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Point Loma Nazarene University Data & Information Overview

39 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
82% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Point Loma Nazarene University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Point Loma Nazarene University Ranked?

#420 Best Colleges in Nation
#58 Best Colleges in CA
General Education Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2025 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Point Loma Nazarene University was awarded 39 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general education.

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked PLNU as #420 out of 2,152 colleges and universities in the country on its 2025 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation.

PLNU is also ranked #58 out of 161 schools in California.

See all of the rankings for Point Loma Nazarene University.

Is It Hard to Get Into PLNU?

82% Acceptance Rate
65% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

When it comes to admittance, Point Loma Nazarene University is somewhat selective. Its acceptance rate is 82%, 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 Point Loma Nazarene University admissions.

Point Loma Nazarene University Faculty

13 to 1 Student to Faculty
100% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Point Loma Nazarene University, this ratio is 13 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Point Loma Nazarene University is 100%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  100 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Point Loma Nazarene University

85% Freshmen Retention
65% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Point Loma Nazarene University has a freshmen retention rate of 85%. 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  85 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At PLNU the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 65%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  65 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Point Loma Nazarene University Undergraduate Student Diversity

2,543 Full-Time Undergraduates
40.6% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
66.1% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,216 undergraduates at PLNU with 2,543 being full-time and 673 being part-time.

How Much Does Point Loma Nazarene University Cost?

$34,111 Net Price
49% Take Out Loans
$30,044 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of PLNU is $34,111. 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 PLNU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$26,481 $27,660 $30,305 $32,035 $37,554

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

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At PLNU, approximately 49% of students took out student loans averaging $7,511 a year. That adds up to $30,044 over four years for those students.

Get more details about paying for Point Loma Nazarene University.

How Much Money Do PLNU Graduates Make?

$63,998 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from PLNU make around $63,998 per year during the early years of their employment. That's great news for PLNU students since it is 30% more than the average college graduate's salary of $49,219 per year.

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See which majors at Point Loma Nazarene University make the most money.

Location of Point Loma Nazarene University

California State
2,543 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
Point Loma Nazarene University is a private not-for-profit institution located in San Diego, California. San Diego is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

Get more details about the location of Point Loma Nazarene University.

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Contact details for PLNU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 3900 Lomaland Dr, San Diego, CA 92106-2899
Phone: 619-849-2200
Website: www.pointloma.edu/

Point Loma Nazarene University Majors

48 Majors With Completions
2,684 Undergraduate Degrees
2,684 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 48 majors graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University. Of these students, 2,684 received undergraduate degrees and 2,684 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
Business Administration & Management 236 $48,397
Nursing 158 $97,296
General Education 117 NA
Human Development & Family Studies 95 $27,037
Health & Physical Education 80 NA
General Psychology 67 $27,724
Allied Health Professions 61 $29,523
Teacher Education Grade Specific 59 $46,986
General Biology 54 $34,943
Criminal Justice & Corrections 37 $45,022

Learn more about the majors offered at Point Loma Nazarene University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at PLNU

42% Take At Least One Class Online
12% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2022-2023, 1,799 students took at least one online class at Point Loma Nazarene University. This is an increase from the 1,660 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2022-2023 1,799 537
2021-2022 1,660 459
2020-2021 1,595 274
2018-2019 1,027 200

Learn more about online learning at Point Loma Nazarene University.

If you’re considering Point Loma Nazarene University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against PLNU? 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.

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