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Western Kentucky University Data & Information Overview

423 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
98% Acceptance Rate
Want the scoop on Western Kentucky University? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors WKU offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
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.

How Well Is Western Kentucky University Ranked?

#903 Best Colleges in Nation
#7 Best Colleges in KY
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities Highest Ranked Major

2024 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.

Western Kentucky University was awarded 423 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is liberal arts / sciences & humanities.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked WKU as #903 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list.

WKU is also ranked #7 out of 38 schools in Kentucky.

See all of the rankings for Western Kentucky University.

Is It Hard to Get Into WKU?

98% Acceptance Rate
65% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 98%, Western Kentucky University is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.

Learn more about Western Kentucky University admissions.

Western Kentucky University Faculty

18 to 1 Student to Faculty
72% 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 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.

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 Western Kentucky University is 72%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  72 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Western Kentucky University

73% Freshmen Retention
31% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 73% 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  73 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

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 31%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  31 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Western Kentucky University.

Western Kentucky University Undergraduate Student Diversity

11,749 Full-Time Undergraduates
20.3% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
60.3% Percent Women

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.

How Much Does Western Kentucky University Cost?

$12,522 Net Price
48% Take Out Loans
$24,332 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of WKU is $12,522. 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 WKU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$12,195 $16,211 $17,490 $16,529 $15,338

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.

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 WKU, approximately 48% of students took out student loans averaging $6,083 a year. That adds up to $24,332 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at WKU is 6.9%. 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 Western Kentucky University.

How Much Money Do WKU Graduates Make?

$39,268 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from WKU make about $39,268 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is right on par with the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year. Also, graduates in your major field may make more.

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See which majors at Western Kentucky University make the most money.

Location of Western Kentucky University

Kentucky State
11,749 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
Western Kentucky University is a public institution located in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of Western Kentucky University.

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Contact details for WKU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1906 College Heights Blvd, Bowling Green, KY 42101-1000
Phone: 270-745-0111
Website: www.wku.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WKUNews
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wkunews

Western Kentucky University Majors

94 Majors With Completions
3,191 Undergraduate Degrees
785 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 94 majors graduated from Western Kentucky University. Of these students, 3,191 received undergraduate degrees and 785 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 220 $39,143
Nursing 185 $56,172
Liberal Arts General Studies 142 $31,197
Teacher Education Grade Specific 132 $32,830
Social Work 122 $31,481
Health & Physical Education 122 $26,359
General Biology 117 $22,896
Marketing 104 $39,467
General Psychology 98 $24,666
Public Relations & Advertising 89 $31,267

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

Online Learning at WKU

57% Take At Least One Class Online
19% Take All Classes Online

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 2020-2021, 9,496 students took at least one online class at Western Kentucky University. This is a decrease from the 14,933 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 9,496 3,205
2019-2020 14,933 4,127
2018-2019 7,468 3,376
2017-2018 8,481 3,575
2016-2017 8,175 3,335

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!

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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