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?
- The highest award offered at UCA is the doctor's degree.
- For the 2017-2018 academic year, 77% of the faculty were full-time.
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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.
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?

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?
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.
Can I Afford University of Central Arkansas?
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

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.

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

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

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.
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 Steve Wright Jr. (flickr user: Wright Way Photography) under License
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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