by our College Data Analytics TeamCollege 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 Kentucky University was awarded 37 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is liberal arts general studies.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
NKU landed the #842 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking.
NKU is also ranked #5 out of 39 schools in Kentucky.
Northern Kentucky University has an acceptance rate of 86%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you're a good fit for NKU.
About 8% of students accepted to NKU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 510 and 600. Math scores were between 520 and 690.
With a student to faculty ratio of 17 to 1, Northern Kentucky University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.
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 Kentucky University is 97%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 77% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Northern Kentucky University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.
When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from NKU have a four-year graduation rate of 28%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Northern Kentucky University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 11,507 undergraduates at NKU with 8,024 being full-time and 3,483 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $466 | $2,082 | $6,219 | $10,860 | $12,744 |
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 NKU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 NKU, approximately 42% of students took out student loans averaging $6,037 a year. That adds up to $24,148 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for Northern Kentucky University.
See which majors at Northern Kentucky University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Northern Kentucky University.
Contact details for NKU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, KY 41099 |
| Phone: | 859-572-5100 |
| Website: | www.nku.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing | 1,113 | $68,649 |
| Business Administration & Management | 413 | $44,564 |
| General Business/Commerce | 277 | $48,654 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 164 | $38,059 |
| Social Work | 145 | $37,037 |
| Law | 119 | NA |
| Computer Information Systems | 114 | $62,411 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 103 | $37,602 |
| General Psychology | 101 | $36,209 |
| Health Sciences & Services | 76 | $58,970 |
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 2022-2023, 11,626 students took at least one online class at Northern Kentucky University. This is a decrease from the 12,105 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 11,626 | 6,567 |
| 2021-2022 | 12,105 | 6,629 |
| 2020-2021 | 15,166 | 7,835 |
| 2018-2019 | 7,567 | 2,740 |
Learn more about online learning at Northern Kentucky University.
If you’re considering Northern Kentucky University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against NKU? 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.