by our College Data Analytics Team
In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
Columbia Southern University was awarded 137 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is homeland security, law enforcement & firefighting.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
Columbia Southern University is ranked #109 out of 2,152 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2025 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Columbia Southern University held the #114 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Columbia Southern University is also ranked #1 out of 42 schools in Alabama.
Columbia Southern University has an open admissions policy, so you should not have much trouble being accepted by the school. Still, it is important to fill out the application completely and submit any requested materials, which may include proof that you have a high school diploma or the equivalent.
At Columbia Southern University, the student to faculty ratio is 28 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.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at Columbia Southern University is 40%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 42% tells us that most first-year, full-time students don't stick around for a second year at Columbia Southern University. Students may have a variety of reasons for this, such as only intending to attend a school for one year while they brush up on certain subjects.
When we say that a student has graduated on time, we mean that they have finished their bachelor's degree within four years. The on-time graduation rate at Columbia Southern University is 15%. That's lower than the national rate of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Columbia Southern University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 13,254 undergraduates at Columbia Southern University with 6,866 being full-time and 6,388 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $11,883 | $11,793 | $13,522 | $12,881 | $15,942 |
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 Columbia Southern University, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Columbia Southern University, approximately 28% of students took out student loans averaging $6,041 a year. That adds up to $24,164 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for Columbia Southern University.
See which majors at Columbia Southern University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Columbia Southern University.
Contact details for Columbia Southern University are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 21982 University Lane, Orange Beach, AL 36561-9000 |
| Phone: | 251-981-3771 |
| Website: | www.columbiasouthern.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Business Administration & Management | 1,981 | $58,468 |
| Quality Control Technology | 1,247 | $78,532 |
| Fire Protection | 918 | $82,718 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 444 | $60,461 |
| Health & Medical Administrative Services | 214 | $51,692 |
| Homeland Security | 214 | $62,313 |
| Public Administration | 154 | NA |
| Human Resource Management | 144 | $53,843 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 129 | NA |
| Allied Health Professions | 113 | $83,927 |
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2022-2023, 15,948 students took at least one online class at Columbia Southern University. This is a decrease from the 16,412 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 15,948 | 15,948 |
| 2021-2022 | 16,412 | 16,412 |
| 2020-2021 | 18,533 | 18,533 |
| 2018-2019 | 21,104 | 21,104 |
Learn more about online learning at Columbia Southern University.
If you’re considering Columbia Southern University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against Columbia Southern University? 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!
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.