Northern Arizona University

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From the College

Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a fully accredited, state-supported, four-year institution with 13,949 full-time undergraduate students on its main campus. Since 1899, the University has made a major commitment to undergraduate education, and its goal is to preserve a friendly campus atmosphere and close student-faculty relationships through classroom teaching of the highest quality and faculty guidance for each student.

The University is composed of the colleges of Arts and Letters; Education; Engineering; Forestry, and Natural Sciences; Health and Human Services; Social and Behavioral Sciences; and the W. A. Franke College of Business. More than 140 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees are offered in a number of interdisciplinary and preprofessional majors.

The University has a strong commitment to student advising, and regular office hours are maintained by faculty members. The Gateway Student Success Center offers academic advising services and career exploration assistance for all students who are undecided on a degree program. An average class size of 27 is another example of the institution’s attention to high-quality education.

As a residential campus, Northern Arizona University provides an atmosphere of friendship and community. Almost 50 percent of the undergraduate students live in the twenty residence halls and 226 family housing apartments located on the campus. Of the 14,766 full-time undergraduates and graduates enrolled in the 2008 fall semester, 6,454 were men (44 percent) and 8,312 were women (56 percent).

The campus includes three student unions, a student health center, an Olympic-size swimming and diving complex, a 16,230-seat multiuse wooden dome, and a multipurpose recreational facility.

Northern Arizona University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution.

Northern Arizona University’s 740-acre mountain campus is located in Flagstaff, a community with 61,000 residents. Flagstaff is located at an elevation of 7,000 feet, just south of the 12,600-foot-high San Francisco Peaks, a major winter-sports center. The University is at the junction of Interstate Highways 40 (U.S. 66) and 17, less than a 3-hour drive from Phoenix and about a 5-hour drive from Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Las Vegas, Nevada. The city is served by Amtrak, Greyhound buses, and a commercial airline. The campus is surrounded by scenic beauty and natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon and, a student favorite, Oak Creek Canyon. The varied landscape of mountains, gorges, forests, and lakes provides the University with natural classrooms and laboratories for research as well as recreation.

Northern Arizona University offers baccalaureate degrees in ninety-three major areas, embracing most of the recognized fields in the arts and sciences and a number of interdisciplinary majors. The University also offers a number of specialized programs, including criminal justice, dental hygiene, forestry, hotel and restaurant management, and parks and recreation management.

A four-year baccalaureate degree program at Northern Arizona University requires the successful completion of a minimum of 120 semester hours of course work, including 35 hours of liberal studies courses. The liberal studies program consists of foundation studies and studies in various disciplines designed to assist students in cultivating their abilities to recognize significant problems and to define, analyze, and defend solutions in a variety of contexts. Major-field requirements vary from 35 to 73 semester hours. Students may combine a major field with one or more 18-hour minors, take two majors or an extended major of 63 to 65 hours in a field of their interest, or select a merged major program.

Northern Arizona University has a long-established honors program, which is designed to challenge the talented student, leading to graduation with honors. The program provides special courses and seminars and offers superior students opportunities for independent study and research.

A three-year bachelor’s degree program is available, offering intellectual and academic challenges for well-prepared and motivated students and allowing them to take the fast track to graduation and graduate programs.

The University actively cooperates in the work and research programs of several major scientific institutions that are located close to its campus. These include the Lowell Observatory; the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Flagstaff station; various facilities of the U.S. Geological Survey, including its space-oriented Astrogeology Center; the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain and Range Experiment station; and the Museum of Northern Arizona and its multidisciplinary Colton Research Center. The specialized libraries, laboratories, and other facilities of these institutions are available to qualified students at the University. Northern Arizona University also conducts scientific field work in many of the distinctive natural areas of northern Arizona, including the nearby Grand Canyon.

Northern Arizona University offers study-abroad opportunities at more than fifty universities in thirty-two countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, to name a few. Opportunities to study abroad in conjunction with the University Studies Abroad Consortium offer another twenty-four locations. Students may study for a semester or a year. Through field trips and classroom study, students explore the history, literature, language, and culture of these regions. All students except freshmen may apply.

Through the National Student Exchange program, students have an opportunity to broaden their educational horizons by attending a college or university in another state for one semester or one year while paying tuition and fees at NAU. There are more than 190 participating institutions nationwide.

Northern Arizona University’s facilities for education and research are extensive. The University’s Cline Library provides both individual student and group research, study, and computing. Its collections include books, movies, audio recordings, and the Colorado Plateau Archives. The library’s Web site provides access to electronic books, journals, services, and digital archives 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Within the library, students have access to 180 computers, group study rooms, a coffee shop, and a multimedia production workstation.

State-of-the-art laboratories serve students in the sciences and health professions. Specially designed studios, workrooms, theaters, auditoriums, and an art gallery are available to students in the creative arts. Closed-circuit television hookups, language laboratories, and an observatory are used regularly by students for both learning and research.

The University makes extensive use of the spectacular Colorado Plateau country surrounding its campus as a natural laboratory for anthropology, biology, ecology, environmental sciences, geology, geophysics, paleontology, and other sciences. Prehistoric Indian ruins and the living cultures of the Navajo, Hopi, and many other Native American peoples of the Southwest provide rich resources for students of archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, and linguistics. Students have access to the 50,000-acre Centennial Forest for environmental and forestry research. The area’s 7,000-foot elevation and unusually clear, dry air have made it a major center for astronomy and the atmospheric sciences.

For 2008–09, the charges for an academic year of two semesters for an in-state student were tuition and fees, $5450, and average board and room, $7086. Books and supplies averaged $890. The total estimated cost for Arizona residents was $13,426 per academic year. The out-of-state tuition and fees were $16,533, for an academic-year cost of $24,509. This does not include travel or personal expenses, which vary for each student. All costs are subject to change by the Arizona Board of Regents.

Northern Arizona University maintains an extensive program of financial assistance to aid students in pursuing their educational goals. The amount of financial aid awarded to a student is based upon the student’s need level, as computed from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). However, some scholarships are awarded on the basis of a student’s demonstration of academic excellence and/or participation in various University activities.

In the 2008–09 academic year, more than $170 million was available for loans, scholarships, grants, veterans’ benefits, and work-study programs. About 68 percent of the students received some form of financial aid.

Along with grants, loans, and scholarships, on- and off-campus employment is available to help students meet financial obligations. More than 3,600 NAU students are currently employed in a wide variety of jobs on the campus.

Northern Arizona University’s faculty is made up of outstanding and dedicated professionals. There are 809 full-time and 706 part-time faculty members. Many are nationally distinguished scientists and scholars. The student-faculty ratio is 17:1, with more than 83 percent of the classes taught by faculty members rather than graduate assistants.

Each student who enters the University is a member of the Associated Students of Northern Arizona University (ASNAU), which represents the students’ interests in all matters that affect them.

Other student groups include the Associated Students for Women’s Issues, Residence Hall Association, Pan-Hellenic Council, and Inter-Fraternity Council. Students can belong to one or more of the 180 student groups and organizations.

New freshmen are admitted if they have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better (on a 4.0 scale) or a minimum ACT composite score of 22 (24 for non-Arizona residents) or a minimum combined SAT score of 1040 (1100 for nonresidents) or a top 25 percent class rank and have no deficiencies in the high school course requirements. High school course requirements include 4 units of English, 4 units of math (beginning with Algebra I), 3 units of laboratory science, 2 units of social studies, 2 units of foreign language, and 1 unit of fine art. Students with both a math deficiency and a lab science deficiency are not admissible.

New freshmen are considered for admission if they have a cumulative GPA between 2.5 and 2.99 or a top 50 percent class rank and have no more than one deficiency in any two of the subject areas in the high school course requirements listed above. Transfer students who have earned fewer than 12 transferable academic semester credits must meet the same criteria as new freshmen.

Transfer students are offered admission if they have completed an associate degree, the Arizona General Education Curriculum (AGEC), or the California Inter-segmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC). Transfer students who have earned more than 12 college credits should visit NAU’s Web site for complete admission requirements. College course work must be a 2.0 or higher.

For more information, students should consult the University Web site or contact the Office of Admissions.