Getting To Know: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is one of the more interesting public universities, not only for its football history, but also for costs, regional appeal and alumni loyalty. It is the most affordable, and probably the most accessible, university in the Big Ten, an academic conference as well as a competitive sports conference. I also culled photos from all over Pinterest to share. I also need to thank my colleague, Stefanie Abrams, for the photo of Memorial Stadium that appears up top. With over 87,000 seats and the university’s football history, I felt that it was the signature building on campus. It is also the third largest community in Nebraska on game day. The university gained additional fame early this year when the university choir was chosen to sing for the Presidential Inauguration cronies in Washington DC.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been the lowest-ranked school in the Big 10 in US News published rankings.
Reputation surveys, graduation and retention rates and faculty resources hurt the school’s ranking versus other large public and private universities. Nebraska is also unfairly mocked—there is, for example, a phrase: Where The ’N’ Stands for Knowledge—though it offers a less intimidating campus experience compared against much larger Big Ten schools such as Penn State, Michigan State, Minnesota or Ohio State. Nebraska does, however, offer much of the same “spirit and sports” vibe that you will find at these larger universities, as well as the same parking problems, although there are far fewer students on campus.
As I looked through the data that I seek and review after visiting other schools, I found some interesting points about the University of Nebraska’s flagship campus.
Over 40 percent of the students from Nebraska who are offered admission decide to enroll.
That’s really high for a state university that accepted over three quarters of all applicants.Just over a fifth of the non-resident students who are accepted deposited as well. That’s about average across the full freshman class for a flagship state school. The overall yield, at 33 percent, is one of the highest among public universities in the US. About a quarter of the freshmen come from other states.
One important point: it helps most applicants to submit test scores. Eighty-three percent of the Class of 2027 submitted ACT scores. Test scores were also considered Very Important on the university’s Common Data Set. The middle 50 percenthad an ACT Composite score between 22 and 28.
One thing that helps the yield: The University of Nebraska is a member of the Midwest Student Exchange..
The Exchange offers discounted tuition and fees to non-resident students from seven other states. These include, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, all home to Big Ten rivals. The states also include Kansas, Missouri and North Dakota. The University of Nebraska, University of Kansas and the University of North Dakota are the only three flagship campuses that participate in the Exchange.
This school faces difficult decisions on costs versus resources.
Taking the side of costs is not necessarily a bad thing. Tuition and fees for a Nebraska resident are approximately $10,500 and that’s before scholarships. Non-resident charges start at $28,600. About 30 percent of the Class of 2027 received some form of merit based scholarship. t is quite possible for a non-resident B+/A- student to earn, and keep, a fairly generous academic scholarship that s/he might not receive at another Big Ten campus. Those who are sold on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln should apply early not only for admission but also to complete the Supplemental Scholarship Application.
Cornhuskers who need to borrow also graduate with less debt than most college graduates. Members of the Class of 2023 who borrowed owed less than $24,000. The maximum that they could have borrowed over four years was $27,000. About half graduated with no debt at all.
But when you aim to keep costs down, services might be sacrificed.
reshman retention was most recently 86 percent, lowest in the Big Ten. Only recently did the University of Nebraska graduate half a class in four years. The University of Iowa reported that 80 percent of its classes have fewer than 30 students. For Nebraska it’s 59 percent, same as Ohio State, which has the largest undergraduate student body in the Big Ten. For comparison, the University of Oregon, which has about 20,000 undergrads, reports that two-thirds of its classes have fewer than 30 students.
The university recently announced more plans to cut costs. including the elimination of six academic departments and consolidation of several others, Reductions in undergraduate and graduate enrollment are partly to blame.
There are also more majors than there are at most other Big Ten schools,.
This is partly because the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is the flagship as well as the Federal Land Grant University for its state.. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln also has a relatively large residential honors program, welcoming nearly 600 freshmen eac year, encompassing about ten percent of the undergraduate student body. There are also honors programs in the Raikes School of Computer Science and Management as well as the business school.
Lincoln is a large metropolitan area by Nebraska standards.
The metro area has over 345,000 residents, with 290,000 in the city itself. That’s larger than Ann Arbor, East Lansing or Madison (WI), which are hosts to much larger universities in the Big Ten. Like Columbus, Madison and Minneapolis, Lincoln is the state capital as well as a major city in the state. Major industries besides education and state government included finance, health care, retail and transportation, among others. The university has a walk-into-downtown campus much like Indiana or Iowa. While rents are lower than they would be in much larger cities, the university houses just over40 percent of its undergraduate student body, high for a state university. About a quarter of all undergrads are in the Greek system.
Within the Big Ten only Ohio State has had more football success in its football history.
But most of that success came before the Cornhuskers joined the Big Ten. The Nebraska Cornhuskers have won five national championships. But the last one came in 1997, when the team was in the Big 12. The Huskers have won only one division title in the Big Ten (2012) since joining the conference in 2011. While they have played in over 50 bowl games during their football history, the Corhuskers have played in only seven since joining the Big Ten, winning three. The last season that they had a top 20 ranking was 2009, while they were still in the Big 12. However, past successes make Nebraska an “expect to win” school. The Cornhuskers have sold out every home game since 1962 and they have over 87,000 seats to fill.
If someone told me that Nebraska was a ”volleyball school’ I wouldn’t argue.
Nebraska has won five national championships in volleyball, same as it has in football. The team has also played in front of over 92,000 fans in the football stadium! This was a world’s record for attendance for any women’s sporting event. The volleyball team drew an average of over 5,000 fans per match during the 1023-24 season, more than many college basketball teams do over a season!
The university has actually won more championships in other sports including bowling (11) and men’s gymnastics (8). Nebraska has also been dominant on the rifle range winning 20 NCAA titles as a member of the Patriot Rife Conference.
Conclusions
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is likely to attract a stronger student body, especially as other Big Ten schools such as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities become more selective and more expensive. More success in football certainly won’t hurt. But one has to hope that the university will be able to add more resources towards academic instruction and student success to retain and graduate their students.
Report Card: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Four-Year/Six-Year Graduation Rates: C+/B
- Freshman Retention: B
- Costs: A
- Curriculum: A
- Community: A
- Comforts: A
- Connections: A (Nebraska/Denver/Kansas City) /B (elsewhere)
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