Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern University is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is a private not-for-profit, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is a private research university with its main campus in Fort Lauderdale-Davie, Florida, United States, in the Miami metropolitan area. The university consists of 14 total colleges, offering over 150 programs of study. The university offers professional degrees in the social sciences, law, business, osteopathic medicine (DO), allopathic medicine (MD), health sciences, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, education, occupational therapy, and nursing. As of 2019, 20,576 students were enrolled at Nova Southeastern University, with more than 210,000 alumni. With a main campus located on 314 acres (127 hectares) in Davie, Florida, NSU operates additional campuses in Dania Beach and Tampa-Clearwater, and other locations throughout the state of Florida, as well as in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Denver, Colorado. The university was founded in 1964 as the Nova University of Advanced Technology on a former naval outlying landing field built during World War II and first offered graduate degrees in the physical and social sciences. In 1994, the university merged with the Southeastern University of the Health Sciences and assumed its current name. NSU is classified among “R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity”; it also classified as a “community engaged” university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and also has numerous additional specialized accreditations for its colleges and programs, including A.
Notes
These are items that bear looking into more closely.
“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color” according to an NAACP travel advisory of May 20, 2023.
This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 62%, so approximately 2/5 of undergrads who enroll do not earn a bachelors degree from here.
There are extremely few tenure-track faculty relative to the number of students. For something like an art or music school where instruction is done nearly entirely by rotating artists or musicians, this may be fine; for other schools, it can indicate a risk to academic freedom and thus educational quality, as faculty members may be able to lose their positions because of their speech, publications, or research findings.
Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.
Institution kind: Doctoral Universities: High Research Activity
Undergrad program: Balanced arts & sciences/professions, high graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Professional-dominant
Enrollment profile: Majority graduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $29,589 (1.5 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, large, primarily residential
In state percentage: 56% of first year students come from Florida
In US percentage: 95% of first year students come from the US
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 62% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 56.4%
Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 30%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 207.5 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 6.9 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice
Schedule: Trimester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 2740 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 5.21 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. 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.
- Nova Southeastern University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Northwestern University, New York University, University of Southern California, Northeastern University, Boston University, University of Miami, George Washington University, DePaul University, Drexel University, St. John’s University-New York
- These institutions compare themselves to Nova Southeastern University, but not vice versa: Regent University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach, Southeastern University, Peirce College, Capella University, American Public University System, Campbell University, Northeastern University Professional Programs, Walden University, South University-Tampa, Barry University, Chamberlain University-Florida, South University-Savannah, Strayer University-District of Columbia, Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Palm Beach Atlantic University, Midwestern University-Glendale, Midwestern University-Downers Grove, Western University of Health Sciences, The Chicago School at Los Angeles, Touro University Nevada, DeVry University-Florida, Fielding Graduate 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. The goal is to neutrally provide information: for example, some individuals want stringent gun control in an area, some want the opposite: the categories are meant to be descriptive.
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.