Columbus State University Overview

Columbus State University is a public institution situated in Columbus, Georgia. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

What Is Columbus State University Known For?

• The highest award offered at CSU is the doctor's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 63% of the faculty were full-time.

Columbus State 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.

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#71	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#110	Best Undergraduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Value Other Education Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Other Education Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Undergraduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Law Enforcement & Firefighting Undergraduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Most Popular Law Enforcement & Firefighting Undergraduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#31	Best Value Education Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#37	Best Value Criminal Justice & Corrections Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#41	Best Education Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#42	Best Value Law Enforcement & Firefighting Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#115	Best Value Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#7	Best Value Colleges for Other Social Sciences	College Factual
#11	Best Value Colleges for Other Education	College Factual
#18	Best Criminal Justice Studies Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#30	Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#37	Best Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#40	Best Teaching Doctor’s Degree Schools	Teaching Degree Search

Where Is Columbus State University?

Contact details for CSU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	4225 University Ave, Columbus, GA 31907-5645
Phone:	706-507-8800
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/ColumbusState
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/ColumbusState

How Do I Get Into CSU?

You can apply to CSU online at: admissions.columbusstate.edu/applications/index.php

Admission Requirements for CSU

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	neither required nor recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	neither required nor recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into CSU?

CSU has an acceptance rate of 78%, 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 35% of accepted students are men and 65% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 77%, and the acceptance rate for women is 79%.

Average Test Scores

About 39% of students accepted to CSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 440 and 550. Math scores were between 420 and 530.

CSU received ACT scores from 33% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 15 and 23. Math scores were between 16 and 21. Composite scores were between 17 and 23.

Can I Afford Columbus State University?

The overall average net price of CSU is $24,926. 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 CSU, approximately 58% of students took out student loans averaging $6,497 a year. That adds up to $25,988 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at CSU is 8.4%. 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.

Columbus State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 6,877 undergraduate students at CSU, with 4,708 being full-time and 2,169 being part-time.

There are also 1,495 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 4,708 full-time undergraduates at CSU, 37% are male and 63% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	132
Black or African American	1,916
Hispanic or Latino	348
White	2,070
International Students	58
Other Races/Ethnicities	184

Geographic Diversity

Georgia students aren't the only ones who study at Columbus State University. At this time, 13 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 47 countries are represented at CSU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are India, South Korea, and China.

Online Learning at Columbus State University

There are 3 bachelor’s degree and 7 master’s degree programs available online at CSU. In 2019-2020, 7,082 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 17th most popular in Georgia for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of CSU

The following table shows how CSU is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Other Social Sciences	#1	#1
Computer Information Systems	#4	#20
Communication & Journalism	#7	#61
Communication & Media Studies	#10	#55
Teacher Education Grade Specific	#13	#56
Sociology	#13	#43
Computer & Information Sciences	#19	#41
General Business/Commerce	#21	#60
Educational Administration	#22	#135
Special Education	#22	#97
Social Sciences	#22	#64
Health Professions	#25	#146
Nursing	#28	#106
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities	#31	#133
Liberal Arts General Studies	#31	#133
Criminal Justice & Corrections	#52	#218
Business, Management & Marketing	#54	#247
Business Administration & Management	#60	#306
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting	#61	#215

Online Growth Rankings of CSU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Columbus State University was 17.0%. This is the #1,147 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at CSU regardless of major.

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

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Business Administration & Management	19%
Business, Management & Marketing	3%
Health Professions	18%
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities	27%
Liberal Arts General Studies	27%
Nursing	18%
Teacher Education Grade Specific	12%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at CSU 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 CSU.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Other Education	#44
Special Education	#214
Computer Information Systems	#222
Educational Administration	#288
Teacher Education Grade Specific	#332

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%.

Columbus State University Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Basic Certificate	Associate’s	Undergraduate Certificate	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Nursing	0	0	0	224	0	112	0	336
Criminal Justice & Corrections	0	2	83	55	0	58	0	198
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	0	46	17	84	0	147
Computer Information Systems	0	0	0	65	0	35	0	100
Business Administration & Management	0	0	0	51	0	34	0	85
Health Sciences & Services	0	0	0	72	0	0	0	72
Communication & Media Studies	1	0	0	65	0	0	0	66
Health & Physical Education	0	0	0	55	0	7	0	62
General Biology	0	0	0	56	0	0	0	56
Music	1	0	0	27	10	17	0	55
Sociology	0	0	0	54	0	0	0	54
General Business/Commerce	0	0	0	49	0	0	0	49
General Psychology	0	0	0	48	0	0	0	48
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	0	18	0	29	0	47
Special Education	0	0	0	9	0	33	0	42
Drama & Theater Arts	0	0	0	39	0	0	0	39
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	32	0	5	0	0	0	37
Other Business, Management & Marketing	0	0	0	0	0	35	0	35
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	0	34	0	0	0	34
Marketing	0	0	0	33	0	0	0	33
General English Literature	0	0	0	33	0	0	0	33
Accounting	0	0	0	29	0	0	0	29
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	0	24	0	0	0	24
Other Social Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	22	0	22
Educational Administration	0	0	0	0	6	15	0	21
Student Counseling	0	0	0	0	0	21	0	21
International Studies	18	0	0	0	0	0	0	18
Mathematics	1	0	0	16	0	0	0	17
Geological & Earth Sciences	0	0	0	17	0	0	0	17
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	15	0	0	0	15
Political Science & Government	0	0	0	14	0	0	0	14
Other Education	0	0	0	0	0	0	13	13
Chemistry	0	0	0	13	0	0	0	13
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	10
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	10
Natural Resources Conservation	0	0	0	0	0	9	0	9
History	0	0	0	8	0	0	0	8
Teaching English or French	6	0	0	0	1	0	0	7
Romance Languages	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	7
Other Engineering	0	6	0	0	0	0	0	6
Computer Software & Applications	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Information Technology	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	4
Mental & Social Health Services	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	3
Medieval Studies	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Robotics Engineering	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Geography & Cartography	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Writing Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Medical Illustration & Informatics	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gerontology	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	53	40	83	1,184	40	511	13	1,924

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 Deutschlandreform under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.