University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Nebraska-Lincoln is located in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is a public, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was the University of Nebraska until 1968, when it absorbed the Municipal University of Omaha to form the University of Nebraska system. It is the state’s oldest university and the flagship institution of the state-wide system. The university has been governed by the Board of Regents since 1871, whose members are elected by district to six-year terms. The university is organized into nine colleges: Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Architecture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Human Sciences, Engineering, Fine and Performing Arts, Journalism and Mass Communications, and Law. NU offers over two hundred degrees across its undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. The school also offers programs through the University of Nebraska Omaha College of Public Affairs and Community Service, the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry and College of Nursing, and the Peter Kiewit Institute, which is managed in partnership with the Kiewit Corporation. Nebraska is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”. According to the National Science Foundation, Nebraska spent $320 million on research and development in 2020. Between its three campus locations (City Campus, East Campus, and Nebraska Innovation Campus) the university has over one hundred classroom buildings and research facilities. The university’s enrollment in 2021 was 19,552 undergraduate students and 4,879 graduate students, with 1,595 full-time or part-time instructional faculty. Undergraduate admission to the school is considered “more selective.” Nebraska’s athletic programs, known as the Cornhuskers, compete in NCAA Division I and are a member of the Big Ten Conference. NU’s football team has won forty-six conference championships and claims five national championships, with an additional nine unclaimed. Twenty-five former Cornhuskers have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. A total of 111 former Nebraska student-athletes have combined to win fifty-four Olympic medals, including sixteen gold medals. Among approximately 300,000 Nebraska alumni are three Nobel laureates, four Pulitzer Prize winners, one Turing Award winner, and twenty-two Rhodes Scholars.
Notes
These are items that bear looking into more closely.
- This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 64.8%, so approximately 2/5 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 Universities: Very High Research Activity
Undergrad program: Professions plus arts & sciences, high graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Comprehensive programs, no medical/veterinary school
Enrollment profile: High undergraduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $16,805 . This is 90% 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, large, primarily residential
In state percentage: 73% of first year students come from Nebraska
In US percentage: 98% of first year students come from the US
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 64.8% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 46.4%
Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 23.3%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 18.6 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 14.0 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Certificate of less than 1 year, Certificate of at least 12 weeks but less than 1 year, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 6195 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 4.59 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.
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: University of Missouri-Columbia, Iowa State University, University of Iowa, University of Kansas
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Ohio State University-Main Campus, Purdue University-Main Campus, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University-Fort Collins
- These institutions compare themselves to University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but not vice versa: Brigham Young University, Florida State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Central Florida, University of Maryland-College Park, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Binghamton University, Stony Brook University, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville, University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus, Texas Tech University, Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University-Main Campus, University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, Temple University, George Mason University, Washington State University, Creighton University, The University of Texas at Arlington, Utah State University, Montana State University, University of Idaho, North Dakota State University-Main Campus, University of New Mexico-Main Campus, University of Wyoming, University of Akron Main Campus, Old Dominion University, CUNY Graduate School and University Center, Claremont 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.