College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
       Unbiased Factual Guarantee

Northern Arizona University Data & Information Overview

440 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
78% Acceptance Rate
Want the scoop on Northern Arizona University? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors NAU offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

How Well Is Northern Arizona University Ranked?

#278 Best Colleges in Nation
#5 Best Colleges in AZ
Teacher Education Grade Specific Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

Northern Arizona University was awarded 440 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is teacher education grade specific.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

NAU is ranked #278 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when NAU held the #311 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

NAU also holds the #5 spot on the Best Colleges in Arizona ranking.

See all of the rankings for Northern Arizona University.

Is It Hard to Get Into NAU?

78% Acceptance Rate
67% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

When it comes to admittance, Northern Arizona University is somewhat selective. Its acceptance rate is 78%, which means you'll face some strong competition during the admissions process. Do what you can to make your application stand out.

Learn more about Northern Arizona University admissions.

Northern Arizona University Faculty

21 to 1 Student to Faculty
68% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Northern Arizona University is 21 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1. This may indicate that some of your classes will be larger in size than they would be at other schools. However, upper level classes will probably be smaller.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Northern Arizona University is 68%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  68 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Northern Arizona University

74% Freshmen Retention
41% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Northern Arizona University has a freshmen retention rate of 74%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  74 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at NAU for first-time, full-time students is 41%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  41 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Northern Arizona University.

Northern Arizona University Undergraduate Student Diversity

20,642 Full-Time Undergraduates
39.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
63.1% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 25,228 undergraduates at NAU with 20,642 being full-time and 4,586 being part-time.

How Much Does Northern Arizona University Cost?

$14,308 Net Price
36% Take Out Loans
$26,492 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of NAU is $14,308. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for NAU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$10,520 $11,320 $14,142 $17,920 $19,585

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 NAU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At NAU, approximately 36% of students took out student loans averaging $6,623 a year. That adds up to $26,492 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at NAU is 4.6%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Northern Arizona University.

How Much Money Do NAU Graduates Make?

$46,950 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from NAU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $46,950 in their early years. This is good news for future NAU graduates since it is 11% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

undefined

See which majors at Northern Arizona University make the most money.

Location of Northern Arizona University

Arizona State
20,642 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
Northern Arizona University is a public institution situated in Flagstaff, Arizona. The location of NAU is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

Get more details about the location of Northern Arizona University.

undefined

Contact details for NAU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1900 S Knoles Dr, Babbitt Administrative Center, Room 200, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4092
Phone: 928-523-9011
Website: https://nau.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Arizona-University/17091779559
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NAU

Northern Arizona University Majors

88 Majors With Completions
6,240 Undergraduate Degrees
1,547 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 88 majors graduated from Northern Arizona University. Of these students, 6,240 received undergraduate degrees and 1,547 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Nursing 526 $63,687
Liberal Arts General Studies 498 $35,678
General Biology 461 $28,362
General Psychology 361 $28,427
Business Administration & Management 328 $43,418
Teacher Education Grade Specific 288 $38,858
Criminology 281 $32,280
Public Health 280 $37,324
Hospitality Management 210 $37,974
Social Work 174 $33,882

Learn more about the majors offered at Northern Arizona University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at NAU

55% Take At Least One Class Online
22% Take All Classes Online

Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.

In 2020-2021, 15,811 students took at least one online class at Northern Arizona University. This is a decrease from the 17,340 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 15,811 6,208
2019-2020 17,340 6,363
2018-2019 14,098 6,183
2017-2018 13,328 6,304
2016-2017 13,094 6,594

Learn more about online learning at Northern Arizona University.

If you’re considering Northern Arizona University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against NAU? 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!

Notes and References

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.

Popular Reports

College Rankings
Best by Location
Degree Guides by Major
Graduate Programs

Compare Your School Options