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Central Washington University

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Central Washington University Overview

Central Washington University is a public institution situated in Ellensburg, Washington. The location of CWU is a good match for students who are interested in living in a college town while they pursue their degree.

What Is Central Washington University Known For?

2,613 Undergraduate Awards
$31,774 Avg Cost After Aid
93% Acceptance Rate
  • Although it may not be available for every major, the post-master's certificate is the highest award a student can attain at CWU.
  • For the 2021-2022 academic year, 74% of the faculty were full-time.
  • Students who graduate from CWU with a bachelor's degree make about $59,283 a year. That's 45% more than those who graduate from other schools.

Where Is Central Washington University?

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Contact details for CWU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 400 East University Way, Ellensburg, WA 98926
Phone: 509-963-1111
Website: www.cwu.edu

How Do I Get Into CWU?

You can apply to CWU online at: www.cwu.edu/programs/online-learning

Admission Requirements for CWU

Submission Required?
High School GPA 1
High School Rank 3
High School Transcript 1
College Prep Program 5
Recommendations 3
SAT or ACT Scores 3
TOEFL 3

How Hard Is It To Get Into CWU?

93% Acceptance Rate
57% Of Accepted Are Women
Since CWU has an acceptance rate of 93%, it is not too hard to gain acceptance into the school. Still, you need to be sure you complete your application in full and send in any other requested documents.

Approximately 42% of accepted students are men and 57% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 93%, and the acceptance rate for women is 94%.

Can I Afford Central Washington University?

$31,774 Net Price
42% Take Out Loans
The overall average net price of CWU is $31,774. 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 CWU, approximately 42% of students took out student loans averaging $5,469 a year. That adds up to $21,876 over four years for those students.

Central Washington University Undergraduate Student Diversity

8,373 Full-Time Undergraduates
53% Women
39% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
There are 9,566 undergraduate students at CWU, with 8,373 being full-time and 1,193 being part-time.

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There are also 610 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 8,373 full-time undergraduates at CWU, 47% are male and 53% are female.

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Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

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Race/Ethnicity Number of Grads
Asian 393
Black or African American 386
Hispanic or Latino 1,571
White 4,439
International Students 233
Other Races/Ethnicities 1,351

Geographic Diversity

Washington students aren't the only ones who study at Central Washington University. At this time, 20 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 56 countries are represented at CWU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam.

Online Learning at Central Washington University

2,498 Took All Classes Online
6,394 Took At Least One Class Online
There are 99 bachelor’s degree and 57 master’s degree programs available online at CWU. In 2022-2023, 6,394 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

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This school is the most popular in Washington for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2022-2023.

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

Major 1-Year Growth Rate
Aviation/Airway Management & Operations 55%
Creative Writing 6%
Emergency Medical Technology/Technician (EMT Paramedic) 6%
Family & Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences, General 21%
General Business Administration and Management 1%
General Education 57%
General Public Health 11%
Information Technology Project Management 56%
Insurance 88%
Liberal Arts 68%
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities 68%
Occupational Safety & Health Technology 43%
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies 6%
Retailing and Retail Operations 50%
Sociology 22%
Sports Kinesiology and Physical Education/Fitness General 7%
Transportation & Materials Moving 52%

Central Washington University Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major Basic Certificate Bachelor’s Graduate Certificate Master’s TOTAL
Business Administration & Management 0 257 0 19 276
Teacher Education Grade Specific 0 246 0 0 246
Teacher Education Subject Specific 0 137 0 74 211
General Psychology 0 181 0 0 181
Criminal Justice & Corrections 0 128 0 16 144
Health & Physical Education 0 97 0 36 133
Accounting 0 102 1 4 107
Air Transportation 0 107 0 0 107
Sociology 0 74 0 0 74
Computer Information Systems 0 45 0 26 71
Information Technology 0 64 0 4 68
General Social Sciences 0 67 0 0 67
Computer Science 0 60 0 3 63
Quality Control Technology 0 28 0 28 56
Music 0 46 0 9 55
Writing Studies 0 49 0 4 53
Marketing 0 50 0 0 50
Finance & Financial Management 0 48 0 0 48
Human Services 0 47 0 0 47
General Education 1 3 2 34 40
General Biology 0 36 0 3 39
Construction Management 0 38 0 0 38
Health/Medical Prep Programs 0 34 0 0 34
Public Health 0 33 0 1 34
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 0 33 0 1 34
Anthropology 0 33 0 0 33
Political Science & Government 0 30 0 0 30
Drama & Theater Arts 0 25 0 4 29
Design & Applied Arts 0 25 0 0 25
Hospitality Management 0 23 0 0 23
Communication & Media Studies 0 23 0 0 23
History 0 19 0 3 22
Public Relations & Advertising 0 21 0 0 21
Geological & Earth Sciences 0 18 0 2 20
Human Resource Management 0 14 5 0 19
Mechanical Engineering Technology 0 19 0 0 19
General Family & Consumer Sciences 0 4 0 15 19
Liberal Arts General Studies 0 19 0 0 19
Geography & Cartography 0 19 0 0 19
Fine & Studio Arts 0 19 0 0 19
Educational Administration 0 0 0 18 18
Allied Health Professions 0 18 0 0 18
Human Development & Family Studies 0 17 0 0 17
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology 0 0 0 16 16
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology 0 15 0 0 15
Textile & Apparel Studies 0 15 0 0 15
Romance Languages 0 14 0 0 14
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services 0 14 0 0 14
General English Literature 0 13 0 0 13
Behavioral Science 0 6 0 7 13
Physics 0 12 0 0 12
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences 0 11 0 0 11
General Philosophy & Religious Studies 0 11 0 0 11
East Asian Languages 0 10 0 0 10
Natural Resources Conservation 0 4 0 6 10
Business/Managerial Economics 0 9 0 0 9
Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing 0 9 0 0 9
Radio, Television & Digital Communication 0 9 0 0 9
Industrial Production Technology 0 9 0 0 9
Applied Mathematics 0 9 0 0 9
Chemistry 0 7 0 2 9
Insurance 0 8 0 0 8
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods 0 8 0 0 8
General Sales & Marketing 0 8 0 0 8
Electronics Engineering Technology 0 8 0 0 8
Economics 0 8 0 0 8
Journalism 0 6 0 0 6
Food, Nutrition & Related Services 0 6 0 0 6
American Sign Language 0 5 0 0 5
Computer Software & Applications 0 4 0 0 4
Nutrition Science 0 0 0 4 4
Recreation Administration 0 4 0 0 4
Culinary Arts 0 4 0 0 4
Public Policy 0 3 0 0 3
Dance 0 3 0 0 3
Teaching English or French 0 0 0 2 2
Literature 0 0 0 2 2
Child Development & Psychology 0 0 0 2 2
Special Education 0 0 0 1 1
Area Studies 0 1 0 0 1
Ethnic Studies 0 1 0 0 1
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages 0 1 0 0 1
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 0 1 0 0 1
Natural Resources Conservation (Other) 0 0 0 1 1
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology 0 0 0 0 0
Microbiological Sciences & Immunology 0 0 0 0 0
Biological & Biomedical Sciences (Other) 0 0 0 0 0
Physiology & Pathology Sciences 0 0 0 0 0
Business Support & Assistant Services 0 0 0 0 0
Entrepreneurial Studies 0 0 0 0 0
Management Information Systems 0 0 0 0 0
Multilingual Education 0 0 0 0 0
Student Counseling 0 0 0 0 0
Computer Engineering Technology 0 0 0 0 0
Construction Engineering Technology 0 0 0 0 0
General Engineering Technology 0 0 0 0 0
Engineering Physics 0 0 0 0 0
Mechanical Engineering 0 0 0 0 0
Human Sciences Business Services 0 0 0 0 0
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences (Other) 0 0 0 0 0
Germanic Languages 0 0 0 0 0
Linguistics & Comparative Literature 0 0 0 0 0
Mental & Social Health Services 0 0 0 0 0
Non-Professional General Legal Studies 0 0 0 0 0
Mathematics 0 0 0 0 0
Data Analytics 0 0 0 0 0
Data Science 0 0 0 0 0
Gerontology 0 0 0 0 0
Historic Preservation 0 0 0 0 0
Museum Studies 0 0 0 0 0
Natural Sciences 0 0 0 0 0
Natural Resource Management 0 0 0 0 0
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies 0 0 0 0 0
Philosophy 0 0 0 0 0
Religious Studies 0 0 0 0 0
Public Administration 0 0 0 0 0
Arts & Media Management 0 0 0 0 0
General Visual & Performing Arts 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 1 2,612 8 347 2,968

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.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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