Guide
How the Sun Belt list is built
A school is on this page when its IPEDS football conference is Sun Belt Conference. The list is football membership. It runs alphabetically. It is not every university in the South, and the SEC page is a different conference.
James Madison is on this page because the football field says Sun Belt. Marshall and Appalachian State are here for the same reason. A southern flagship in the SEC stays on the SEC page.
- Schools
- 14
- States
- 10
- Median admit rate
- 87%
- All schools report a rate
- Median earnings
- $47,321
- 10 years after entry
The Sun Belt string
The match is exact. Sun Belt Conference is the IPEDS name. A school with a similar regional footprint and a different conference string stays off. A school that moved into this string is on the page even if an older guide still names another league.
Every row here is a football member in the file. The page does not add a campus that competes with the conference in another sport only. That kind of affiliate is invisible to this field.
Southern football that is not Sun Belt
SEC schools are on the SEC page. Conference USA schools are on the Conference USA page. American Athletic schools are on that page. Sharing a state is not sharing a conference. Louisiana and Georgia each have schools on more than one of these lists.
A Division I school in the region with no football team is on the Division I colleges page only. An empty football conference is not the Sun Belt. The football-division field is separate. James Madison's football division in this file is FCS, so James Madison is also on the FCS page. The conference string is still Sun Belt.
Use it as a campus list
Sort is alphabetical, not by last season. Enrollment shows the size of the undergraduate body. It does not show stadium size. Admission rate shows the campus rate in the Scorecard, which can be blank. A blank is not zero.
Several of these universities are public regional campuses with very different stickers from a private research university in another conference. Compare price inside the set, then open a profile for net price by family income.
One FBS conference among several
This page exists so the Sun Belt can be read the same way as the Mountain West or Conference USA. The rule does not get looser because the conference is less famous than the SEC. The field is still the whole test.
Realignment will move some of these names over time. The page follows the file. It does not freeze James Madison, Marshall, or anyone else at an older conference.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 10 states. The largest groups are Alabama (2), Georgia (2), Louisiana (2), Virginia (2), and Arkansas (1). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
Who runs them
Every school with a reported control is public. 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 14 schools. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, with 36,177 undergraduates, Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, with 26,623 undergraduates, and Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia, with 21,790 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
Admission
14 of 14 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 87%. 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 Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, at 55%, University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, at 71%, and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, at 72%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at 99%, Troy University in Troy, Alabama, at 96%, and Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, at 96%.
What they charge
Among 14 public colleges that report an in-state sticker price, the median is $10,057.
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 14 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $47,321. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, at $69,954, Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, at $56,906, and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, at $54,914.
Among 14 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 53%. 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.
4 are also on R1 research universities. 6 are also on R2 research universities. 1 is 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.