Gonzaga University

In the 2027 US News Best Colleges rankings, Gonzaga University placed 90th, recovering from 102nd in 2026 after sitting at 79th in 2020. Gaining admission is relatively accessible compared to peer institutions. In 2025, the university's acceptance rate reached 81.7%, which was higher than all peer schools in its comparison group of 30 private research universities. Meanwhile, the yield rate stood at 17.5%, indicating that fewer than one in five admitted students chose to enroll, though this was still higher than 60% of peer schools. For prospective applicants, these figures mean qualified students face favorable odds of acceptance, while the modest yield highlights that Gonzaga contends with substantial competition from other institutions when enrolling admitted candidates.

Applicants targeting Gonzaga University should prepare for a moderately competitive academic profile. For the class entering in 2025, enrolled students posted a median SAT composite score of 1290. For those submitting ACT scores, the middle 50% composite score range spanned 27 to 31. High school academic performance among admitted students is consistently solid. During the 2021-2022 cycle, 42.8% of incoming freshmen reported a high school GPA between 3.75 and 3.99, with additional students earning higher marks. Test submission rates have declined dramatically over the past decade, placing greater emphasis on classroom rigor and sustained secondary school achievement. Prospective candidates who present grades largely in the A range and test marks aligning with these mid-ranges match the university's typical academic profile.

Academic completions at Gonzaga University show moderate concentration around business, health sciences, and liberal arts. In 2025, the top three undergraduate programs accounted for 38.6% of all bachelor's recipients. General Business and Commerce was by far the largest undergraduate major, awarding 295 degrees, followed by General Psychology and General Biology. Gonzaga's largest undergraduate fields align closely with its highest-ranked programs. In the 2027 US News rankings, undergraduate entrepreneurship placed 17th, business administration ranked 23rd, accounting ranked 24th, and nursing ranked 56th. Registered Nursing also led master's completions, while Law dominated doctoral awards. Post-graduation earnings data from 2023 highlight strong compensation in professional disciplines, led by Registered Nursing with median early earnings of $93,623. For applicants, these patterns confirm that Gonzaga's greatest institutional prominence and career returns center on business and clinical healthcare fields.

Gonzaga University enrolled 7,470 students in 2025 across undergraduate and graduate divisions. Domestic White students form the majority across campus, comprising roughly six in ten students. Asian and international students represent modest shares of the student body. In the incoming freshman class, Asian students numbered 79 (6.3%), while international students totaled 19 (1.5%). Both groups also make up single-digit shares among continuing undergraduates and graduate students, where counts remain under a few hundred each. Hispanic students represent the largest domestic minority group at the university, while female students make up more than half of undergraduates and a substantial majority of the graduate population.

The age distributions at Gonzaga University reveal distinct demographic environments between undergraduates and graduate students. In 2025, undergraduates were overwhelmingly of traditional college age. Students aged 20 to 21 constituted 45.7% of the undergraduate body, while those aged 18 to 19 made up 44.9%, leaving only a small fraction older than 21. This concentration means undergraduate academic life is structured around students directly continuing from secondary education. In contrast, graduate programs support a wide age spectrum. Students aged 22 to 24 represented 23.0% of graduate enrollment, while those aged 25 to 29 comprised 22.2%, and individuals aged 40 to 49 made up another substantial segment. This spread indicates that graduate study serves both recent college graduates and mid-career adults balancing further education with established professional backgrounds.

International representation at Gonzaga University has followed divergent trends across degree levels over the past decade. Undergraduate international enrollment expanded between 2016 and 2025, bringing the undergraduate international share to 4.9%. Conversely, graduate international enrollment contracted over the same decade, settling at 6.6% in 2025. Among 2025 degree recipients, international students represented a small minority of bachelor's graduates but had a larger presence at the master's level. By field of study, undergraduate international graduates concentrated most heavily in Computer Science, where they comprised 15.5% of degree recipients, followed by business. At the master's level, international representation was highest in Counselor Education, where international students accounted for 67.6% of graduates, as well as in sport administration and business administration.

Applicants exploring Gonzaga University in Spokane can consider several higher education institutions within the surrounding region. Roughly 66 kilometers away, Washington State University is a public research institution ranked 191st in the 2027 US News National University rankings. Across the state line about 67 kilometers away, University of Idaho ranks 208th among national universities. Students interested in a focused liberal arts setting will find Whitman College approximately 119 kilometers from Gonzaga; it holds the 78th spot in the National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking. Further west toward the Puget Sound area, roughly 228 kilometers away, University of Washington-Seattle Campus offers a large public option ranked 49th nationally, providing diverse academic environments across the Pacific Northwest.

Campus safety data at Gonzaga University show an overall decrease in violations over the past decade. The crime rate per 1,000 students declined from 27.9 in 2016 to 16 in 2025. Documented infractions between 2023 and 2025 were dominated by substance-related disciplinary violations, specifically 1,097 alcohol referrals and 170 drug referrals across those three years. Property crimes and interpersonal offenses occurred at far lower frequencies during the same period, with small counts of thefts, motor vehicle thefts, stalking, and rape reported on campus. For students and parents evaluating the campus environment, these records show that disciplinary handling of alcohol policy violations forms the predominant share of reported safety incidents, rather than serious property damage or violent crime.