Guide
Which Lutheran labels share this page
A college is on this page when its IPEDS affiliation contains Lutheran. The labels include Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Lutheran Church in America, and American Evangelical Lutheran Church. The fact column shows which one. The table sorts by state.
Missouri Synod and ELCA-related labels stay on the same page because the question is Lutheran affiliation, not one synod. You can still see the synod. It is the text in the column, not a guess from the college's name.
- Schools
- 41
- States
- 19
- Median admit rate
- 78%
- 35 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $56,950
- 10 years after entry
The word Lutheran in the label
The test is the same kind of match used for Baptist and Presbyterian colleges. A label qualifies when it contains Lutheran. The college's name does not have to. Concordia campuses and other names enter through the affiliation field.
Each row keeps its own string. A Missouri Synod college does not get relabeled as ELCA, and the reverse does not happen either. The page groups them. It does not rewrite them.
Other church colleges
Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian colleges are not Lutheran and do not appear here. They remain on their own pages and on the Christian page. A non-denominational college stays off.
A college that was founded by a Lutheran body and no longer reports that affiliation stays off. Founding stories are common in American higher education. They are not this field.
Synod first, then the numbers
If you need one synod, read the fact column and ignore the other strings. If you want the whole family, read the list straight through. The state sort supports either reading.
The figures for price, size, and admission describe every Lutheran label together. They are not a Missouri Synod average or an ELCA average. A split that fine is visible row by row, not in the median.
One tradition, several bodies
Lutheran churches in the United States are not one organization. The Scorecard preserves that fact in the affiliation string. This page preserves it in the column and still answers the broader search.
Use the Christian colleges page when you want Lutherans in a list with other traditions. Use this page when other traditions would be noise.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 19 states. The largest groups are Minnesota (7), Iowa (5), Pennsylvania (4), Illinois (3), and Wisconsin (3). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
Who runs them
Every school with a reported control is a private nonprofit college. Control is the Scorecard field. It is not a judgment about quality.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is a bachelor's degree at 35 schools and a graduate degree at 6 schools. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, with 3,093 undergraduates, Concordia University-Saint Paul in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with 3,018 undergraduates, Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with 2,660 undergraduates, Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with 2,494 undergraduates, and Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, with 2,490 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
6 schools do not report an undergraduate enrollment. Those campuses stay off the size order. A blank is not zero.
Admission
35 of 41 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 78%. Schools with no reported rate stay out of the median. A missing rate is not an open door, and it is not a closed one.
The lowest reported admission rates on this list are St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, at 48%, Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, at 56%, and Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, at 61%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, at 99%, Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas, at 96%, and Concordia University-Chicago in River Forest, Illinois, at 93%.
What they charge
Among 35 private colleges that report a sticker price, the median is $38,750. 6 other private colleges on the list do not report one.
Sticker price is not net price. Grants, waivers, and a service commitment can move the bill by a wide margin. Open a school for the net-price figures.
Earnings and graduation
Among 35 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $56,950. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, at $74,360, Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at $69,107, and California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California, at $68,712.
Among 35 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 64%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
Athletics in this file
2 report NCAA Division I athletics and 2 play FCS football. A blank athletics field means this file has no division for that campus. It does not prove the campus has no team.
Also on other lists
Some of these schools also meet the rule for another list on this site. The overlap is a second flag or a second classification. It is not a second ranking.
10 are also on liberal arts colleges. 5 are also on Hispanic-serving institutions.
How these figures work
Admission rate, enrollment, sticker price, earnings, and graduation rate all come from the College Scorecard. Earnings are the median 10 years after a student entered the school. Tuition for a public college is the in-state sticker price. Tuition for a private college is the published sticker price. None of these is net price after aid.
A blank field stays blank. This page does not turn a blank admission rate into an open door, a blank fee into a free application, or a blank earnings figure into zero. The table above is membership under the rule in this guide. Sort order is not a quality ranking.