by our College Data Analytics TeamCollege 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 Kentucky University was awarded 41 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general business administration and management.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
WKU is ranked #851 out of 2,152 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2025 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when WKU held the #903 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
WKU also holds the #6 spot on the Best Colleges in Kentucky ranking.
Because it has a high acceptance rate of 97%, some consider WKU to be a safety school. But don't just assume that admittance is in the bag. Make sure to spend enough time on your application so that it is in tip-top shape.
When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 500 and 590. Math scores were between 480 and 580.
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 Western Kentucky University, this ratio is 18 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.
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 Kentucky University is 70%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 77% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Western Kentucky 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.
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At WKU this rate is 37%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Western Kentucky University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 15,286 undergraduates at WKU with 11,749 being full-time and 3,537 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $11,845 | $16,978 | $15,982 | $17,876 | $18,666 |
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 WKU, 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 WKU, approximately 51% of students took out student loans averaging $6,581 a year. That adds up to $26,324 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at WKU 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 Kentucky University.
See which majors at Western Kentucky University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Western Kentucky University.
Contact details for WKU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1906 College Heights Blvd, Bowling Green, KY 42101-1000 |
| Phone: | 270-745-0111 |
| Website: | https://www.wku.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Business Administration & Management | 420 | $44,498 |
| Nursing | 333 | $68,294 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 182 | $37,288 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 178 | $35,746 |
| Data Analytics | 155 | NA |
| General Psychology | 142 | $25,936 |
| Marketing | 136 | $42,478 |
| Social Work | 136 | $34,748 |
| Public Relations & Advertising | 135 | $35,534 |
| Health & Physical Education | 129 | $25,858 |
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, 9,558 students took at least one online class at Western Kentucky University. This is an increase from the 9,496 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 9,558 | 3,162 |
| 2021-2022 | 9,496 | 3,205 |
| 2020-2021 | 14,933 | 4,127 |
| 2018-2019 | 8,481 | 3,575 |
Learn more about online learning at Western Kentucky University.
If you’re considering Western Kentucky University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against WKU? 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.