by our College Data Analytics Team
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.
Western Governors University was awarded 104 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is information technology.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
WGU landed the #66 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country. This is an improvement over the previous year, when WGU held the #146 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
WGU is also ranked #1 out of 11 schools in Utah.
Returning adults and other non-traditional students may appreciate the fact that Western Governors University has an open admissions policy. This means that you'll only have to submit basic materials, which may include proof that you completed high school or an equivalent program.
The student to faculty ratio is often used as a measure to gauge how much access students will have to their professors - the lower the number, the better. At Western Governors University, this rate is 42 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1.
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 Western Governors University is 73%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Western Governors University is 65%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At WGU this rate is 32%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Western Governors University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 104,919 full-time undergraduates at WGU.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $8,708 | $9,661 | $10,939 | $13,060 | $13,827 |
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 WGU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 WGU, approximately 42% of students took out student loans averaging $5,494 a year. That adds up to $21,976 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at WGU is 1.0%. 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 Western Governors University.
See which majors at Western Governors University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Western Governors University.
Contact details for WGU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 4001 South 700 East Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84107 |
| Phone: | 801-274-3280 |
| Website: | www.wgu.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing | 10,410 | $85,861 |
| Business Administration & Management | 6,585 | $66,432 |
| Health & Medical Administrative Services | 3,014 | $66,651 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 2,826 | NA |
| Information Technology | 2,543 | $92,416 |
| Curriculum & Instruction | 2,461 | NA |
| Instructional Media Design | 1,962 | NA |
| Educational Assessment | 1,843 | NA |
| Teacher Education Subject Specific | 1,541 | $44,958 |
| Accounting | 1,490 | $58,784 |
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 2022-2023, 156,935 students took at least one online class at Western Governors University. This is an increase from the 150,116 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 156,935 | 156,935 |
| 2021-2022 | 150,116 | 150,116 |
| 2020-2021 | 147,866 | 147,866 |
| 2018-2019 | 121,437 | 121,437 |
Learn more about online learning at Western Governors University.
If you’re considering Western Governors University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against WGU? 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!
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.