Western Kentucky University Business Programs

Located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Western Kentucky University is a public institution. The location of WKU is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

Western Kentucky University Rankings

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 WKU.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Most Popular Online Public Relations & Advertising Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Most Popular Public Relations & Advertising Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#48	Most Popular Online Business Administration & Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#173	Most Popular Business Administration & Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#2	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for General Organizational Communication	College Factual
#4	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication	College Factual
#4	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for Health Communication	College Factual
#12	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for Public Relations & Advertising	College Factual
#44	Best Business Administration & Management Associate Degree Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#76	Best Business, Management & Marketing Associate Degree Colleges for Veterans	College Factual

Where Is Western Kentucky University?

Contact details for WKU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1906 College Heights Blvd, Bowling Green, KY 42101-1000
Phone:	270-745-0111
Website:	www.wku.edu
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/WKUNews
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/wkunews

How Do I Get Into WKU?

You can apply to WKU online at: www.wku.edu/admissions/

Admission Requirements for WKU

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	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into WKU?

Since WKU has an acceptance rate of 98%, it is not too hard to gain acceptance into the school. Still, you need to be sure you complete your application in full and send in any other requested documents.

Approximately 36% of accepted students are men and 64% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 97%, and the acceptance rate for women is 98%.

Average Test Scores

About 10% of students accepted to WKU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 500 and 600. Math scores were between 480 and 580.

WKU received ACT scores from 95% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 19 and 27. Math scores were between 17 and 25. Composite scores were between 19 and 26.

Can I Afford Western Kentucky University?

The overall average net price of WKU is $30,246. 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 WKU, approximately 54% of students took out student loans averaging $6,946 a year. That adds up to $27,784 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at WKU is 6.9%. 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.

Western Kentucky University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 15,286 undergraduate students at WKU, with 11,749 being full-time and 3,537 being part-time.

There are also 2,231 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 11,749 full-time undergraduates at WKU, 40% are male and 60% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	292
Black or African American	1,093
Hispanic or Latino	509
White	9,135
International Students	184
Other Races/Ethnicities	536

Geographic Diversity

Kentucky students aren't the only ones who study at Western Kentucky University. At this time, 30 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 86 countries are represented at WKU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Saudi Arabia, China, and India.

Online Learning at Western Kentucky University

In 2019-2020, 14,933 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

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

Online Affordability Rankings of WKU

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Western Kentucky University was $10,802 for in-state students. Out-of-state students paid $26,496. The following table shows how WKU 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
Organizational Leadership	#7	#69
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#10	#13
Management Science	#10	#13
Management Information Systems	#37	#58
General Management Information Systems	#37	#52

Online Growth Rankings of WKU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Western Kentucky University was 6.9%. This is the #1,327 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at WKU regardless of major.

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

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Health Communication	#16
General Organizational Communication	#22
Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication	#24
Other Business, Management & Marketing	#41
Business Management & Marketing	#41
Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management	#61
Management Science	#69
General Management Information Systems	#70
Public Relations & Advertising	#90
Management Information Systems	#97
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#107
Organizational Leadership	#252

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 Kentucky University Business Concentrations

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

Major	Basic Certificate	Associate’s	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	TOTAL
Organizational Leadership	74	0	61	5	123	263
General Business Administration and Management	0	6	159	3	79	247
Management Science	106	0	32	0	0	138
Marketing/Marketing Management, General	0	0	104	0	0	104
Accounting	0	0	64	0	14	78
Finance	0	0	55	0	0	55
Advertising	0	0	33	0	0	33
Public Relations	0	0	33	0	0	33
General Hospitality Administration/Management	0	0	31	0	0	31
Econometrics & Quantitative Economics	0	0	19	1	9	29
General Organizational Communication	0	0	23	5	0	28
General Management Information Systems	0	0	23	0	0	23
International Business/Trade/Commerce	0	0	14	0	0	14
General Economics	0	0	13	0	0	13
Business Management & Marketing	8	0	0	4	0	12
Business Economics	0	0	11	0	0	11
Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication	0	0	0	10	0	10
Financial Planning & Services	8	0	0	0	0	8
Entrepreneurship	0	0	7	0	0	7
Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management	0	0	0	4	0	4
Health Communication	0	0	0	2	0	2
Real Estate	1	0	0	0	0	1
Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary	0	0	0	0	0	0
Applied Economics	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	197	6	682	34	225	1,144

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 OPMaster under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.