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Western Washington University Data & Information Overview

427 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
96% Acceptance Rate
Want the scoop on Western Washington University? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors WWU offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
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 Western Washington University Ranked?

#215 Best Colleges in Nation
#5 Best Colleges in WA
Teacher Education Subject Specific Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

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.

Western Washington University was awarded 427 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is teacher education subject specific.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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

Overall Quality

According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, WWU is ranked #215 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when WWU held the #299 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Out of the 51 colleges in Washington, WWU is ranked at #5.

See all of the rankings for Western Washington University.

Is It Hard to Get Into WWU?

96% Acceptance Rate
62% Of Accepted Are Women
16% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Western Washington University has an acceptance rate of 96%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you're a good fit for WWU.

Average Test Scores

About 16% of students accepted to WWU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 560 and 670. Math scores were between 530 and 640.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Western Washington University  ( 560 to 670 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Western Washington University  ( 530 to 640 )
200
800
WWU received ACT scores from 3% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 22 and 29.

ACT Composite Scores for Western Washington University  ( 22 to 29 )
1
36

Learn more about Western Washington University admissions.

Western Washington University Faculty

17 to 1 Student to Faculty
69% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

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 Washington University, this ratio is 17 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

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 Western Washington University is 69%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  69 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Western Washington University

81% Freshmen Retention
37% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Western Washington University has a freshmen retention rate of 81%. 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  81 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 WWU this rate is 37%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  37 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Western Washington University.

Western Washington University Undergraduate Student Diversity

12,622 Full-Time Undergraduates
29.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
58.7% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 14,194 undergraduates at WWU with 12,622 being full-time and 1,572 being part-time.

How Much Does Western Washington University Cost?

$17,070 Net Price
30% Take Out Loans
$25,748 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of WWU is $17,070. 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 WWU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$9,979 $11,357 $16,819 $21,763 $23,101

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 WWU, 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 WWU, approximately 30% of students took out student loans averaging $6,437 a year. That adds up to $25,748 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at WWU is 1.7%. 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 Washington University.

How Much Money Do WWU Graduates Make?

$54,976 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 WWU make about $54,976 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for WWU students since it is 29% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Western Washington University make the most money.

Location of Western Washington University

Washington State
12,622 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
Western Washington University is a public institution located in Bellingham, Washington. The city atmosphere of Bellingham makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.

Get more details about the location of Western Washington University.

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Contact details for WWU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA 98225-9008
Phone: 360-650-3000
Website: wwu.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/westernwashingtonuniversity
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WWU

Western Washington University Majors

76 Majors With Completions
3,706 Undergraduate Degrees
269 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 76 majors graduated from Western Washington University. Of these students, 3,706 received undergraduate degrees and 269 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
Natural Resources Conservation 234 $25,380
General Psychology 224 $27,918
Business Administration & Management 158 $42,166
Sociology 138 $26,202
Computer Information Systems 123 $69,837
Writing Studies 114 $22,536
Marketing 108 $40,450
Human Services 106 $33,003
Finance & Financial Management 105 $41,065
Communication & Media Studies 105 $32,487

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

Online Learning at WWU

7% Take At Least One Class Online
1% 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, 1,052 students took at least one online class at Western Washington University. This is an increase from the 903 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 1,052 225
2019-2020 903 142
2018-2019 948 212
2017-2018 913 185
2016-2017 899 150

Learn more about online learning at Western Washington University.

If you’re considering Western Washington University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against WWU? 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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