by our College Data Analytics TeamCollege Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.
Northwestern State University of Louisiana was awarded 96 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is liberal arts / sciences & humanities.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
NSU is ranked #1,478 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when NSU held the #1,664 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
NSU is also ranked #13 out of 29 schools in Louisiana.
See all of the rankings for Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
Because it has a high acceptance rate of 96%, some consider NSU to be a safety school. But don't just assume that admittance is in the bag. Make sure to spend enough time on your application so that it is in tip-top shape.
About 3% of students accepted to NSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 480 and 580. Math scores were between 440 and 540.
Learn more about Northwestern State University of Louisiana admissions.
At Northwestern State University of Louisiana, the student to faculty ratio is 19 to 1. Compared to the national average of 15 to 1, this is somewhat high. This could mean that class sizes may be larger than they are at other colleges or universities or that professors may be required to teach more classes.
Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.
The full-time faculty percentage at Northwestern State University of Louisiana is 59%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Northwestern State University of Louisiana is 64%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from NSU have a four-year graduation rate of 28%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 10,321 undergraduates at NSU with 6,163 being full-time and 4,158 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $12,256 | $12,393 | $14,621 | $16,071 | $15,754 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of NSU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At NSU, approximately 66% of students took out student loans averaging $5,540 a year. That adds up to $22,160 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at NSU is 9.4%. This is about the same as the national default rate of 10.1%.
Get more details about paying for Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
See which majors at Northwestern State University of Louisiana make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
Contact details for NSU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 175 Sam Sibley Drive, Natchitoches, LA 71497-0002 |
| Phone: | 318-357-6011 |
| Website: | https://www.nsula.edu/ |
| Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/NorthwesternState |
| Twitter: | http://twitter.com/nsula |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing | 279 | $63,885 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 139 | $29,380 |
| Business Administration & Management | 104 | $33,378 |
| General Psychology | 94 | $26,391 |
| General Biology | 87 | $21,223 |
| Social Work | 56 | $25,591 |
| Allied Health Professions | 54 | $52,493 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 49 | $27,145 |
| Human Development & Family Studies | 49 | NA |
| Accounting | 41 | $41,552 |
Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.
In 2020-2021, 9,463 students took at least one online class at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. This is a decrease from the 10,430 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 9,463 | 5,928 |
| 2019-2020 | 10,430 | 5,725 |
| 2018-2019 | 8,906 | 4,539 |
| 2017-2018 | 9,019 | 4,667 |
| 2016-2017 | 8,224 | 4,151 |
Learn more about online learning at Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
If you’re considering Northwestern State University of Louisiana, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against NSU? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.