Portland State University

Public · Moderately Selective · OR

Photo: Another Believer (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePublic

LocationOR · West

SettingUrban

Undergrads13,182

Student:faculty17:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate34%

6-yr grad rate52.7%

Drop-out rate23.9%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$12k

Out-of-state tuition$31k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity53.5%

Gender diversity56.2%

International2.6%

Identity—

Overview

Portland State is built into downtown Portland's South Park Blocks rather than set apart in a self-contained campus, and its motto, "Let Knowledge Serve the City," is a genuine organizing principle rather than a slogan. It serves an unusually nontraditional student population — many transfers, working adults, and career-changers alongside students straight out of high school — with the city itself functioning as an extension of the classroom.

Academics

Urban planning, through the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, is a nationally recognized strength, alongside social work and a well-regarded School of Business; community-based, project-driven learning is formalized university-wide through PSU's University Studies program, which requires most students to complete community-engaged capstone coursework rather than a conventional senior thesis. The urban setting gives these programs unusually direct access to real city agencies, nonprofits, and businesses as partners rather than case studies.

Campus & student life

Because the campus is woven into downtown blocks, MAX light rail and streetcar lines run directly through it, and student life looks different from a traditional residential university — less centered on a quad and dorms, more connected to the city's transit, restaurants, and neighborhoods. The campus's Saturday farmers market on the Park Blocks is a long-running local institution, and Viking athletics compete in the Big Sky Conference, giving the school modest game-day traditions layered onto its urban identity.

Getting in

Admission is accessible and genuinely welcoming to transfer students and older applicants, reflecting a mission built around serving a broad, nontraditional population rather than screening for a narrow traditional-freshman profile. Its articulation agreements with Oregon community colleges, especially Portland Community College, make transferring in with junior standing especially smooth, and credit transfer and returning-adult support are treated as core institutional functions rather than side services layered on top of a traditional admissions office.

After graduation

Graduates in urban planning and social work move directly into Portland-area city government, nonprofits, and regional planning agencies, aided by the program's community-partnership model, while business graduates draw on the university's downtown location for internships with the city's employers. PSU's alumni network is unusually dense inside local and regional government roles specifically, a natural result of decades of community-based coursework feeding directly into those same institutions.

Worth knowing

PSU is a strong fit for students who want to be self-directed in a real city rather than a campus bubble, and its transfer-friendly, adult-learner-oriented culture — plus the university-wide community-engagement requirement — sets it apart from more traditional four-year publics in Oregon.

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Admissions

Acceptance rate90.9%

Enrolled mid-50%1110

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying