University of North Alabama
University of North Alabama is located in Florence, Alabama. It is a public, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: The University of North Alabama (UNA) is a public university in Florence, Alabama. It is the state’s oldest public university. Occupying a 130-acre (0.5 km2) campus in a residential section of Florence, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Tuscumbia, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals. The four cities compose a metropolitan area with a combined population of 140,000 people. The University of North Alabama was one of about 180 “normal schools” founded by state governments in the 19th century to train teachers for the rapidly growing public common schools. Some closed but most steadily expanded their role and became state colleges in the early 20th century and state universities in the late 20th century. It was founded as LaGrange College in 1830. It was reestablished in 1872 as the first state-supported teachers college south of the Ohio River. A year later, it became one of the nation’s first coeducational colleges.
Notes
These are items that bear looking into more closely.
- This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 52.3%, so approximately 1/2 of undergrads who enroll do not earn a bachelors degree from here.
Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.
Institution kind: Master’s Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs
Undergrad program: Professions plus arts & sciences, some graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Postbaccalaureate: Business-dominant, with Arts & Sciences
Enrollment profile: High undergraduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $9,837 . This is 50% the average cost of Harvard.
Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.
Size and setting: Four-year, medium, primarily residential
In state percentage: 78% of first year students come from Alabama
In US percentage: 96% of first year students come from the US
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 52.3% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 30.3%
Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 24%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 20.3 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 15.6 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Certificate of less than 1 year, Certificate of less than 12 weeks, Certificate of at least 12 weeks but less than 1 year, Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 2246 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 5.70 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.
Map
Comparisons
The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. In fields where there is a common view that higher (or lower) values are better, the best values are in blue, the worst values are in red. If there isn’t a sense of a particular value being better, values are shown in varying shades of green. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.
- University of North Alabama lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Nicholls State University, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Morehead State University, Auburn University at Montgomery
- University of North Alabama compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: University of West Georgia, Pittsburg State University, Jacksonville State University, Murray State University, Western Carolina University, Austin Peay State University
- These institutions compare themselves to University of North Alabama, but not vice versa: University of North Georgia, McNeese State University, University of Louisiana at Monroe, University of South Alabama, Southeastern Louisiana University, Rutgers University-Camden, Columbus State University, Arkansas Tech University, Fayetteville State University, Northwest Missouri State University, Valdosta State University, Alabama A & M University, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, University of West Alabama, California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt, Mississippi University for Women, University of North Texas at Dallas, Alabama State University, Davenport University
Enrollment
General
Teaching
Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.
Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.
Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.
Geography
This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated.
Financial Aid
Graduation
Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).
Library
Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.
Diversity
The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.
Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).
These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.
Overall diversity
Freshman profile
Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Freshman geography
Test scores
SAT scores
ACT scores
Majors
This presents information on the number of majors and the median earnings one and five years after graduation for people who got a degree from this institution in that field. The earnings are for those who are working and not enrolled in further education. The earnings data (from the federal college scorecard) also has information on earnings for those categorized as ‘MALE’ and ‘NOMALE’ – for readability, these are recategorized here as “Men” and “Women”, respectively, which adopts the gender binary used in other federal data. “W/M earnings ratio” is the median earnings of women divided by men, as a percentage.