University of Colorado Boulder Data & Information Overview

This overview covers the essential stats on University of Colorado Boulder, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more. Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you'll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump 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 University of Colorado Boulder Ranked?

2021 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

University of Colorado Boulder was awarded 160 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is business administration and management.

Overall Quality

CU - Boulder is ranked #227 out of 1,715 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2021 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when CU - Boulder held the #245 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

CU - Boulder also holds the #4 spot on the Best Colleges in Colorado ranking.

See all of the rankings for University of Colorado Boulder.

Is It Hard to Get Into CU - Boulder?

Acceptance Rate

When it comes to admittance, University of Colorado Boulder is somewhat selective. Its acceptance rate is 80%, which means you'll face some strong competition during the admissions process. Do what you can to make your application stand out.

Average Test Scores

About 29% of students accepted to CU - Boulder submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 580 and 660. Math scores were between 570 and 680.

CU - Boulder received ACT scores from 81% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 25 and 30.

Learn more about University of Colorado Boulder admissions.

University of Colorado Boulder Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 18 to 1, University of Colorado Boulder 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

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 University of Colorado Boulder is 69%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of Colorado Boulder

Freshmen Retention Rate

University of Colorado Boulder has a freshmen retention rate of 87%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At CU - Boulder the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 47%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of Colorado Boulder.

Excellent Overall Diversity at CU - Boulder

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 29,056 undergraduates at CU - Boulder with 26,977 being full-time and 2,079 being part-time.

CU - Boulder Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

With an overall score of 94.05 out of 100, CU - Boulder is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at University of Colorado Boulder.

How Much Does University of Colorado Boulder Cost?

The overall average net price of CU - Boulder is $21,510. 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 CU - Boulder

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$13,049	$14,945	$19,194	$25,875	$27,901

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 CU - Boulder, 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 CU - Boulder, approximately 32% of students took out student loans averaging $8,779 a year. That adds up to $35,116 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at CU - Boulder is 3.2%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for University of Colorado Boulder.

How Much Money Do CU - Boulder Graduates Make?

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from CU - Boulder make around $50,800 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future CU - Boulder graduates since it is 28% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at University of Colorado Boulder make the most money.

Location of University of Colorado Boulder

University of Colorado Boulder is a public institution situated in Boulder, Colorado. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of University of Colorado Boulder.

Contact details for CU - Boulder are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	Regent Drive At Broadway, Boulder, CO 80309-0017
Phone:	303-492-1411
Website:	www.colorado.edu
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/cuboulder
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/cuboulder

University of Colorado Boulder Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 83 majors graduated from University of Colorado Boulder. Of these students, 6,744 received undergraduate degrees and 2,187 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	993	$49,500
General Psychology	478	$30,200
Public Relations & Advertising	389	NA
Physiology & Pathology Sciences	343	$28,800
Computer Science	332	$70,100
Economics	285	$42,700
Mechanical Engineering	260	$59,100
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	219	$28,300
Communication & Media Studies	197	$35,900
Natural Resources Conservation	193	$28,200

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

Online Learning at CU - Boulder

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 2017-2018, 3,287 students took at least one online class at University of Colorado Boulder. This is an increase from the 2,672 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	3,287	1,053
2016-2017	2,672	696
2015-2016	2,915	633
2014-2015	2,735	343
2013-2014	2,815	433

Learn more about online learning at University of Colorado Boulder.

Related Schools

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

• The University of Tennessee - Knoxville
• University at Buffalo
• University of California - San Diego
• University of Connecticut
• University of Oklahoma Norman Campus

Curious on how these schools stack up against CU - Boulder? 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!

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By University of Colorado at Boulder under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.