by our College Data Analytics Team
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.
Western Carolina University was awarded 442 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is emergency medical technology/technician (emt paramedic).
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
WCU is ranked #859 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list.
WCU is also ranked #17 out of 93 schools in North Carolina.
The acceptance rate at Western Carolina University is 79%. That's higher than the rate at many schools, but still low enough to be considered somewhat selective. If you want to get in, you'll need good grades and to be able to show that WCU is a good fit for you.
About 12% of students accepted to WCU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 540 and 620. Math scores were between 520 and 610.
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 Carolina University, this ratio is 15 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.
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 Western Carolina University is 72%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Western Carolina 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.
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At WCU the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 43%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Western Carolina University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 10,517 undergraduates at WCU with 8,760 being full-time and 1,757 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $9,305 | $11,625 | $14,701 | $17,042 | $17,857 |
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 WCU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 WCU, approximately 57% of students took out student loans averaging $6,242 a year. That adds up to $24,968 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at WCU is 5.2%. 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 Western Carolina University.
See which majors at Western Carolina University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Western Carolina University.
Contact details for WCU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | Highway 107, Cullowhee, NC 28723-9646 |
| Phone: | 828-227-7100 |
| Website: | www.wcu.edu/ |
| Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/WesternCarolinaUniversity |
| Twitter: | http://twitter.com/WCU |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Business Administration & Management | 242 | $33,951 |
| Nursing | 167 | $58,362 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 157 | $35,154 |
| General Psychology | 120 | $23,472 |
| Marketing | 119 | $33,207 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 106 | $34,526 |
| Allied Health Professions | 103 | $47,032 |
| General Biology | 97 | $24,606 |
| Philosophy | 84 | NA |
| Public Administration | 76 | $55,712 |
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, 6,388 students took at least one online class at Western Carolina University. This is a decrease from the 9,903 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 6,388 | 2,820 |
| 2019-2020 | 9,903 | 3,027 |
| 2018-2019 | 5,000 | 2,395 |
| 2017-2018 | 4,105 | 2,151 |
| 2016-2017 | 3,371 | 1,986 |
Learn more about online learning at Western Carolina University.
If you’re considering Western Carolina University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against WCU? 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.