Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio | Admissions Phone: 216-368-4450
E-mail: admission@case.edu | Website: www.case.edu
ADMISSION
Admission Rate: 29%
Admission Rate - Men: 29%
Admission Rate - Women: 30%
EA Admission Rate: 36%
ED Admission Rate: 42%
Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -13%
ED Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): Previously Not Offered
% of Admits Attending (Yield): 18%
Transfer Admission Rate: 23%
# Offered Wait List: 9,908
# Accepted Wait List: N/A
# Admitted Wait List: 0
SAT Reading/Writing (Middle 50%): 650-730
SAT Math (Middle 50%): 700-790
ACT Composite (Middle 50%): 30-34
Testing Policy: ACT/SAT Required
SAT Superscore: Yes
ACT Superscore: Yes
% Graduated in Top 10% of HS Class: 66%
% Graduated in Top 25% of HS Class: 92%
% Graduated in Top 50% of HS Class: 99%
ENROLLMENT
Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 5,262
% Part-Time: 3%
% Male: 55%
% Female: 45%
% Out-of-State: 72%
% Fraternity: 28%
% Sorority: 36%
% On-Campus (Freshman): 97%
% On-Campus (All Undergraduate): 80%
% African-American: 4%
% Asian: 21%
% Hispanic: 8%
% White: 47%
% Other: 5%
% Race or Ethnicity Unknown: 1%
% International: 14%
% Low-Income: 20%
ACADEMICS
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 11:1
% of Classes Under 20: 59%
% of Classes Under 40: 83%
% Full-Time Faculty: 78%
% Full-Time Faculty w/ Terminal Degree: 92%
Top Programs
Accounting
Biochemistry
Biology
Biomedical Engineering
Business Management
Electrical Engineering
Nursing
Retention Rate: 94%
4-Year Graduation Rate: 65%
6-Year Graduation Rate: 85%
Curricular Flexibility: Somewhat Flexible
Academic Rating: 
FINANCIAL
Institutional Type: Private
In-State Tuition: $50,450
Out-of-State Tuition: $50,450
Room & Board: $15,614
Required Fees: $1,029
Books & Supplies: $1,200
Avg. Need-Based Aid: $34,419
Avg. % of Need Met: 100%
Avg. Merit-Based Aid: $24,454
% Receiving Merit-Based Aid: 60%
Avg. Cumulative Debt: $31,820
% of Students Borrowing: 45%
CAREER
Who Recruits
1. Progressive Insurance
2. Lubrizol Corporation
3. Rockwell Automation
4. Amazon
5. The MetroHealth System
Notable Internships
1. Merck
2. Deloitte
3. MITRE
Top Industries
1. Business
2. Healthcare
3. Education
4. Engineering
5. Research
Top Employers
1. Cleveland Clinic
2. University Hospitals
3. Rockwell Automation
4. IBM
5. Microsoft
Where Alumni Work
1. Cleveland
2. New York City
3. San Francisco
4. Washington, DC
5. Chicago
Median Earnings
College Scorecard (Early Career): $74,600
EOP (Early Career): $73,400
PayScale (Mid-Career): $117,800
RANKINGS
Forbes: 100
Money: 320
U.S. News: 40 (T), National Universities
Wall Street Journal/THE: 52
Washington Monthly: 155, National Universities
Inside the Classroom
A private, midsize institution in Cleveland, Ohio, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a school whose reputation and selectivity are among the fastest risers in the nation. Long an engineering powerhouse with a rich history of technical education, there has been a recent, sharp rise in the caliber of students clamoring to join this undergraduate student body of just over 5,100. In fact, the university granted acceptance to close to three-quarters of applicants a mere decade ago; today, that figure is sliding toward one-quarter.
Unlike many schools of its ilk, CWRU has a single-door admission policy. Those accepted into the broader university are free to pursue any of the nearly one hundred areas of concentration. All students must complete four seminars called SAGEs (one first-year seminar, two university seminars, and one in the major), and two semesters of physical education. From there, most requirements are school/major specific. In their final year students must conquer the senior capstone, which can take many forms, but it must be designed in consultation with a faculty member.
Sporting an 11:1 faculty-to-student ratio, the university does a nice job keeping classes on the small side with 59 percent of course sections capped at nineteen and only 15 percent of courses having fifty students or more. An exceptional 83 percent of students have the opportunity to participate in undergraduate research as the school places heavy emphasis on experiential learning. The same goes for international experiences. Case Western has a high rate of undergraduates who elect to study abroad; just under half spend a semester in a foreign land.
The Weatherhead School of Management and the Case School of Engineering have stellar reputations within the worlds of employment and academia. Engineering is the most commonly conferred undergraduate degree at 33 percent followed by biology (11 percent), business (10 percent), the social sciences (8 percent), and computer science (6 percent). In a typical year Case Western produces between two and four Fulbright Scholars as well as Churchill Scholars and NSF Fellowship recipients. The school counts sixteen Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and faculty, past and present.
Outside the Classroom
The main campus covers 155 acres, not including a verdant 389-acre, university-owned farm located only ten miles away. Freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus and four-fifths of the overall undergraduate student body reside on the university’s grounds. First-year students live in one of four residential colleges designed to foster a sense of community and belonging. Greek life is thriving with twenty-seven fraternities and sororities attracting 28 percent of men and 36 percent of women. An academically focused student body does not pay a ton of attention to the school’s nineteen NCAA Division III sports teams. There are over 200 student-run groups, including plenty of opportunities for intramural athletics, volunteer work, and faith-based connections. CWRUbotix, the school’s robotics team, has placed near the top of various national competitions in recent years. Case Western’s proximity to downtown Cleveland makes off-campus excursions popular even though the immediate surroundings of East Cleveland are less than ideal. An endless array of restaurants, museums, concerts, and professional sporting events are easily within reach for those willing to take an occasional break from studying.
Career Services
The Career Center at CWRU includes twelve full-time staff members, equating to a student-to-advisor ratio of 420:1, a bit higher than the average institution included in this book. The office is guided by a Four-Phase Plan designed to cultivate career-oriented thinking from freshman through senior year. CWRU has implemented the Student Success Initiative in which each freshman is assigned to a “navigator,” a single staff person who remains the student’s contact throughout the student’s time at the school. Workshops are regularly offered on basic topics such as resume development, internship search strategies, interviewing, and graduate school preparation. Two major career fairs take place each year: the University Career Fair held in October and the Get Experienced! Internship & Career Fair held in February.
Annually, more than 300 employers, from global corporations to start-ups, conduct on-campus interviews with undergraduates. Case Western has fifteen official career center partners including IBM Watson Health, GE, Progressive Insurance, and Yelp. A healthy 81 percent of those landing jobs did so in an area relevant to their college major. Thanks to a strong emphasis on hands-on education, 98 percent of graduates report having the opportunity to engage in some type of experiential learning. Those opportunities include both traditional internships and more structured 560-hour practicums. Three-fifths of students complete at least one internship during their undergraduate years. In a given year, more than a handful of Case Western students land internships at organizations including NASA, Proctor & Gamble, Amazon, and Deloitte.
Professional Outcomes
Fifty-four percent of 2018 CWRU graduates head into the world of professional employment upon receiving their diplomas; only 6 percent were still looking for work six months after leaving the university. Members of the Class of 2018 enjoyed a median salary range of $55,000-$59,000 with engineering majors leading the way with a $65-$70K range, and arts and sciences grads earning the lowest salaries in the $35-40K range. The employers of the greatest number of graduates the previous year included the Cleveland Clinic (21), University Hospitals (20), Accenture (8), Microsoft (8), Deloitte (6), and Google (6). Many alumni also presently work for IBM, Medtronic, EY, and PwC. Nearly 40 percent work in the engineering field, 11 percent enter nursing, and 10 percent find employment in the research realm. A good number of alumni stay in the Cleveland area, but San Francisco and New York are other common destinations.
Of the 36 percent of graduates who decide to enroll in an advanced degree program after completing their undergraduate work, many are accepted by elite graduate schools. In 2017, an impressive number of grads were accepted to continue their studies at Columbia (12), Johns Hopkins (7), Cornell (6), Carnegie Mellon (5), Northwestern (5), and Penn (5). However, the most popular option is to continue studying at Case Western as 44 percent of those going on to graduate school elect to stay on the CMU campus. Of those going directly into graduate/professional studies, between 13 and 23 percent have gone on to medical school in recent years. Only 3 percent of those going to graduate school chose to pursue a law degree.
Admission
Case Western received a record 26,642 applications for admittance into its Class of 2022 and accepted an all-time low of 29 percent. For comparison, only a decade ago Case Western received a little over 7,300 applications and accepted 73 percent of those students. SAT/ACT scores in the 75th percentile for incoming freshmen back then would barely crack the 25th percentile now. Freshmen in 2018-19 boasted a middle-50 percent SAT of 1350-1520 and a 30-34 on the ACT, and roughly the same number of applicants submitted each standardized test. Nearly two-thirds of successful applicants finished in the top 10 percent of their high school classes and 92 percent placed in the top 25 percent.
This increasingly selective admissions committee ranks five factors as “very important”: rigor of secondary school record, class rank, GPA, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities. Essays, recommendation letters, interviews, volunteer work, ethnic status, talent/ability, and personal qualities comprise the second tier of considerations. Case Western offers an early action as well as ED I & ED II rounds. Those applying early find success at close to twice the rate of regular round applicants—42 percent versus 23 percent in applications for the Class of 2022. We often see schools make massive jumps in selectivity over the course of a generation where a warning of “This isn’t your mother’s/father’s fill-in-the-blank university” would be apt. Yet, with CWSU, “This isn’t your older sibling’s Case Western” is a far more accurate statement. Exponential leaps in the profile of the average accepted student have created an extremely competitive environment, so applying prior to the regular cycle is a much-needed admissions edge.
Worth Your Money?
A Case Western degree will cost you $69k per year if you do not qualify for any need-based or merit aid. Fortunately, there aren’t many students who fail to qualify for some sort of tuition reduction. Merit aid is awarded to 60 percent of current undergraduates, and the average award is a hefty $24,454. Need-based aid is awarded to 48 percent of students, and the average award is over $34k; the majority of those eligible see 100 percent of their demonstrated need met by the university. When all is said and done, graduates possess reasonable levels of postsecondary debt relative to the national average. Higher-than-average starting salaries make repaying those loans a doable task.