by our College Data Analytics TeamCollege Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.
Salem State University was awarded 48 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is public/applied history.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
College Factual ranked Salem State as #466 out of 2,152 colleges and universities in the country on its 2025 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Salem State held the #802 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Salem State is also ranked #26 out of 63 schools in Massachusetts.
With an acceptance rate of 93%, Salem State 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.
About 2% of students accepted to Salem State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 508 and 630. Math scores were between 478 and 580.
The student to faculty ratio at Salem State is an impressive 12 to 1. That's quite good when you compare it to the national average of 15 to 1. This is a good sign that students at the school will have more opportunities for one-on-one interactions with their professors.
Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.
The full-time faculty percentage at Salem State University is 99%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Salem State University has a freshmen retention rate of 75%. 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.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Salem State for first-time, full-time students is 43%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Salem State University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 5,716 undergraduates at Salem State with 4,444 being full-time and 1,272 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $12,977 | $15,185 | $17,901 | $20,613 | $24,357 |
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 Salem State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Salem State, approximately 71% of students took out student loans averaging $7,254 a year. That adds up to $29,016 over four years for those students.
See which majors at Salem State University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Salem State University.
Contact details for Salem State are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 352 Lafayette St, Salem, MA 01970 |
| Phone: | 978-542-6000 |
| Website: | www.salemstate.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Social Work | 176 | $45,450 |
| Nursing | 173 | $80,641 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 161 | NA |
| General Psychology | 145 | $36,492 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 96 | $44,812 |
| General Education | 79 | $33,065 |
| Business Administration & Management | 70 | $46,897 |
| Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions | 67 | NA |
| General Biology | 62 | $45,670 |
| Accounting | 61 | NA |
Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.
In 2022-2023, 3,857 students took at least one online class at Salem State University. This is a decrease from the 5,230 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 3,857 | 851 |
| 2021-2022 | 5,230 | 1,251 |
| 2020-2021 | 7,123 | 4,903 |
| 2018-2019 | 2,229 | 305 |
If you’re considering Salem State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against Salem State? 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.