Salem State University Data & Information Overview

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

2021 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 State University was awarded 34 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is homeland security, law enforcement and firefighting.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Salem State as #796 out of 1,715 colleges and universities in the country on its 2021 Best Colleges list.

Out of the 68 colleges in Massachusetts, Salem State is ranked at #50.

See all of the rankings for Salem State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Salem State?

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at Salem State University is 82%. That's higher than the rate at many schools, but still low enough to be considered somewhat selective. If you want to get in, you'll need good grades and to be able to show that Salem State is a good fit for you.

Average Test Scores

About 79% of students accepted to Salem State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 490 and 590. Math scores were between 490 and 560.

Salem State received ACT scores from 3% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 19 and 25.

Learn more about Salem State University admissions.

Salem State University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 14 to 1, Salem State 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 State University is 98%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Salem State University

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 77% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Salem 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 obtain their bachelor's degree in four years or less. This rate is 27% for first-time, full-time students at Salem State, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.

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

Good Overall Diversity at Salem State

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 6,811 undergraduates at Salem State with 5,434 being full-time and 1,377 being part-time.

Salem State Diversity Score

College Factual computes an overall diversity score for each college and university that takes gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and age into account. Schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest, and those that cater to just one or two student groups are ranked the lowest.

The overall diversity score for Salem State is 60.49 out of 100, meaning that is is more diverse than most schools in the country.

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

How Much Does Salem State University Cost?

The overall average net price of Salem State is $19,265. 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 State

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$14,856	$16,817	$19,594	$21,587	$23,605

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 State, 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 State, approximately 77% of students took out student loans averaging $8,356 a year. That adds up to $33,424 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Salem State is 7.4%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for Salem State University.

How Much Money Do Salem State Graduates Make?

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Salem State make around $43,500 per year during the early years of their employment. This is right on par with the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year. Also, graduates in your major field may make more.

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

Location of Salem State University

Salem State University is a public institution located in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is considered a suburb and offers tranquility and safety near the excitement of a city center.

Get more details about the location of Salem State University.

Contact details for Salem State are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	352 Lafayette St, Salem, MA 01970
Phone:	978-542-6000
Website:	www.salemstate.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/salemstateuniversity
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/SalemState

Salem State University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 61 majors graduated from Salem State University. Of these students, 1,672 received undergraduate degrees and 569 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
Nursing	160	$65,800
General Psychology	156	$33,800
Teacher Education Grade Specific	107	NA
Criminal Justice & Corrections	105	$35,300
General Biology	84	$38,900
Accounting	83	NA
Business Administration & Management	82	$40,100
Health & Physical Education	69	$30,100
Marketing	67	NA
Social Work	58	$36,400

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

Online Learning at Salem State

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, 2,229 students took at least one online class at Salem State University. This is a decrease from the 2,502 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	2,229	305
2016-2017	2,502	273
2015-2016	2,029	237
2014-2015	1,788	130
2013-2014	2,070	203

Learn more about online learning at Salem State University.

Related Schools

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

• Bowling Green State University - Main Campus
• Lake Superior State University
• Murray State University
• Northern State University
• SUNY Plattsburgh

Curious on how these schools stack up against Salem State? 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

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Fletcher6 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.