Central Michigan University
Central Michigan University is located in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. It is a public, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: Central Michigan University (CMU) is a public research university in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. It was established in 1892 as the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute as a private normal school. After the Michigan State Board of Education took over governance of the school it became a state institution and was renamed Central State Normal School in 1895. The institution became a full university and gained its current name Central Michigan University in 1959 under the university’s 6th president Judson W. Foust. CMU is one of the eight research universities in Michigan and is classified among “R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity”. It has more than 15,000 students on its Mount Pleasant campus. CMU offers 200 academic programs at the undergraduate, masters, specialist, and doctoral levels, including programs in entrepreneurship, journalism, music, audiology, teacher education, psychology, and physician assistant. The School of Engineering and Technology has ABET accredited programs in mechanical, electrical, computer, and environmental engineering. CMU’s College of Medicine opened in fall 2013. The Central Michigan Chippewas compete in the NCAA Division I Mid-American Conference in six men’s and ten women’s sports. The university currently (as at February 2024) supports 70 public charter schools serving 29,000 students across Michigan These charter schools include: A.
Notes
These are items that bear looking into more closely.
This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 61.7%, so approximately 2/5 of undergrads who enroll do not earn a bachelors degree from here.
This institution’s full-time undergraduate enrollment has tended to decrease over time.
Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.
Institution kind: Doctoral Universities: High Research Activity
Undergrad program: Professions plus arts & sciences, some graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Comprehensive programs, with medical/veterinary school
Enrollment profile: High undergraduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $15,605 . This is 80% the average cost of Harvard.
Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.
Size and setting: Four-year, large, primarily residential
In state percentage: 90% of first year students come from Michigan
In US percentage: 98% of first year students come from the US
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 61.7% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 36.2%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 18.3 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 13.5 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Certificate of less than 1 year, Certificate of at least 12 weeks but less than 1 year, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 4650 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 7.34 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.
Map
Comparisons
The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.
- Central Michigan University lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Ball State University, Illinois State University, East Carolina University, Western Michigan University
- Central Michigan University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: James Madison University, University of Nevada-Reno, Middle Tennessee State University, Miami University-Oxford, Kent State University at Kent, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Ohio University-Main Campus, Bowling Green State University-Main Campus, Northern Illinois University, Eastern Michigan University
- These institutions compare themselves to Central Michigan University, but not vice versa: University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, University of Vermont, California State University-Fullerton, Rowan University, Texas State University, Northern Arizona University, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Western Kentucky University, Rutgers University-Newark, University of Northern Iowa, East Tennessee State University, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Saginaw Valley State University, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Old Dominion University, Pennsylvania Western University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide, Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Main Campus, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Saint Cloud State University, Walden University, Northwood University
Enrollment
General
Teaching
Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.
Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.
Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.
Geography
This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated. The goal is to neutrally provide information: for example, some individuals want stringent gun control in an area, some want the opposite: the categories are meant to be descriptive.
Financial Aid
Graduation
Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).
Library
Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.
Diversity
The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.
Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).
These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.
Overall diversity
Freshman profile
Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Freshman geography
Test scores
SAT scores
ACT scores
Majors
This presents information on the number of majors and the median earnings one and five years after graduation for people who got a degree from this institution in that field. The earnings are for those who are working and not enrolled in further education. The earnings data (from the federal college scorecard) also has information on earnings for those categorized as ‘MALE’ and ‘NOMALE’ – for readability, these are recategorized here as “Men” and “Women”, respectively, which adopts the gender binary used in other federal data. “W/M earnings ratio” is the median earnings of women divided by men, as a percentage.