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Salem State University Data & Information Overview

386 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
90% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Salem 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.
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 Salem State University Ranked?

#802 Best Colleges in Nation
#37 Best Colleges in MA
Art Education Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

College 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 386 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is art education.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, Salem State is ranked #802 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Salem State held the #1,216 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Salem State also holds the #37 spot on the Best Colleges in Massachusetts ranking.

See all of the rankings for Salem State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Salem State?

90% Acceptance Rate
71% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 90%, Salem State has a fairly liberal admissions policy. However, don't just assume you'll get in! Put together a good application and make sure you include all requested documents and materials.

Learn more about Salem State University admissions.

Salem State University Faculty

13 to 1 Student to Faculty
99% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 13 to 1, Salem State University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

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%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  99 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Salem State University

75% Freshmen Retention
40% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  75 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Salem State the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 40%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  40 out of 100
0
100

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

Salem State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

4,444 Full-Time Undergraduates
36.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
65.6% Percent Women

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.

How Much Does Salem State University Cost?

$19,017 Net Price
68% Take Out Loans
$26,996 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Salem State is $19,017. 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 Salem State

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$14,560 $16,668 $18,141 $21,401 $24,305

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.

Student Loan Debt

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 68% of students took out student loans averaging $6,749 a year. That adds up to $26,996 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Salem State is 5.9%. 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 Salem State University.

How Much Money Do Salem State Graduates Make?

$46,283 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 Salem State make about $46,283 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for Salem State students since it is 9% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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

Location of Salem State University

Massachusetts State
4,444 Full-Time Undergraduates
Suburb Campus Setting
Salem State University is a public institution located in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is considered a suburb and offers tranquility and safety near the excitement of a city center.

Get more details about the location of Salem State University.

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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/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/salemstateuniversity
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SalemState

Salem State University Majors

61 Majors With Completions
1,258 Undergraduate Degrees
427 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 61 majors graduated from Salem State University. Of these students, 1,258 received undergraduate degrees and 427 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
General Psychology 143 $33,517
Business Administration & Management 101 $42,434
Criminal Justice & Corrections 101 $39,277
General Biology 75 $37,411
Accounting 73 NA
Social Work 57 $36,115
Nursing 45 $68,690
Marketing 44 NA
Health & Medical Administrative Services 44 NA
Finance & Financial Management 36 NA

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

Online Learning at Salem State

73% Take At Least One Class Online
18% Take All Classes Online

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 2020-2021, 5,230 students took at least one online class at Salem State University. This is a decrease from the 7,123 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 5,230 1,251
2019-2020 7,123 4,903
2018-2019 2,479 271
2017-2018 2,229 305
2016-2017 2,502 273

Learn more about online learning at Salem State University.

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!

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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