Admissions & selectivity
Western Washington University Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at Western Washington University?
Western Washington University’s reported acceptance rate is 93.2%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 93.2%
Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
Admission is broadly available in the reported applicant pool at Western Washington University, where the admission rate is 93.2%. That rate sits against the median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size), so the school admitted a larger share of applicants than its comparison group.
What SAT and ACT scores do Western Washington University students report?
The submitted-score profile at Western Washington University spans a fairly wide range among enrolled score senders. For SAT, the middle half of enrolled students who submitted scores fell between 1,150 and 1,390; the ACT middle half ran from 24 to 31.
These are the twenty-fifth through seventy-fifth percentiles of submitted scores, not admission minimums and not a profile of every enrolled student. Applicants should use the university's SAT range of 1,150 through 1,390 and ACT range of 24 through 31 as context when weighing their own submitted results.
The ranges show where the central portion of recent enrolled score submitters landed, leaving room on either side of those spans.
The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at Western Washington University. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.
- Approximate lower endpoint
- 1150
- Approximate upper endpoint
- 1390
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.
- 25th percentile
- 24
- 75th percentile
- 31
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff.
Figures cover fall 2024.
Who enrolls at Western Washington University?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 20.9%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 24.7%
- First-year retention
- 79.4%
Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.
About these student measures
The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.
Transfer entry is a visible part of the undergraduate mix at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. The public university enrolls 13,544 undergraduates, and an estimated 24.7% entered after beginning coursework elsewhere.
Pell Grants go to 20.9% of undergraduates, placing federal grant recipients alongside transfer students in the campus composition. That mix suggests attendance through more than one entry route, including direct entry and continued study after transfer.
Students who enroll face retention and completion rates below the medians for comparable institutions, although Pell recipients finish at a slightly higher rate than the overall cohort. Among full-time bachelor’s-seeking first-year students, 79.4% return for a second year, below the median of 83.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size).
The first-time full-time cohort’s 64.6% six-year graduation rate is also below the comparable-institution median of 65.0%. Pell recipients in that cohort have a 65.5% six-year completion rate, above the overall rate by 0.9 percentage points.
Enrolled students can expect completion to be tracked over six years, with persistence and overall completion both trailing the comparable medians.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.
Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.
Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.
Figure notes link to sources and limitations. About College Azimuth.