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?

• The 3% student loan default rate at CUA is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The highest award offered at CUA is the doctor's degree.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 54% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from CUA makes roughly $56,800 a year. This is 39% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• 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

We have ranked CUA as #289 out of 2,587 colleges and universities in the country in our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation.

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.

CUA has been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#111	Best Undergraduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#216	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Fine & Studio Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Other Theology & Religion Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#11	Best Foreign Languages & Linguistics Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#20	Best Philosophy & Religious Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#25	Best Curriculum & Instruction Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#39	Best Special Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#55	Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#74	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#96	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#99	Best Social Sciences 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
#1	Best Middle/Near Eastern & Semitic Languages, Literatures, & Linguistics, General Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#2	Best Theology & Religious Vocations (Other) Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#97	Best General Psychology Schools	College Factual
#123	Best Communication & Journalism Schools	College Factual
#135	Best Psychology Schools	College Factual
#159	Best Nursing Schools	Nursing Degree Search

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
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	considered but not required
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 82%, 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 39% of accepted students are men and 61% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 78%, and the acceptance rate for women is 85%.

Can I Afford Catholic University of America?

The overall average net price of CUA is $46,460. 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

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 CUA, approximately 60% of students took out student loans averaging $10,238 a year. That adds up to $40,952 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at CUA is 2.8%. 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 3,055 undergraduate students at CUA, with 2,934 being full-time and 121 being part-time.

There are also 2,311 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 2,934 full-time undergraduates at CUA, 43% are male and 57% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	86
Black or African American	103
Hispanic or Latino	424
White	2,025
International Students	101
Other Races/Ethnicities	195

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 2019-2020, 5,263 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 2019-2020.

Online Growth Rankings of CUA

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Catholic University of America was 209.0%. This is the #275 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at CUA regardless of major.

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	20	0	145	11	176
Nursing	0	0	66	3	19	19	107
Law	0	0	0	0	0	97	97
Political Science & Government	0	0	83	0	9	2	94
General Psychology	0	0	70	0	19	0	89
Theology & Religious Vocations (Other)	0	0	0	0	49	27	76
General Architecture	0	0	46	0	19	0	65
Philosophy	0	0	37	0	14	8	59
Business Administration & Management	0	0	23	0	35	0	58
Music	0	0	27	0	13	10	50
Mechanical Engineering	0	0	39	0	8	2	49
Biomedical Engineering	0	0	27	0	16	3	46
Theological & Ministerial Studies	0	0	0	13	31	0	44
Civil Engineering	0	0	25	0	13	2	40
General Business/Commerce	0	0	34	0	3	0	37
Library & Information Science	0	0	0	0	36	0	36
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	35	0	0	0	35
Marketing	0	0	35	0	0	0	35
Economics	0	0	21	0	12	0	33
History	0	0	19	0	4	5	28
Computer Science	0	0	18	0	4	2	24
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	0	0	24	0	24
Electrical Engineering	0	0	15	0	3	3	21
General English Literature	0	0	14	0	2	4	20
Drama & Theater Arts	0	0	8	0	10	0	18
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	12	0	3	0	15
Religious Studies	0	0	15	0	0	0	15
General Biology	0	0	10	0	1	3	14
Accounting	0	0	14	0	0	0	14
Communication & Media Studies	0	0	11	0	0	0	11
Physics	0	0	1	0	5	4	10
Legal Research	0	0	0	0	9	0	9
International Business	0	0	8	0	0	0	8
Human Services	3	0	0	0	5	0	8
Classical Languages & Literature	0	0	3	1	1	2	7
Fine & Studio Arts	0	2	5	0	0	0	7
Biotechnology	0	0	0	0	6	0	6
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	6	6
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	6	0	0	0	6
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	0	0	0	6	6
Sociology	0	0	5	0	1	0	6
Religious Education	0	0	0	0	6	0	6
Middle Eastern Semitic Languages	0	0	0	0	2	3	5
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	0	4	0	0	0	4
Mathematics	0	0	3	0	1	0	4
Materials Sciences	0	0	0	0	4	0	4
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	0	0	3	0	0	0	3
Public Health	0	0	0	0	3	0	3
Medieval Studies	0	0	0	1	1	1	3
Anthropology	0	0	3	0	0	0	3
Criminology	0	0	3	0	0	0	3
Educational Administration	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
Romance Languages	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
Mechanic & Repair Tech (Other)	0	2	0	0	0	0	2
Chemistry	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
Other Homeland Security	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
Child Development & Psychology	0	0	0	0	1	1	2
Biblical Studies	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
Information Science	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
General Education	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Special Education	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Germanic Languages	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Non-Professional General Legal Studies	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
General Social Sciences	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Computer Information Systems	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
Writing Studies	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
International Relations & National Security	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	3	5	775	18	543	225	1,569

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.