem as #2,739 out of 3,449 colleges and universities in the country on its 2026 Best Colleges list.

Salem also holds the #24 spot on the Best Colleges in West Virginia ranking.

See all of the rankings for Salem University.

What Are the Admission Requirements for Salem University?

Getting Accepted

Learn more about Salem University admissions.

Faculty at Salem University

19 to 1 Student to Faculty
27% Full Time Teachers

Faculty Accessibility

The student to faculty ratio at Salem University is 19 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1. This may indicate that some of your classes will be larger in size than they would be at other schools. However, upper level classes will probably be smaller.

Full-Time Instructors

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Salem University is 27%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  27 out of 100
0
100

Academic Performance at Salem University

52% Freshmen Retention
27% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshman Success

The freshmen retention rate is a sign of how many full-time students like a college or university well enough to come back for their sophomore year. At Salem University this rate is 52%, which is a bit lower than the national average of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  52 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 27% for first-time, full-time students at Salem, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  27 out of 100
0
100

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

Student Demographics at Salem University

695 Undergraduate Students
17.9% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
62.0% Percent Women

In the current academic year, there are 695 undergraduates at Salem.

Get more detailed information on the diversity at Salem University.

What Does Salem University Cost?

$16,772 Net Price
72% Take Out Loans
$23,392 Total Student Loans

The typical net cost at Salem is $16,772. 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 Salem

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$12,462 $14,635 $15,427 $15,442 $16,258

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 price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Salem, 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 Salem, approximately 72% of students took out student loans averaging $5,848 a year. That adds up to $23,392 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 18.9%. This is significantly higher than the national default rate of 10.1%, which means you could have trouble paying back your student loans if you take any out. Get more details about paying for Salem University.

Post-Graduation Earnings for Salem University

$34,642 Avg Salary of Grads
Low Earnings Boost

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from Salem University make around $34,642 per year during the early years of their employment. This is about 30% less than the average pay for college graduates overall. However, graduates with your major may make more.

See which majors at Salem University make the most money.

Location of Salem University

West Virginia State
695 Undergraduate Students
Rural Campus Setting

Salem University is an private for-profit institution found in Salem, West Virginia. The rural area surrounding the school is great for students who prefer living in a country setting. Get more details about the location of Salem University.

Location of Salem University

Get in touch with Salem University can be found below.

Contact Details
Address: 223 W Main St, Salem, WV 26426
Phone: 3043261109
Website: www.salemu.edu
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Salem-International-University/34432636986?ref=hl

Salem University Areas of Study

8 Majors With Completions
584 Undergraduate Degrees

In the latest year of available data, students from 8 majors graduated from Salem University. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Completions Average Salary of Graduates
Multi-Disciplinary Studies 292 NA
Business Administration & Management 125 $40,204
Criminal Justice & Corrections 41 $28,271
Curriculum & Instruction 33 $49,404
Educational Administration 31 $52,538
Computer Information Systems 23 $36,294
Nursing 23 NA
General Biology 10 NA
Health & Physical Education 6 NA

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

Online Study Options at Salem

128% Take At Least One Class Online
45% 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.

892 students took at least one online class at Salem University.

Learn more about online learning at Salem University.

Comparable CollegesInterested in comparing Salem? Match them up using College Combat, a free interactive tool for comparing colleges on the features you care about.

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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