OBJECTIVES: To assess the level of functional disability and health related quality of life (HRQoL) among West Virginia University (WVU) students. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among students enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and/or professional degree programs in WVU. An online self-administered survey was disseminated from July 2015 to December 2015. The online questionnaire consisted of a low back pain screening question, a numeric pain rating scale (0-10), where 0 represented no pain and 10 represented worst pain, the short form 8 (SF-8) HRQoL questionnaire and Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire. The SF-8 scores were converted to reflect the scores on 0-100 scale. RESULTS: Among 122 respondents who experienced low back pain in the past one month, the mean age was 26.7 years, majority were whites (78.69%) and undergraduates (80%). 31.2% of the respondents experienced low back pain for 1-7 days and 20.5% for more than one week. The mean (SD) intensity of low back pain among the students was 6.63 (2.20). Minimal to moderate functional disability was reported by 83.16% of the respondent; severe disability to cripple was reported by 16.84%. Results from the SF-8 questionnaire indicated mean (SD) for the physical functioning scale as 32.17 (22.84), physical role functioning scale as 28.51 (24.64), bodily pain scale as 48.4 (19.22), general health perception scale as 41.82 (21.76), emotional well-being scale as 45.86 (32.01), emotional role functioning scale as 32.23 (25.30), social functioning scale as 33.96 (25.27), energy or fatigue scale as 49.37 (20.44). For all the above-mentioned 8 scales from the SF-8, lower scores represented better health. CONCLUSIONS: There was a considerable proportion of WVU students with low back pain who were severely disabled to crippled and in whom duration of low back pain lasted for more than a week. This subset of students deserves more attention.