Western Governors University Business Programs

Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, Western Governors University is a private not-for-profit institution. Salt Lake City is a good match for students who enjoy the safety and convenience of the suburbs.

Western Governors University Rankings

WGU landed the #139 spot in our 2023 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 1,477 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. It is also ranked #2 out of 9 schools in Utah.

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.

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#51	Best Business Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Value Management Information Systems Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Value Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Value Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Value Business Administration & Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best General Sales & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best Human Resource Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best Management Information Systems Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#24	Best Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#39	Best Business Administration & Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#62	Best Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Information Resources Management Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#2	Best Management Information Systems Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#110	Best Business Administration & Management Schools	College Factual
#120	Best Accounting Schools	College Factual
#123	Best Schools	Course Advisor
#141	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual

Where Is Western Governors University?

Contact details for WGU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	4001 South 700 East Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84107
Phone:	801-274-3280
Website:	www.wgu.edu
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/wgu.edu
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/wgu

How Do I Get Into WGU?

You can apply to WGU online at: wwwforms.wgu.edu/wgu/app/app_step0

Since Western Governors University has an open admissions policy, you should not have any trouble getting into the school as long as you have a high school diploma or the equivalent.

Can I Afford Western Governors University?

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 WGU, approximately 68% of students took out student loans averaging $5,590 a year. That adds up to $22,360 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at WGU is 3.0%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Western Governors University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are also 42,947 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 104,919 full-time undergraduates at WGU, 37% are male and 63% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Western Governors University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	3,562
Black or African American	9,971
Hispanic or Latino	11,484
White	63,686
International Students	89
Other Races/Ethnicities	16,127

Online Learning at Western Governors University

In 2019-2020, 147,866 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

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

Online Affordability Rankings of WGU Rankings

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Western Governors University was $6,670 for both in-state and out-of-state students. The following table shows how WGU is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Accounting	#1	#1
Accounting	#1	#1
General Sales & Marketing	#1	#1
General Management Information Systems	#1	#1
Interior Design Management	#1	#1
General Sales, Distribution, and Marketing Operations	#1	#1
Organizational Leadership	#4	#4
Management Information Systems	#4	#4
Information Resources Management	#4	#4
Human Resource Management	#7	#7
General Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration	#7	#7
Marketing/Marketing Management, General	#10	#7
Marketing	#10	#7
General Business Administration and Management	#13	#10
Business Administration & Management	#22	#13

Online Growth Rankings of WGU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Western Governors University was 15.2%. This is the #637 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at WGU regardless of major.

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at WGU ranks compared to all other mostly online schools that offer a specific major.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Information Resources Management	#5
General Sales, Distribution, and Marketing Operations	#21
General Sales & Marketing	#43
General Management Information Systems	#75
Interior Design Management	#79
Management Information Systems	#89
Organizational Leadership	#101
Marketing/Marketing Management, General	#123
Marketing	#150
General Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration	#151
Human Resource Management	#182
Accounting	#217
Accounting	#377

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%.

Western Governors University Business Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
General Business Administration and Management	3,061	2,958	6,019
Organizational Leadership	0	1,872	1,872
Accounting	1,183	331	1,514
General Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration	926	0	926
General Management Information Systems	776	0	776
Information Resources Management	0	677	677
Marketing/Marketing Management, General	673	0	673
General Sales, Distribution, and Marketing Operations	1	0	1
Interior Design Management	0	0	0
TOTAL	6,620	5,838	12,458

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

More about our data sources and methodologies.