Point Loma Nazarene University Overview (2024)

by our College Data Analytics Team

Unbiased Factual Guarantee

Get the facts about Point Loma Nazarene University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.

All you need to do to learn more about a stat is click on its tile, and you’ll be taken to another page that analyzes that data more closely. Also, you can use the links below to scroll to any section of this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning
• Related Schools

How Well Is Point Loma Nazarene University Ranked?

2024 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 245 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is registered nursing.

Overall Quality

PLNU is ranked #401 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when PLNU held the #450 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

PLNU also holds the #69 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.

See all of the rankings for Point Loma Nazarene University.

Is It Hard to Get Into PLNU?

Acceptance Rate

When it comes to admittance, Point Loma Nazarene University is somewhat selective. Its acceptance rate is 84%, which means you'll face some strong competition during the admissions process. Do what you can to make your application stand out.

Average Test Scores

About 15% of students accepted to PLNU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 600 and 680. Math scores were between 570 and 670.

PLNU received ACT scores from 10% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 22 and 30.

Learn more about Point Loma Nazarene University admissions.

Point Loma Nazarene University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 15 to 1, Point Loma Nazarene 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.

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%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Point Loma Nazarene University

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 84% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Point Loma Nazarene 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.

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at PLNU for first-time, full-time students is 68%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

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

Point Loma Nazarene University Undergraduate Student Diversity

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?

The overall average net price of PLNU is $34,575. 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

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 46% of students took out student loans averaging $8,117 a year. That adds up to $32,468 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at PLNU is 2.0%. 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 Point Loma Nazarene University.

How Much Money Do PLNU Graduates Make?

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from PLNU make around $59,862 per year during the early years of their employment. That's great news for PLNU students since it is 41% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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

Location of Point Loma Nazarene University

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.

Contact details for PLNU are given below.

Point Loma Nazarene University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 49 majors graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University. Of these students, 954 received undergraduate degrees and 410 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.

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

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 2020-2021, 1,660 students took at least one online class at Point Loma Nazarene University. This is an increase from the 1,595 students who took online classes the previous year.

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.

• Benedictine College
• Calvin University
• College of Saint Benedict
• Concordia College at Moorhead
• Saint Johns University

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

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By OperaSmorg under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.