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Governors State University Data & Information Overview

417 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
52% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Governors State University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Governors State University Ranked?

#1,443 Best Colleges in Nation
#66 Best Colleges in IL
Occupational Therapy 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.

Governors State University was awarded 417 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is occupational therapy.

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Overall Quality

GSU landed the #1,443 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This is an improvement over the previous year, when GSU held the #1,508 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

GSU is also ranked #66 out of 85 schools in Illinois.

See all of the rankings for Governors State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into GSU?

52% Acceptance Rate
61% Of Accepted Are Women
21% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Governors State University has an acceptance rate of 52%, which means the school is serious about who it admits. Take your time in putting together a strong application that highlights why you are a good fit for GSU.

Average Test Scores

About 21% of students accepted to GSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 420 and 540. Math scores were between 410 and 520.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Governors State University  ( 420 to 540 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Governors State University  ( 410 to 520 )
200
800
GSU received ACT scores from 2% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 16 and 22.

ACT Composite Scores for Governors State University  ( 16 to 22 )
1
36

Learn more about Governors State University admissions.

Governors State University Faculty

10 to 1 Student to Faculty
44% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to measure the number of teaching resources that a college or university offers its students. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1, but at GSU it is much better at 10 to 1. That's good news for students who want to interact more on a personal level with their teachers.

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 Governors State University is 44%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  44 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Governors State University

48% Freshmen Retention

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 48% tells us that most first-year, full-time students don't stick around for a second year at Governors State University. Students may have a variety of reasons for this, such as only intending to attend a school for one year while they brush up on certain subjects.

Freshmen Retention Rate  48 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Governors State University.

Governors State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,829 Full-Time Undergraduates
62.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
64.2% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,022 undergraduates at GSU with 1,829 being full-time and 1,193 being part-time.

How Much Does Governors State University Cost?

$10,436 Net Price
41% Take Out Loans
$22,580 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of GSU is $10,436. 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 GSU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$8,629 $9,435 $12,810 $14,922 $18,907

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 GSU, 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 GSU, approximately 41% of students took out student loans averaging $5,645 a year. That adds up to $22,580 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at GSU 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 Governors State University.

How Much Money Do GSU Graduates Make?

$48,796 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from GSU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $48,796 in their early years. This is good news for future GSU graduates since it is 15% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Governors State University make the most money.

Location of Governors State University

Illinois State
1,829 Full-Time Undergraduates
Rural Campus Setting
Governors State University is a public institution located in University Park, Illinois. Students who love country life may enjoy the rural location of GSU.

Get more details about the location of Governors State University.

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Contact details for GSU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1 University Pky, University Park, IL 60484
Phone: 708-534-5000
Website: www.govst.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govstate
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Governors_State

Governors State University Majors

39 Majors With Completions
796 Undergraduate Degrees
442 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 39 majors graduated from Governors State University. Of these students, 796 received undergraduate degrees and 442 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
Liberal Arts General Studies 120 $32,787
General Psychology 97 $30,090
Business Administration & Management 93 $41,071
Public Health 53 $32,829
Criminal Justice & Corrections 52 $37,493
Accounting 50 $39,325
Teacher Education Grade Specific 48 $34,000
Computer Science 43 $39,670
Computer Information Systems 39 $36,593
Communication & Media Studies 34 $31,272

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

Online Learning at GSU

66% Take At Least One Class Online
24% 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, 2,915 students took at least one online class at Governors State University. This is an increase from the 2,641 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 2,915 1,075
2019-2020 2,641 744
2018-2019 1,472 1,026
2017-2018 2,338 617
2016-2017 2,242 644

Learn more about online learning at Governors State University.

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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