Guide
What NAIA means in this file
A college is on this page when its athletics division is NAIA. NAIA is not an NCAA division. A school does not land here by being small, private, or outside Division I. The division field has to say NAIA.
The table sorts by state. It is a membership list. It does not rank the colleges, and it does not list scores or coaches. The figures under the table describe the roster the field returns.
- Schools
- 225
- States
- 35
- Median admit rate
- 75%
- 190 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $48,116
- 10 years after entry
One division string
The Equity in Athletics feed supplies the short division label. This page keeps the rows labeled NAIA and drops every other label. NCAA Division I, II, and III have their own pages. NJCAA has its own page. A blank division stays off all of them.
Most of these rows are bachelor's colleges. A few report an associate degree as the predominant credential. The degree field does not decide membership. A bachelor's college in the NCAA stays on the NCAA page that matches its division.
Small colleges that are still NCAA
Many small colleges play NCAA Division II or Division III. They can look like NAIA schools in a brochure and still carry a different division in this file. Read the division on the row. Do not guess from enrollment.
A college with no athletics division in the file is absent even when it fields club teams. A blank is not a zero, and it is not an NAIA code. The NJCAA page is the other large non-NCAA list.
What to compare inside the set
State sort helps when you are building a short list in one region. Enrollment, admission rate, and price still describe the campus. They do not describe the athletic department's budget. Those budget figures are not in the Scorecard row.
Use the college page for net price and debt. The sticker on a private campus is not the amount a typical student pays. The price section below separates public and private stickers when the rows report them.
A parallel association
Readers sometimes treat NAIA as a lower NCAA division. This file does not. The label is its own value, beside the NCAA values and beside NJCAA. Moving between those pages is the way to see the boundary.
The same college cannot be NAIA and NCAA Division II in this field at once. One division value is stored. When you want football subdivision instead, use the FBS or FCS page. Those pages read a different field.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 35 states. The largest groups are Indiana (18), Kansas (16), Missouri (15), Texas (14), and Georgia (13). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
Who runs them
By reported control, 178 are private nonprofit, 45 are public, and 2 are private for-profit. A blank control stays out of that split.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is a bachelor's degree at 213 schools and an associate degree at 12 schools. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are Keiser University-Ft Lauderdale in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 17,678 undergraduates, Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, with 15,243 undergraduates, Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia, with 11,344 undergraduates, Bellevue University in Bellevue, Nebraska, with 10,220 undergraduates, and University of California-Merced in Merced, California, with 8,372 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
Admission
190 of 225 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 75%. 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 College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri, at 12%, Hope International University in Fullerton, California, at 33%, and Brescia University in Owensboro, Kentucky, at 35%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are The University of Montana-Western in Dillon, Montana, at 100%, Middle Georgia State University in Macon, Georgia, at 100%, and Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, at 99%.
What they charge
Among 45 public colleges that report an in-state sticker price, the median is $8,424. Among 180 private colleges that report a sticker price, the median is $30,136.
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 222 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $48,116. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis in Saint Louis, Missouri, at $137,047, Cal Poly Maritime Academy in Vallejo, California, at $94,784, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott in Prescott, Arizona, at $84,131.
Among 225 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 44%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
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.
13 are also on liberal arts colleges. 23 are also on HBCU colleges. 35 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.