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Northwestern State University of Louisiana Data & Information Overview

96 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
96% Acceptance Rate
This overview covers the essential stats on Northwestern State University of Louisiana, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.
Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you’ll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump to any section on this page.

How Well Is Northwestern State University of Louisiana Ranked?

#1,478 Best Colleges in Nation
#13 Best Colleges in LA
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

College 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 Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

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.

Is It Hard to Get Into NSU?

96% Acceptance Rate
69% Of Accepted Are Women
3% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

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.

Average Test Scores

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.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Northwestern State University of Louisiana  ( 480 to 580 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Northwestern State University of Louisiana  ( 440 to 540 )
200
800
NSU received ACT scores from 88% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 16 and 22.

ACT Composite Scores for Northwestern State University of Louisiana  ( 16 to 22 )
1
36

Learn more about Northwestern State University of Louisiana admissions.

Northwestern State University of Louisiana Faculty

19 to 1 Student to Faculty
59% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

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.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

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%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  59 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Northwestern State University of Louisiana

64% Freshmen Retention
28% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

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%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  64 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

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%

On-Time Graduation Rate  28 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Northwestern State University of Louisiana.

Northwestern State University of Louisiana Undergraduate Student Diversity

6,163 Full-Time Undergraduates
46.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
70.0% Percent Women

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.

How Much Does Northwestern State University of Louisiana Cost?

$13,483 Net Price
66% Take Out Loans
$22,160 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of NSU is $13,483. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for NSU

$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.

Student Loan Debt

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.

How Much Money Do NSU Graduates Make?

$42,102 Avg Salary of Grads
Average Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from NSU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $42,102 in their early years. This is in the same neighborhood of the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year. However, certain majors may produce higher-paying graduates.

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See which majors at Northwestern State University of Louisiana make the most money.

Location of Northwestern State University of Louisiana

Louisiana State
6,163 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Northwestern State University of Louisiana is a public institution situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Natchitoches is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

Get more details about the location of Northwestern State University of Louisiana.

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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

Northwestern State University of Louisiana Majors

39 Majors With Completions
1,712 Undergraduate Degrees
256 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 39 majors graduated from Northwestern State University of Louisiana. Of these students, 1,712 received undergraduate degrees and 256 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

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

Learn more about the majors offered at Northwestern State University of Louisiana along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at NSU

88% Take At Least One Class Online
55% Take All Classes Online

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!

Notes and References

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.

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