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Wilkes University Data & Information Overview

153 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
95% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Wilkes University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Wilkes University Ranked?

#734 Best Colleges in Nation
#41 Best Colleges in PA
Teacher Education Subject Specific 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.

Wilkes University was awarded 153 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is teacher education subject specific.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Wilkes as #734 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list.

Wilkes also holds the #41 spot on the Best Colleges in Pennsylvania ranking.

See all of the rankings for Wilkes University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Wilkes?

95% Acceptance Rate
53% Of Accepted Are Women
30% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Wilkes University has an acceptance rate of 95%, 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 Wilkes.

Average Test Scores

About 30% of students accepted to Wilkes submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 520 and 630. Math scores were between 520 and 620.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Wilkes University  ( 520 to 630 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Wilkes University  ( 520 to 620 )
200
800
Wilkes received ACT scores from 5% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 20 and 28.

ACT Composite Scores for Wilkes University  ( 20 to 28 )
1
36

Learn more about Wilkes University admissions.

Wilkes University Faculty

13 to 1 Student to Faculty
43% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 13 to 1, Wilkes 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 Wilkes University is 43%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  43 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Wilkes University

75% Freshmen Retention
52% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 75% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Wilkes University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about 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 Wilkes the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 52%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  52 out of 100
0
100

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

Wilkes University Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,996 Full-Time Undergraduates
18.9% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
50.4% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 2,243 undergraduates at Wilkes with 1,996 being full-time and 247 being part-time.

How Much Does Wilkes University Cost?

$29,618 Net Price
84% Take Out Loans
$46,812 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Wilkes is $29,618. 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 Wilkes

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$25,058 $25,051 $28,221 $31,157 $34,459

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 Wilkes, 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 Wilkes, approximately 84% of students took out student loans averaging $11,703 a year. That adds up to $46,812 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Wilkes is 3.5%. 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 Wilkes University.

How Much Money Do Wilkes Graduates Make?

$56,992 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Wilkes with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $56,992 in their early years. This is good news for future Wilkes graduates since it is 34% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Wilkes University make the most money.

Location of Wilkes University

Pennsylvania State
1,996 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
Located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Wilkes University is a private not-for-profit institution. The location of Wilkes is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

Get more details about the location of Wilkes University.

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Contact details for Wilkes are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 84 West South Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
Phone: 570-408-5000
Website: https://www.wilkes.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WilkesUniversity
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WilkesU

Wilkes University Majors

45 Majors With Completions
548 Undergraduate Degrees
770 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 45 majors graduated from Wilkes University. Of these students, 548 received undergraduate degrees and 770 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
Nursing 91 $64,105
Liberal Arts General Studies 80 NA
Business Administration & Management 48 $36,785
Mechanical Engineering 43 $61,200
Finance & Financial Management 25 $42,445
Environmental Engineering 24 $54,835
Teacher Education Grade Specific 24 $34,978
General Biology 20 $24,313
Accounting 17 $46,218
Electrical Engineering 17 NA

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

Online Learning at Wilkes

81% Take At Least One Class Online
54% 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, 4,250 students took at least one online class at Wilkes University. This is a decrease from the 4,283 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 4,250 2,863
2019-2020 4,283 2,341
2018-2019 2,745 1,916
2017-2018 3,098 2,222
2016-2017 3,326 2,566

Learn more about online learning at Wilkes University.

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

Curious on how these schools stack up against Wilkes? 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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