Catholic University of America Overview

Catholic University of America is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Washington, District of Columbia. Washington is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

What Is Catholic University of America Known For?

• Students at CUA may have an easier time interacting with their teachers since the student to faculty ratio at the school is 7 to 1.
• Students at CUA have an easier time paying back their loans. The school's student loan default rate is only 2%, compared to the national rate of 10.1%.
• The doctor's degree is the highest award offered at CUA.
• In 2017-2018, 52% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, CUA bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $56,800 a year. That's about 39% more than their peers at other schools.
• On average, it takes about 4.1 years for students from CUA to earn a bachelor's degree. This is excellent when compared to the average of 4.4 years.

Catholic University of America 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 CUA.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#9	Best Special Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#11	Best General Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#13	Best Educational Administration Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#22	Best Teacher Education Subject Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#26	Best Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#33	Best General Psychology Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#51	Best Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#90	Best Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#130	Best Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#15	Best Colleges for Teacher Education Grade Specific	College Factual
#19	Best Teaching Schools	Teaching Degree Search
#38	Best Colleges for General Psychology	College Factual
#41	Best Colleges for Psychology	College Factual
#54	Best Colleges for Nursing	College Factual
#79	Best Colleges for Education	College Factual

Where Is Catholic University of America?

Contact details for CUA are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	620 Michigan Avenue, Ne, Washington, DC 20064
Phone:	202-319-5000
Website:	https://www.catholic.edu
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/CatholicUniversity
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/CatholicUniv

How Do I Get Into CUA?

You can apply to CUA online at: https://applyonline.cua.edu/

Admission Requirements for CUA

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	neither required nor recommended
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into CUA?

CUA has an acceptance rate of 83%, which means that is not quite as selective as some other schools. Still, you'll need good grades and a solid application if you want to be admitted.

Approximately 40% of accepted students are men and 60% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 80%, and the acceptance rate for women is 85%.

Can I Afford Catholic University of America?

The overall average net price of CUA is $46,863. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

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 CUA, approximately 61% of students took out student loans averaging $9,719 a year. That adds up to $38,876 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at CUA is 2.5%. 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.

Catholic University of America Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 3,332 undergraduate students at CUA, with 3,198 being full-time and 134 being part-time.

There are also 2,624 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 3,198 full-time undergraduates at CUA, 47% are male and 53% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	129
Black or African American	116
Hispanic or Latino	439
White	2,118
International Students	176
Other Races/Ethnicities	220

Geographic Diversity

District of Columbia students aren't the only ones who study at Catholic University of America. At this time, 34 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 75 countries are represented at CUA. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and China.

Online Learning at Catholic University of America

In 2017-2018, 781 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 5th most popular in District of Columbia for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2017-2018.

Online Growth Rankings of CUA

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Catholic University of America was 4.7%. This is the #1,696 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at CUA regardless of major.

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

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Business, Management & Marketing	15%
Health Professions	9%
Nursing	9%
Public Administration & Social Service	13%
Social Work	13%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at CUA ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at CUA.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Human Resource Management	#105
Nursing	#369

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%.

Catholic University of America Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Associate’s	Undergraduate Certificate	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Social Work	0	0	21	0	191	7	219
Nursing	0	0	73	3	29	17	122
Law	0	0	0	0	0	103	103
Political Science & Government	0	0	69	0	14	5	88
General Psychology	0	0	66	0	19	2	87
General Architecture	0	0	52	0	27	0	79
Theological & Ministerial Studies	0	0	0	7	61	0	68
Theology & Religious Vocations (Other)	0	0	0	0	44	20	64
Marketing	0	0	62	0	0	0	62
Philosophy	0	0	37	0	14	10	61
Business Administration & Management	0	0	24	0	33	0	57
Civil Engineering	0	0	38	0	15	1	54
Music	0	0	33	0	7	11	51
Mechanical Engineering	0	0	37	0	9	3	49
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	46	0	0	0	46
Accounting	0	0	32	0	4	0	36
Biomedical Engineering	0	0	24	0	9	1	34
Library & Information Science	0	0	0	0	33	0	33
Communication & Media Studies	0	0	28	0	0	0	28
History	0	0	19	0	6	1	26
General Business/Commerce	0	0	0	0	25	0	25
Electrical Engineering	0	0	9	0	12	4	25
Computer Science	0	0	12	0	8	4	24
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	16	0	7	0	23
General Biology	0	0	14	0	6	1	21
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	0	0	20	0	20
Economics	0	0	11	0	9	0	20
Drama & Theater Arts	0	0	5	0	14	0	19
General English Literature	0	0	9	0	1	6	16
Classical Languages & Literature	0	0	5	0	5	3	13
Romance Languages	0	0	11	0	1	0	12
Religious Studies	0	0	12	0	0	0	12
Physics	0	0	3	0	4	5	12
Mathematics	0	0	10	0	0	0	10
Biotechnology	0	0	0	0	9	0	9
Sociology	0	0	8	0	1	0	9
Biblical Studies	0	0	0	0	0	8	8
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	7	7
Middle Eastern Semitic Languages	0	0	0	0	4	3	7
General Social Sciences	0	0	7	0	0	0	7
International Business	0	0	6	0	0	0	6
Educational Administration	0	0	0	0	0	6	6
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	6	0	0	0	6
Legal Research	0	0	0	0	5	0	5
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	0	0	0	5	5
Anthropology	0	0	5	0	0	0	5
Computer Information Systems	0	2	2	0	0	0	4
General Education	0	0	2	2	0	0	4
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	0	4	0	0	0	4
Special Education	0	0	0	0	3	0	3
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	3	0	0	0	3
Germanic Languages	0	0	3	0	0	0	3
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
Medieval Studies	0	0	1	1	0	0	2
Chemistry	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Writing Studies	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Child Development & Psychology	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Criminology	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Human Services	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Religious Education	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Computer Engineering	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Materials Engineering	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Area Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Non-Professional General Legal Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Materials Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
International Relations & National Security	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	1	2	830	14	651	234	1,732

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
• Image Credit: By Gryffindor under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.