College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
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Salem University Data & Information Overview

1 award Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
13% Student Loan Default Rate
Find out more about how Salem University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
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.

How Well Is Salem University Ranked?

#2,090 Best Colleges in Nation
#20 Best Colleges in WV
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting 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.

Salem University was awarded 1 badge in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is homeland security, law enforcement & firefighting.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, Salem is ranked #2,090 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality.

Out of the 28 colleges in West Virginia, Salem is ranked at #20.

See all of the rankings for Salem University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Salem?

Open Admissions Policy

Acceptance Rate

Salem University has an open admissions policy, so you should not have much trouble being accepted by the school. Still, it is important to fill out the application completely and submit any requested materials, which may include proof that you have a high school diploma or the equivalent.

Learn more about Salem University admissions.

Salem University Faculty

17 to 1 Student to Faculty
35% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 17 to 1, Salem 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

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 Salem University is 35%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  35 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Salem University

46% Freshmen Retention
13% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 46% tells us that most first-year, full-time students don't stick around for a second year at Salem University. Students may have a variety of reasons for this, such as only intending to attend a school for one year while they brush up on certain subjects.

Freshmen Retention Rate  46 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

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 Salem is 13%. That's lower than the national rate of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  13 out of 100
0
100

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

Salem University Undergraduate Student Diversity

709 Full-Time Undergraduates
29.6% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
54.7% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 809 undergraduates at Salem with 709 being full-time and 100 being part-time.

How Much Does Salem University Cost?

$21,492 Net Price
92% Take Out Loans
$26,144 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Salem is $21,492. 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 +
$21,492 $21,492 $21,492 $21,409 $21,692

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 Salem, 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 Salem, approximately 92% of students took out student loans averaging $6,536 a year. That adds up to $26,144 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Salem is 13.1%. This is higher than the national default rate of 10.1% so you should proceed with caution when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for Salem University.

How Much Money Do Salem Graduates Make?

$32,796 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Salem make around $32,796 per year during the early years of their employment. Unfortunately, this is 23% less that the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year. However, graduates in your major field may make more.

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See which majors at Salem University make the most money.

Location of Salem University

West Virginia State
709 Full-Time Undergraduates
Rural Campus Setting
Located in Salem, West Virginia, Salem University is a private for-profit institution. The rural area surrounding Salem is great for students who love a peaceful atmosphere.

Get more details about the location of Salem University.

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Contact details for Salem are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 223 W Main St, Salem, WV 26426
Phone: 304-326-1109
Website: https://www.salemu.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Salem-International-University/34432636986?ref=hl

Salem University Majors

9 Majors With Completions
213 Undergraduate Degrees
97 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 9 majors graduated from Salem University. Of these students, 213 received undergraduate degrees and 97 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
Business Administration & Management 91 $32,737
Criminal Justice & Corrections 34 $28,271
Computer Information Systems 8 $36,294
Nursing 5 NA
General Biology 3 NA
Teacher Education Grade Specific 1 NA
Curriculum & Instruction 0 NA
Educational Administration 0 NA
Liberal Arts General Studies 0 NA

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

Online Learning at Salem

100% Take At Least One Class Online
60% 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, 991 students took at least one online class at Salem University. This is a decrease from the 1,008 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 991 597
2019-2020 1,008 646
2018-2019 960 593
2017-2018 990 408
2016-2017 1,126 563

Learn more about online learning at Salem University.

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

Curious on how these schools stack up against Salem? 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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