Notes

These are items that bear looking into more closely.

• This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 47.8%, so approximately 1/2 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: Master’s Colleges & Universities: Small Programs

• Undergrad program: Balanced arts & sciences/professions, some graduate coexistence

• Graduate program: Postbaccalaureate: Business-dominant, with Arts & Sciences

• Enrollment profile: Very high undergraduate (see more details below)

• Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $9,827 . This is 50% 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, small, primarily residential

• In state percentage: 64% of first year students come from West Virginia

• In US percentage: 100% of first year students come from the US

• Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 47.8% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)

• Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 34.8%

• Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 10.8%

• Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 19.0 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]

• Student to faculty ratio: 16.2 (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: professional practice

• Schedule: Semester

• Institution provides on campus housing: Yes

• Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 1074 students

• Freshmen required to live on campus: No

• Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes

• Disabilities: 7.90 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.

Map

+−

Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap, ODbL

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. In fields where there is a common view that higher (or lower) values are better, the best values are in blue, the worst values are in red. If there isn’t a sense of a particular value being better, values are shown in varying shades of green. 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.

• Shepherd University lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Eastern Connecticut State University, Lander University, University of South Carolina Aiken, Athens State University, Keene State College, Indiana University-East, University of Maine at Farmington, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
• Shepherd University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Eastern New Mexico University-Main Campus, SUNY Oneonta, University of Arkansas at Monticello, Fort Valley State University, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Shawnee State University, Langston University, University of Mary Washington, University of North Carolina Asheville, Longwood University, Bemidji State University, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, California State University-Monterey Bay, Francis Marion University, SUNY Old Westbury, University of Hawaii at Hilo, Black Hills State University, Fort Lewis College, Elizabeth City State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Western Colorado University, Mississippi Valley State University, Lewis-Clark State College, Eastern Oregon University
• These institutions compare themselves to Shepherd University, but not vice versa: University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo, Dakota State University, West Virginia University Institute of Technology, Dickinson State University, University of South Carolina-Upstate, Louisiana State University-Alexandria, Indiana University-Kokomo, Midwestern State University, Missouri Southern State University, Lincoln University, Concord University, Mississippi University for Women, Shenandoah University, University of Hawaii-West Oahu, University of Wisconsin-Superior, The Evergreen State College, Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Mont Alto

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.

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