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Sam Houston State University

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Sam Houston State University Overview

Located in Huntsville, Texas, Sam Houston State University is a public institution. The charming, small-town atmosphere of Huntsville draws many to the area.

What Is Sam Houston State University Known For?

4,241 Undergraduate Awards
$25,328 Avg Cost After Aid
92% Acceptance Rate
  • Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at SHSU.
  • In 2017-2018, 80% of the faculty were full-time.
  • After graduation, SHSU bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $44,600 a year. That's about 9% more than their peers at other schools.

Best Schools

Sam Houston State University Rankings

Out of the 137 colleges in Texas, SHSU is ranked at #26.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Program Level Awards

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

Rank Ranking Name Share
#1 Best Value Library & Information Science Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#1 Best Value Dance Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#1 Best Value Library Science Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#4 Best Value Romance Languages Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#9 Best Value Foreign Languages & Linguistics Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#25 Best Music Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#36 Best Value History Bachelor’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#55 Best Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#63 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#68 Best Law Enforcement & Firefighting Bachelor’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank Ranking Name Source
#1 Best Applied Engineering Technologies Schools College Factual
#6 Best Other Corrections & Criminal Justice Schools College Factual
#12 Best Computer Engineering Technology Schools College Factual
#40 Best Criminal Justice Studies Schools College Factual
#85 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools College Factual
#89 Best Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting Schools College Factual

Where Is Sam Houston State University?

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Contact details for SHSU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1806 Ave J, Huntsville, TX 77340
Phone: 936-294-1111
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/samhoustonstate
Twitter: http://twitter.com/samhoustonstate

How Do I Get Into SHSU?

You can apply to SHSU online at: www.shsu.edu/admissions/apply-texas.html

Admission Requirements for SHSU

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

How Hard Is It To Get Into SHSU?

92% Acceptance Rate
67% Of Accepted Are Women
77% Submit SAT Scores
SHSU has the high acceptance rate of 92%, which means it is fairly easy to gain admittance as long as you submit a complete application with requested materials.

Approximately 33% of accepted students are men and 67% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 92%, and the acceptance rate for women is 93%.

Average Test Scores

About 77% of students accepted to SHSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 490 and 570. Math scores were between 480 and 550.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Sam Houston State University  ( 490 to 570 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Sam Houston State University  ( 480 to 550 )
200
800
SHSU received ACT scores from 32% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 19 and 25. Math scores were between 16 and 23. Composite scores were between 18 and 23.

ACT English Scores for Sam Houston State University  ( 19 to 25 )
1
36
ACT Math Scores for Sam Houston State University  ( 16 to 23 )
1
36
ACT Composite Scores for Sam Houston State University  ( 18 to 23 )
1
36

Can I Afford Sam Houston State University?

$25,328 Net Price
58% Take Out Loans
8.4% Loan Default Rate
The overall average net price of SHSU is $25,328. 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

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At SHSU, approximately 58% of students took out student loans averaging $5,910 a year. That adds up to $23,640 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at SHSU 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.

Sam Houston State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

15,020 Full-Time Undergraduates
63% Women
50% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
There are 18,811 undergraduate students at SHSU, with 15,020 being full-time and 3,791 being part-time.

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There are also 3,101 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 15,020 full-time undergraduates at SHSU, 37% are male and 63% are female.

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Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

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Race/Ethnicity Number of Grads
Asian 312
Black or African American 2,737
Hispanic or Latino 3,875
White 7,139
International Students 155
Other Races/Ethnicities 802

Geographic Diversity

Texas students aren't the only ones who study at Sam Houston State University. At this time, 29 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 79 countries are represented at SHSU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Turkey.

Online Learning at Sam Houston State University

4,425 Took All Classes Online
13,065 Took At Least One Class Online
11.9% Avg Growth Over 4 Years
There are 9 bachelor’s degree and 22 master’s degree programs available online at SHSU. In 2019-2020, 13,065 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

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This school is the 11th most popular in Texas for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of SHSU

The following table shows how SHSU 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
International Education #1 #3
Agricultural Production #1 #1
Political Science & Government #4 #4
General Family & Consumer Sciences #4 #10
Sociology #7 #7
Information Technology #7 #24
Agriculture & Agriculture Operations #10 #13
Music #13 #13
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences #16 #29
Homeland Security #16 #19
Teaching English or French #19 #10
History #21 #32
History #21 #32
Visual & Performing Arts #22 #19
Foreign Languages & Linguistics #25 #25
Communication & Media Studies #25 #25
Health Sciences & Services #26 #23
Mathematics & Statistics #28 #13
Communication & Journalism #36 #36
Library Science #37 #22
Library & Information Science #37 #22
Social Sciences #40 #49
Mathematics #43 #22
Health & Physical Education #49 #55
Computer & Information Sciences #49 #53
General Business/Commerce #52 #70
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies #52 #61
Public Administration #61 #55
Public Administration & Social Service #67 #61
General Psychology #70 #91
Instructional Media Design #70 #61
Psychology #73 #103

Online Growth Rankings of SHSU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Sam Houston State University was 11.9%. This is the #1,322 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at SHSU regardless of major.

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

Major 1-Year Growth Rate
Agricultural Production 23%
Agriculture & Agriculture Operations 9%
Curriculum & Instruction 55%
Education 29%
Health & Medical Administrative Services 8%
Health Professions 4%
Instructional Media Design 70%
International Education 43%
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities 13%
Liberal Arts General Studies 13%
Other Education 43%
Political Science & Government 32%
Social Sciences 17%
Teacher Education Subject Specific 21%
Teaching English or French 47%
Visual & Performing Arts 6%

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

Major Growth Rate Rank
International Education #4
Agricultural Production #7
Music #34
Other Education #59
Political Science & Government #61
Library & Information Science #65
Library Science #73
Teaching English or French #76
Sociology #90
History #91
History #91
Agriculture & Agriculture Operations #96
Homeland Security #113
Visual & Performing Arts #120
Communication & Media Studies #133
Public Administration #135
Curriculum & Instruction #177
Instructional Media Design #202
Information Technology #206
Communication & Journalism #219
General Business/Commerce #237
Teacher Education Subject Specific #281
Public Administration & Social Service #294
Social Sciences #300
Educational Administration #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%.

Sam Houston State University Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major Bachelor’s Graduate Certificate Master’s Doctor’s TOTAL
Criminal Justice & Corrections 852 8 116 7 983
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 424 0 0 0 424
General Business/Commerce 282 0 0 0 282
General Psychology 199 0 1 0 200
Communication & Media Studies 177 1 8 0 186
Accounting 137 0 35 0 172
Business Administration & Management 82 0 81 0 163
Health & Physical Education 141 0 22 0 163
Finance & Financial Management 135 0 0 0 135
Curriculum & Instruction 0 1 131 0 132
Nursing 121 0 0 0 121
Public Health 118 0 0 0 118
General Biology 108 0 9 0 117
History 95 2 16 0 113
Animal Science 108 0 0 0 108
Health & Medical Administrative Services 90 0 0 0 90
Educational Administration 0 0 74 11 85
Marketing 82 0 0 0 82
Health Sciences & Services 67 0 8 0 75
Construction Engineering Technology 68 0 0 0 68
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology 0 0 57 8 65
Political Science & Government 57 2 4 0 63
Library & Information Science 0 0 58 0 58
General English Literature 53 2 2 0 57
Drama & Theater Arts 55 0 0 0 55
Liberal Arts General Studies 54 0 0 0 54
Music 44 0 9 0 53
Computer Information Systems 46 0 4 0 50
Human Resource Management 49 0 0 0 49
Agricultural Economics & Business 48 0 0 0 48
Computer Engineering Technology 46 0 0 0 46
Geography & Cartography 17 11 11 0 39
General Agriculture 22 0 16 0 38
Teacher Education Subject Specific 0 20 10 8 38
Sociology 35 0 3 0 38
Mathematics 26 0 9 0 35
Teaching English or French 0 13 21 0 34
Instructional Media Design 0 15 15 3 33
Special Education 0 0 33 0 33
Chemistry 30 0 2 0 32
Agricultural Mechanization 28 0 0 0 28
Dance 22 0 5 0 27
Graphic Communications 26 0 0 0 26
Design & Applied Arts 26 0 0 0 26
Management Information Systems 25 0 0 0 25
Student Counseling 0 13 5 4 22
General Engineering Technology 20 0 0 0 20
Information Technology 0 6 13 0 19
Homeland Security 0 0 19 0 19
Fine & Studio Arts 19 0 0 0 19
Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing 18 0 0 0 18
International Business 17 0 0 0 17
Food, Nutrition & Related Services 17 0 0 0 17
Romance Languages 15 0 1 0 16
General Family & Consumer Sciences 15 0 0 0 15
Public Administration 0 0 15 0 15
Business/Managerial Economics 14 0 0 0 14
Agricultural Production 0 0 13 0 13
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions 12 0 0 0 12
Agricultural Public Services 11 0 0 0 11
Entrepreneurial Studies 11 0 0 0 11
Industrial Production Technology 10 0 0 0 10
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services 0 0 10 0 10
Statistics 0 0 10 0 10
Physics 10 0 0 0 10
Plant Sciences 9 0 0 0 9
Drafting & Design Engineering Technology 9 0 0 0 9
Allied Health Professions 9 0 0 0 9
Philosophy 9 0 0 0 9
Radio, Television & Digital Communication 5 0 3 0 8
Geological & Earth Sciences 8 0 0 0 8
International Education 0 0 7 0 7
Other Education 0 0 0 7 7
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 4 0 0 0 4
Interior Architecture 3 0 0 0 3
Writing Studies 0 0 1 0 1
Biological & Physical Science 1 0 0 0 1
TOTAL 4,241 94 857 48 5,240

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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