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Southern Virginia University Data & Information Overview

Great Price Value for Your Money
100% Acceptance Rate
6% Student Loan Default Rate
Get the facts about Southern Virginia University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is Southern Virginia University Ranked?

Liberal Arts Highest Ranked Major
#1,779 Best for the Money in Nation

2024 Rankings

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Overall Quality

SVU was not ranked in College Factual's Best Overall Colleges report this year. This may be because not enough data was available.

See all of the rankings for Southern Virginia University.

Is It Hard to Get Into SVU?

100% Acceptance Rate
58% Of Accepted Are Women
9% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 100%, SVU 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 9% of students accepted to SVU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 518 and 623. Math scores were between 500 and 603.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Southern Virginia University  ( 518 to 623 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Southern Virginia University  ( 500 to 603 )
200
800
SVU received ACT scores from 52% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 17 and 26.

ACT Composite Scores for Southern Virginia University  ( 17 to 26 )
1
36

Learn more about Southern Virginia University admissions.

Southern Virginia University Faculty

17 to 1 Student to Faculty
82% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Southern Virginia University, this ratio is 17 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Southern Virginia University is 82%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  82 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Southern Virginia University

79% Freshmen Retention
18% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 79% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Southern Virginia 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  79 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 18% for first-time, full-time students at SVU, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  18 out of 100
0
100

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

Southern Virginia University Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,016 Full-Time Undergraduates
19.7% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
48.6% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,140 undergraduates at SVU with 1,016 being full-time and 124 being part-time.

How Much Does Southern Virginia University Cost?

$20,834 Net Price
54% Take Out Loans
$28,024 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of SVU is $20,834. 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 SVU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$18,273 $18,650 $20,081 $21,819 $24,927

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 SVU, 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 SVU, approximately 54% of students took out student loans averaging $7,006 a year. That adds up to $28,024 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at SVU is 6.2%. 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 Southern Virginia University.

How Much Money Do SVU Graduates Make?

$36,607 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from SVU make around $36,607 per year during the early years of their employment. This is about 14% less that the average pay for college graduates overall. However, graduates with your major may make more.

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See which majors at Southern Virginia University make the most money.

Location of Southern Virginia University

Virginia State
1,016 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Located in Buena Vista, Virginia, Southern Virginia University is a private not-for-profit institution. Buena Vista is a good match for students who enjoy small-town life.

Get more details about the location of Southern Virginia University.

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Contact details for SVU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1 University Hill Drive, Buena Vista, VA 24416
Phone: 540-261-8400
Website: www.svu.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/southernvirginia
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SVUedu

Southern Virginia University Majors

17 Majors With Completions
213 Undergraduate Degrees
Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
General Business/Commerce 45 $37,811
General Psychology 32 NA
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology 25 NA
Human Development & Family Studies 17 $22,497
Liberal Arts General Studies 16 $24,878
General English Literature 13 NA
General Biology 12 NA
General Visual & Performing Arts 10 NA
Music 9 NA
Computer Information Systems 6 NA

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

Learn more about online learning at Southern Virginia University.

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

Curious on how these schools stack up against SVU? 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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