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.
Samford University was awarded 104 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is nursing.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
College Factual ranked Samford as #261 out of 2,198 colleges and universities in the country on its 2025 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation.
Samford also holds the #5 spot on the Best Colleges in Alabama ranking.
When it comes to admittance, Samford University is somewhat selective. Its acceptance rate is 83%, which means you'll face some strong competition during the admissions process. Do what you can to make your application stand out.
About 26% of students accepted to Samford submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 550 and 650. Math scores were between 530 and 620.
The student to faculty ratio at Samford University is about average at 14 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.
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 Samford University is 100%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Samford University has a freshmen retention rate of 91%. 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.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Samford for first-time, full-time students is 66%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Samford University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,576 undergraduates at Samford with 3,501 being full-time and 75 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $23,359 | $25,342 | $28,422 | $32,460 | $33,463 |
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 Samford, 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 Samford, approximately 33% of students took out student loans averaging $7,815 a year. That adds up to $31,260 over four years for those students.
Get more details about the location of Samford University.
Contact details for Samford are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 800 Lakeshore Drive, Birmingham, AL 35229-2240 |
| Phone: | 205-726-2011 |
| Website: | www.samford.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing | 274 | NA |
| Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences | 214 | NA |
| Law | 143 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 87 | NA |
| Marketing | 57 | NA |
| Finance & Financial Management | 50 | NA |
| Accounting | 49 | NA |
| General Psychology | 40 | NA |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 40 | NA |
| Communication Sciences | 39 | NA |
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, 1,018 students took at least one online class at Samford University. This is a decrease from the 1,684 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 1,018 | 218 |
| 2021-2022 | 1,684 | 379 |
| 2020-2021 | 2,140 | 535 |
| 2018-2019 | 1,691 | 651 |
If you’re considering Samford University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against Samford? 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.