Capella University Overview

Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Capella University is a private for-profit institution. The location of Capella University is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

What Is Capella University Known For?

• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Capella University.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 14% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, Capella University bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $63,600 a year. That's about 56% more than their peers at other schools.

Capella University Rankings

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Capella University.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Information Technology Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Instructional Media Design Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Other Homeland Security Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Value Other Public Administration Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Value Other Homeland Security Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Data Processing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#49	Best Value Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#72	Best Value Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#104	Best Value Health Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#127	Best Value Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Capella University has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Family Psychology Schools	College Factual
#1	Best Cloud Computing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#1	Best System, Networking, & LAN/WAN Management/Manager Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#1	Best Homeland Security Doctor’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#1	Best Other Homeland Security Doctor’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#176	Best Nursing Schools	College Factual

Where Is Capella University?

Contact details for Capella University are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	225 South 6Th Street, 9Th Floor, Minneapolis, MN 55402-3389
Phone:	866-808-4080
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/CapellaUniversity
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/CapellaU

How Do I Get Into Capella University?

You can apply to Capella University online at: www.capella.edu/admissions/apply-now

Capella University has an open admissions policy, so you don't have to worry about getting into the school if you have a high school diploma or its equivalent.

Can I Afford Capella University?

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Capella University, approximately 82% of students took out student loans averaging $6,804 a year. That adds up to $27,216 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Capella University is 6.5%. 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.

Capella University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 11,781 undergraduate students at Capella University, with 2,159 being full-time and 9,622 being part-time.

There are also 27,149 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 2,159 full-time undergraduates at Capella University, 19% are male and 81% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Capella University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	81
Black or African American	447
Hispanic or Latino	237
White	1,062
International Students	10
Other Races/Ethnicities	322

Geographic Diversity

Minnesota students aren't the only ones who study at Capella University. At this time, 33 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Online Learning at Capella University

There are 28 bachelor’s degree and 79 master’s degree programs available online at Capella University. In 2019-2020, 38,930 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Capella University has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 2nd most popular in Minnesota for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Capella University Rankings

The following table shows how Capella University is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Computer Systems Analysis	#1	#1
Other Homeland Security	#1	#1
Other Computer & Information Sciences	#1	#1
Data Processing	#1	#1
Community Organization & Advocacy	#1	#1
Other Social Sciences	#1	#1
Gerontology	#3	#3
Other Education	#4	#4
Other Psychology	#4	#4
Other Public Administration	#4	#4
Social Sciences	#4	#4
Computer Systems Networking	#4	#4
Teaching English or French	#4	#4
General Business/Commerce	#4	#4
Human Services	#4	#4
Entrepreneurial Studies	#4	#4
Medical Illustration & Informatics	#4	#4
Human Development & Family Studies	#7	#7
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	#7	#7
Computer Software & Applications	#10	#10
Student Counseling	#10	#7
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#10	#10
Special Education	#10	#7
Marketing	#13	#13
General Psychology	#16	#13
Computer Programming	#16	#16
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	#19	#13
Finance & Financial Management	#22	#22
Instructional Media Design	#28	#25
Computer Information Systems	#30	#30
General Education	#30	#27
Curriculum & Instruction	#31	#28
Management Information Systems	#34	#34
Public Administration & Social Service	#34	#34
Public Health	#57	#42
Accounting	#70	#70

Online Growth Rankings of Capella University

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Capella University was 0.9%. This is the #837 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at Capella University regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Capella University majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Accounting	10%
Business Administration & Management	10%
Business, Management & Marketing	8%
Child Development & Psychology	10%
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	14%
Community Organization & Advocacy	65%
Computer Information Systems	15%
Computer Programming	67%
Computer Software & Applications	25%
Criminal Justice & Corrections	9%
Data Processing	9%
Educational Administration	20%
General Education	33%
General Psychology	24%
Health & Medical Administrative Services	12%
Health Professions	24%
Homeland Security	29%
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting	19%
Human Resource Management	13%
Instructional Media Design	27%
Medical Illustration & Informatics	12%
Mental & Social Health Services	0%
Nursing	27%
Psychology	15%
Public Administration	42%
Public Administration & Social Service	31%
Social Work	60%
Special Education	15%
Student Counseling	9%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Capella University ranks compared to all other mostly online schools that offer a specific major.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Multicultural & Diversity Studies	#10
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	#14
Computer Systems Analysis	#15
Other Public Administration	#16
Gerontology	#16
Other Social Sciences	#16
Other Computer & Information Sciences	#16
Other Psychology	#17
Data Processing	#21
Educational Assessment	#22
Other Homeland Security	#29
Engineering-Related Fields	#32
Community Organization & Advocacy	#32
Medical Illustration & Informatics	#32
Child Development & Psychology	#33
Other Business, Management & Marketing	#43
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	#46
Student Counseling	#66
Other Education	#68
Biological & Biomedical Sciences	#74
Teaching English or French	#74
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#75
Social Work	#83
Computer Systems Networking	#84
General Education	#102
Human Services	#105
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	#110
Curriculum & Instruction	#117
Homeland Security	#117
Computer Software & Applications	#125
Computer Programming	#125
Human Development & Family Studies	#134
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	#135
Public Health	#152
Instructional Media Design	#155
Mental & Social Health Services	#157
Public Administration	#161
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	#163
Management Information Systems	#164
Engineering Technologies	#166
Finance & Financial Management	#170
Entrepreneurial Studies	#191
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#196
General Psychology	#199
Special Education	#203
General Business/Commerce	#256
Marketing	#258
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	#264
Psychology	#280
Social Sciences	#286
Educational Administration	#295
Human Resource Management	#312
Public Administration & Social Service	#313
Nursing	#323
Information Technology	#335
Computer Information Systems	#356
Teacher Education Grade Specific	#365

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Capella University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Basic Certificate	Undergraduate Certificate	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Nursing	0	0	2,035	18	527	173	2,753
Business Administration & Management	0	0	632	82	707	110	1,531
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	0	274	1,075	119	1,468
Mental & Social Health Services	0	0	0	107	770	6	883
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	0	172	14	481	55	722
General Psychology	0	0	435	0	94	97	626
Educational Administration	0	0	0	175	102	203	480
Human Resource Management	0	0	149	43	260	15	467
Information Technology	6	0	90	21	101	64	282
Student Counseling	0	0	0	12	203	18	233
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	0	44	112	56	212
Public Health	0	0	12	36	77	56	181
Medical Illustration & Informatics	0	0	2	18	151	0	171
Criminal Justice & Corrections	0	0	62	0	79	24	165
Accounting	0	2	93	1	36	11	143
Child Development & Psychology	0	0	0	0	125	0	125
Public Administration	0	0	0	0	92	33	125
Computer Information Systems	0	0	81	0	3	37	121
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	15	26	73	114
General Education	0	0	0	0	86	12	98
Instructional Media Design	0	0	0	6	42	38	86
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	9	20	38	6	73
Community Organization & Advocacy	0	0	0	0	72	0	72
Other Social Sciences	0	0	0	0	33	37	70
Social Work	0	0	0	0	0	60	60
Homeland Security	0	0	3	0	33	20	56
Human Development & Family Studies	0	0	0	2	42	8	52
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	0	3	21	25	49
Human Services	0	0	0	0	39	10	49
Special Education	0	0	0	0	46	0	46
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	0	39	0	0	39
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	13	0	13	7	33
Marketing	0	0	12	0	10	4	26
Computer Systems Networking	0	0	17	0	7	0	24
Other Education	0	0	0	0	23	0	23
Computer Programming	4	0	14	0	0	0	18
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	0	0	17	0	17
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	0	13	2	15
Data Processing	0	0	11	0	0	0	11
Other Homeland Security	0	0	0	0	0	11	11
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	0	0	9	0	0	9
Teaching English or French	0	0	0	0	7	0	7
Gerontology	0	0	0	0	7	0	7
Other Public Administration	0	0	0	0	0	7	7
General Business/Commerce	0	0	0	0	0	4	4
Computer Software & Applications	0	0	4	0	0	0	4
Other Business, Management & Marketing	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Computer Systems Analysis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Computer & Information Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Educational Assessment	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Multicultural & Diversity Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Psychology	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	10	2	3,846	939	5,570	1,402	11,769

References

*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.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics

More about our data sources and methodologies.