Notes

These are items that bear looking into more closely.

• This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 77.8%, so approximately 1/5 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: Doctoral/Professional Universities

• Undergrad program: Professions plus arts & sciences, some graduate coexistence

• Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Single program-Education

• Enrollment profile: Majority undergraduate (see more details below)

• Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $31,803 (1.6 times the equivalent 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, highly residential

• In state percentage: 25% of first year students come from Alabama

• In US percentage: 99% of first year students come from the US

• This institution has a religious affiliation of Baptist

• Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 77.8% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)

• Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 69.5%

• Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 13.7 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]

• Student to faculty ratio: 10.0 (undergrads to all faculty)

• Degrees offered: Certificate of at least 1 year but less than 2 years, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice

• Schedule: Four-one-four plan

• Institution provides on campus housing: Yes

• Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 2375 students

• Freshmen required to live on campus: No

• Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes

• Disabilities: 15.85 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.

Map

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Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap, ODbL

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.

• Samford University lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Furman University, Butler University, Belmont University, Nazareth University, Valparaiso University, Stetson University, Westminster University
• Samford University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: University of Notre Dame, Tulane University of Louisiana, Rice University, Emory University, Brigham Young University, Wake Forest University, Davidson College, Baylor University, Texas Christian University, University of San Diego, Pepperdine University, Appalachian State University, Elon University, Wofford College, Georgia Southern University, Ithaca College, College of Charleston, The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, University of Scranton, Drury University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Central College, The Catholic University of America, Western Carolina University, John Carroll University, Manhattan College, Citadel Military College of South Carolina, Wagner College, University of Redlands, Pacific Lutheran University, Russell Sage College, Hamline University, Widener University, University of Evansville, Arcadia University, Hampton University
• These institutions compare themselves to Samford University, but not vice versa: The University of Tampa, Mississippi College, William Carey University, University of St Thomas, Union University, Ohio Northern University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, Drake University, Calvin University, St. John Fisher University, Ouachita Baptist University, Miles College, Abilene Christian University, Covenant College, Bob Jones University, Seattle Pacific University, Point University, Campbell University, Carson-Newman University, The College of Saint Rose, Baptist University of Florida, Xavier University of Louisiana, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Lincoln Memorial University, Faulkner University, Shorter University, Azusa Pacific University, University of Charleston, Lynn University, Palm Beach Atlantic University, Houston Christian 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