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University of Central Arkansas

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University of Central Arkansas Overview

University of Central Arkansas is a public institution located in Conway, Arkansas. The location of UCA is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

What Is University of Central Arkansas Known For?

1,831 Undergraduate Awards
$19,893 Avg Cost After Aid
94% Acceptance Rate
  • The highest award offered at UCA is the doctor's degree.
  • For the 2017-2018 academic year, 77% of the faculty were full-time.

Best Schools

University of Central Arkansas Rankings

UCA holds the #9 spot on the Best Colleges in Arkansas ranking.

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 UCA.

Rank Ranking Name Share
#5 Best Value Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#7 Best Value Applied Mathematics Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#16 Best Value Music Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#18 Best Value Mathematics Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#24 Best Value Communication Sciences Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#32 Best Value Mathematics & Statistics Bachelor’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#32 Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#44 Best Value Economics Bachelor’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#65 Best Value Computer & Information Sciences Master’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#71 Best Value Fine & Studio Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank Ranking Name Source
#1 Best Value Colleges for Other Library & Archives Assisting College Factual
#6 Best Value Colleges for Applied Mathematics College Factual
#14 Best Value Master’s Degree Colleges for Visual & Performing Arts College Factual
#21 Best Value Colleges for Mathematics & Statistics College Factual
#26 Best Value Colleges for Music College Factual
#105 Best Value Colleges for Psychology College Factual

Where Is University of Central Arkansas?

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Contact details for UCA are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 201 Donaghey Ave, Conway, AR 72035-0001
Phone: 501-450-5000
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ucentralarkansas
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ucabears

How Do I Get Into UCA?

You can apply to UCA online at: uca.edu/admissions/apply

Admission Requirements for UCA

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

How Hard Is It To Get Into UCA?

94% Acceptance Rate
64% Of Accepted Are Women
3% Submit SAT Scores
UCA has the high acceptance rate of 94%, which means it is fairly easy to gain admittance as long as you submit a complete application with requested materials.

Approximately 36% of accepted students are men and 64% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 91%, and the acceptance rate for women is 95%.

Average Test Scores

About 3% of students accepted to UCA submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 480 and 580. Math scores were between 470 and 570.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for University of Central Arkansas  ( 480 to 580 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for University of Central Arkansas  ( 470 to 570 )
200
800
UCA received ACT scores from 96% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 20 and 29. Math scores were between 18 and 25. Composite scores were between 20 and 27.

ACT English Scores for University of Central Arkansas  ( 20 to 29 )
1
36
ACT Math Scores for University of Central Arkansas  ( 18 to 25 )
1
36
ACT Composite Scores for University of Central Arkansas  ( 20 to 27 )
1
36

Can I Afford University of Central Arkansas?

$19,893 Net Price
54% Take Out Loans
8.5% Loan Default Rate
The overall average net price of UCA is $19,893. 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 UCA, approximately 54% of students took out student loans averaging $8,622 a year. That adds up to $34,488 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UCA is 8.5%. 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.

University of Central Arkansas Undergraduate Student Diversity

7,301 Full-Time Undergraduates
62% Women
29% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
There are 8,615 undergraduate students at UCA, with 7,301 being full-time and 1,314 being part-time.

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There are also 1,720 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 7,301 full-time undergraduates at UCA, 38% are male and 62% are female.

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Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

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Race/Ethnicity Number of Grads
Asian 156
Black or African American 1,143
Hispanic or Latino 455
White 4,911
International Students 278
Other Races/Ethnicities 358

Geographic Diversity

Arkansas students aren't the only ones who study at University of Central Arkansas. At this time, 25 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 84 countries are represented at UCA. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Côte d’Ivoire, Bahamas, and China.

Online Learning at University of Central Arkansas

1,390 Took All Classes Online
7,955 Took At Least One Class Online
7.2% Avg Growth Over 4 Years
There are 2 bachelor’s degree and 8 master’s degree programs available online at UCA. In 2019-2020, 7,955 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

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This school is the 10th most popular in Arkansas for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of UCA

The following table shows how UCA 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
Geography & Cartography #4 #4
General Family & Consumer Sciences #10 #1
Food, Nutrition & Related Services #13 #10
Community Organization & Advocacy #13 #4
Mental & Social Health Services #19 #13
Economics #22 #11
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences #28 #10
Social Sciences #43 #16
Public Administration & Social Service #67 #28

Online Growth Rankings of UCA

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at University of Central Arkansas was 7.2%. This is the #1,483 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at UCA regardless of major.

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

Major 1-Year Growth Rate
Business Administration & Management 15%
Business, Management & Marketing 3%
Economics 19%
Education 12%
Nursing 14%
Social Sciences 11%
Special Education 40%
Teacher Education Subject Specific 38%

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

Major Growth Rate Rank
General Family & Consumer Sciences #31
Food, Nutrition & Related Services #38
Economics #73
Geography & Cartography #75
Marketing #210
Instructional Media Design #227
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences #295
Special Education #306
Teacher Education Subject Specific #314
Social Sciences #365

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%.

University of Central Arkansas Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major Associate’s Bachelor’s Graduate Certificate Master’s Doctor’s TOTAL
Nursing 0 105 3 39 6 153
Teacher Education Grade Specific 0 94 0 45 0 139
General Psychology 0 135 0 0 0 135
Business Administration & Management 0 60 0 70 0 130
Mental & Social Health Services 0 66 0 35 0 101
General Biology 0 90 0 9 0 99
Health & Physical Education 0 71 0 18 0 89
Communication Sciences 0 41 0 47 0 88
Other Health Professions 0 76 0 0 0 76
Teacher Education Subject Specific 0 40 8 21 0 69
Accounting 0 45 0 23 0 68
Student Counseling 0 0 0 68 0 68
Marketing 0 62 0 0 0 62
Computer Information Systems 0 61 0 0 0 61
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions 0 0 0 0 60 60
General Family & Consumer Sciences 0 48 0 9 0 57
Finance & Financial Management 0 56 0 0 0 56
Special Education 0 21 12 20 0 53
General Business/Commerce 0 51 0 0 0 51
Music 0 30 5 12 0 47
Educational Administration 0 0 34 11 0 45
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 0 39 0 5 0 44
Public Relations & Advertising 0 43 0 0 0 43
Liberal Arts General Studies 28 14 0 0 0 42
Writing Studies 0 38 0 3 0 41
Mathematics 0 32 0 4 0 36
Criminology 0 35 0 0 0 35
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services 0 34 0 0 0 34
General English Literature 0 26 0 5 0 31
Chemistry 0 31 0 0 0 31
Management Information Systems 0 30 0 0 0 30
Fine & Studio Arts 0 27 0 0 0 27
Allied Health Professions 0 26 0 0 0 26
Sociology 0 26 0 0 0 26
Economics 0 21 0 0 0 21
Entrepreneurial Studies 0 20 0 0 0 20
Journalism 0 20 0 0 0 20
Linguistics & Comparative Literature 0 20 0 0 0 20
History 0 17 0 1 0 18
Political Science & Government 0 17 0 0 0 17
Design & Applied Arts 0 17 0 0 0 17
Other Library & Archives Assisting 0 0 0 15 0 15
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology 0 0 9 0 6 15
Communication & Media Studies 0 14 0 0 0 14
Food, Nutrition & Related Services 0 0 0 12 0 12
Biological & Physical Science 0 12 0 0 0 12
Insurance 0 11 0 0 0 11
Natural Resources Conservation 0 11 0 0 0 11
Drama & Theater Arts 0 11 0 0 0 11
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 0 7 0 0 3 10
International Studies 0 9 0 0 0 9
Geography & Cartography 0 6 0 3 0 9
General Education 0 0 0 8 0 8
Physics 0 8 0 0 0 8
Public Administration 0 8 0 0 0 8
Computer Science 0 0 0 7 0 7
Religious Studies 0 6 0 0 0 6
Anthropology 0 5 0 0 0 5
Applied Mathematics 0 0 0 4 0 4
Philosophy 0 4 0 0 0 4
Instructional Media Design 0 0 0 3 0 3
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science 0 3 0 0 0 3
Engineering Physics 0 2 0 0 0 2
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods 0 0 1 0 0 1
Ethnic Studies 0 1 0 0 0 1
Romance Languages 0 0 0 1 0 1
Community Organization & Advocacy 0 0 0 1 0 1
Information Technology 0 0 0 0 0 0
Educational Assessment 0 0 0 0 0 0
Computer Engineering 0 0 0 0 0 0
Nutrition Science 0 0 0 0 0 0
Criminal Justice & Corrections 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 28 1,803 72 499 75 2,477

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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