College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
       Unbiased Factual Guarantee

Sam Houston State University Data & Information Overview

426 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
97% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about Sam Houston State University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you’ll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump to any section on this page.

How Well Is Sam Houston State University Ranked?

#565 Best Colleges in Nation
#27 Best Colleges in TX
Criminal Justice Studies Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Sam Houston State University was awarded 426 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is criminal justice studies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked SHSU as #565 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list.

SHSU also holds the #27 spot on the Best Colleges in Texas ranking.

See all of the rankings for Sam Houston State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into SHSU?

97% Acceptance Rate
66% Of Accepted Are Women
57% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Because it has a high acceptance rate of 97%, some consider SHSU 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.

Average Test Scores

About 57% of students accepted to SHSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 480 and 570. Math scores were between 470 and 550.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Sam Houston State University  ( 480 to 570 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Sam Houston State University  ( 470 to 550 )
200
800
SHSU received ACT scores from 16% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 18 and 23.

ACT Composite Scores for Sam Houston State University  ( 18 to 23 )
1
36

Learn more about Sam Houston State University admissions.

Sam Houston State University Faculty

20 to 1 Student to Faculty
80% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used as a measure to gauge how much access students will have to their professors - the lower the number, the better. At Sam Houston State University, this rate is 20 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Sam Houston State University is 80%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  80 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Sam Houston State University

73% Freshmen Retention
32% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Sam Houston State University has a freshmen retention rate of 73%. 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  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 SHSU this rate is 32%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  32 out of 100
0
100

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

Sam Houston State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

15,020 Full-Time Undergraduates
50.1% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
62.6% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 18,811 undergraduates at SHSU with 15,020 being full-time and 3,791 being part-time.

How Much Does Sam Houston State University Cost?

$15,035 Net Price
53% Take Out Loans
$22,912 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of SHSU is $15,035. 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 SHSU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$11,210 $12,289 $14,927 $19,747 $21,338

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 SHSU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At SHSU, approximately 53% of students took out student loans averaging $5,728 a year. That adds up to $22,912 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at SHSU 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 Sam Houston State University.

How Much Money Do SHSU Graduates Make?

$50,125 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 SHSU make about $50,125 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future SHSU graduates since it is 18% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

undefined

See which majors at Sam Houston State University make the most money.

Location of Sam Houston State University

Texas State
15,020 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Located in Huntsville, Texas, Sam Houston State University is a public institution. Huntsville is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

Get more details about the location of Sam Houston State University.

undefined

Contact details for SHSU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1806 Ave J, Huntsville, TX 77340
Phone: 936-294-1111
Website: www.shsu.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/samhoustonstate
Twitter: http://twitter.com/samhoustonstate

Sam Houston State University Majors

77 Majors With Completions
4,116 Undergraduate Degrees
844 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 77 majors graduated from Sam Houston State University. Of these students, 4,116 received undergraduate degrees and 844 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
Criminal Justice & Corrections 899 $33,981
General Psychology 254 $27,958
General Business/Commerce 243 $39,919
Communication & Media Studies 169 $33,305
Health & Physical Education 143 $34,794
Nursing 142 $67,097
General Biology 136 $32,198
Accounting 130 $41,180
Health & Medical Administrative Services 127 $31,604
Animal Science 115 $31,802

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

Online Learning at SHSU

65% Take At Least One Class Online
24% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 14,047 students took at least one online class at Sam Houston State University. This is an increase from the 13,065 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 14,047 5,252
2019-2020 13,065 4,425
2018-2019 11,475 3,682
2017-2018 11,265 3,489
2016-2017 10,547 3,062

Learn more about online learning at Sam Houston State University.

If you’re considering Sam Houston State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against SHSU? 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.

Popular Reports

College Rankings
Best by Location
Degree Guides by Major
Graduate Programs

Compare Your School Options