Sam Houston State University Data & Information Overview
If you want to know more about Sam Houston 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. 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
- Admission and Acceptance
- Faculty
- Retention and Graduation Rates
- Diversity
- Cost
- Student Debt
- Average Earnings
- Location
- Majors
- Online Learning
- Related Schools
How Well Is Sam Houston State University Ranked?
2022 Rankings
In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
Sam Houston State University was awarded 531 badges in the 2022 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is applied engineering technologies.
Overall Quality
According to College Factual's 2022 analysis, SHSU is ranked #741 out of 2,576 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This is an improvement over the previous year, when SHSU held the #824 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Out of the 136 colleges in Texas, SHSU is ranked at #36.
See all of the rankings for Sam Houston State University.
Is It Hard to Get Into SHSU?
Acceptance Rate
With an acceptance rate of 92%, SHSU has a fairly liberal admissions policy. However, don't just assume you'll get in! Put together a good application and make sure you include all requested documents and materials.
Average Test Scores
About 77% of students accepted to SHSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 490 and 570. Math scores were between 480 and 550.
Learn more about Sam Houston State University admissions.
Sam Houston State University Faculty
Student to Faculty Ratio
The student to faculty ratio at Sam Houston State University is 21 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.
Percent of Full-Time Faculty
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 Sam Houston State University is 80%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Retention and Graduation Rates at Sam Houston State University
Freshmen Retention Rate
The freshmen retention rate of 79% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Sam Houston 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
When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from SHSU have a four-year graduation rate of 30%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Sam Houston State University.
Sam Houston State University Undergraduate Student Diversity
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 18,811 undergraduates at SHSU with 15,020 being full-time and 3,791 being part-time.
How Much Does Sam Houston State University Cost?
The overall average net price of SHSU is $14,617. 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 SHSU
$0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
---|---|---|---|---|
$10,561 | $11,634 | $14,832 | $19,531 | $21,077 |
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 SHSU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
Student Loan Debt
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At SHSU, approximately 58% of students took out student loans averaging $5,910 a year. That adds up to $23,640 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at SHSU is 8.4%. 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 Sam Houston State University.
How Much Money Do SHSU Graduates Make?
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from SHSU make around $44,600 per year during the early years of their employment. That's great news for SHSU students since it is 12% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.
See which majors at Sam Houston State University make the most money.
Location of Sam Houston State University
Located in Huntsville, Texas, Sam Houston State University is a public institution. Huntsville is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.Get more details about the location of Sam Houston State University.

Contact details for SHSU are given below.
Contact Details | |
---|---|
Address: | 1806 Ave J, Huntsville, TX 77340 |
Phone: | 936-294-1111 |
Website: | www.shsu.edu/ |
Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/samhoustonstate |
Twitter: | http://twitter.com/samhoustonstate |
Sam Houston State University Majors
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 77 majors graduated from Sam Houston State University. Of these students, 4,241 received undergraduate degrees and 905 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 |
---|---|---|
Criminal Justice & Corrections | 852 | $35,382 |
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies | 424 | $44,837 |
General Business/Commerce | 282 | $40,515 |
General Psychology | 199 | $29,064 |
Communication & Media Studies | 177 | $32,365 |
Health & Physical Education | 141 | $34,704 |
Accounting | 137 | $40,768 |
Finance & Financial Management | 135 | $44,244 |
Nursing | 121 | $67,304 |
Public Health | 118 | $34,420 |
Online Learning at SHSU
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2019-2020, 13,065 students took at least one online class at Sam Houston State University. This is an increase from the 11,475 students who took online classes the previous year.
Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
---|---|---|
2019-2020 | 13,065 | 4,425 |
2018-2019 | 11,475 | 3,682 |
2017-2018 | 11,265 | 3,489 |
2016-2017 | 10,547 | 3,062 |
2015-2016 | 9,456 | 2,833 |
Learn more about online learning at Sam Houston State University.
Find Out More About Sam Houston State University
Related Schools
If you’re considering Sam Houston State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
- Georgia College & State University
- Northwest Missouri State University
- The University of Texas at San Antonio
- The University of West Florida
- Valdosta State University
Curious on how these schools stack up against SHSU? 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 Bigguill under License
More about our data sources and methodologies.