Academics and Student Life

LSU is the state's flagship university and has more than 350 student organizations, 194 undergraduate and graduate/professional degrees and 26,000 students.

In the 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, LSU is ranked in the first tier for “Best National Universities."

The E. J. Ourso College of Business was ranked in the Top 50 of the internationally known “Top Business Schools” in 2009 by Eduniversal and was recognized during the inaugural Eduniversal World Convention, held in November 2008. Eduniversal first placed the E. J. Ourso College of Business in its top 1,000 business schools worldwide ranking in October 2007.

In 2009, the LSU Robert S. Reich School of Landscape Architecture was ranked among the top five schools in the nation by DesignIntelligence, the leading journal of the design professions. It marks the fifth consecutive year LSU ranks among the top five. According to the results of the 2009 survey, LSU has the number two-ranked landscape architecture school in the United States.

The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business' Department of Finance was named a CFA Institute Program Partner. The CFA Institute is the global association for investment professionals. It administers the Chartered Financial Analyst and Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement curriculum and exam programs worldwide; publishes research; conducts professional development programs and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry.

LSU was one of two institutions in the nation awarded the American Association of University Administrators Exemplary Models Award for 2006. The University was honored for its "Race, Hip-Hop and Sports Learning Community at LSU." LSU also received the award in 2004 for its "Center for Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership."

LSU’s aid program, Pelican Promise, helps to offset educational costs and provide a safety net for the most disadvantaged students. Students who live below 150 percent of poverty level and are Pell Grant eligible will receive assistance to cover total cost of attendance.

In the 2007-08 academic year, LSU Career Services posted 20,382 full-time jobs on its virtual job board.

In 2007-08, LSU students participated in 6,556 interviews arranged by Career Services.

According to the 2005 book by The Princeton Review and Campus Compact titled Colleges with a Conscience, LSU is one of the nation's best colleges for fostering social responsibility and social service.

Since its first commencement in 1869, LSU has awarded more than 221,000 degrees. The University produces about 26 percent of Louisiana’s baccalaureate graduates, approximately 22 percent of the master’s graduates, and about 53 percent of the doctoral graduates. Click here for information on the LSU Alumni Association.

LSU's Information Technology Residential College, or ITRC, was selected by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, or NASPA, as the Gold Award winner in the housing/residence life category of the 2005 NASPA Excellence Awards.

LSU has produced a number of distinguished undergraduates, including four Marshall Scholars, 26 Goldwater Scholars, 14 Rhodes Scholars, six Truman Scholars, 26 Fulbright Scholars.

LSU is one of only 30 schools in the United States to offer the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Professors Program to students. LSU's program is based on an academic support system encompassing a number of initiatives designed to help students, including those from underrepresented minority groups, advance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; and relies heavily on mentoring and teaching the dynamics of peer mentoring.

LSU has increased admission standards five times since 1990. The fall entering class of 2009 had a mean ACT of 25.5, SAT of 1167, and gpa of 3.49/4.0.

LSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine is one of only 32 in the United States and Canada.

Each year, the Laboratory for Creative Arts & Technologies at LSU’s Center for Computation & Technology hosts the Red Stick International Animation Festival, the largest event of its kind in the United States. The festival draws renowned animators, video game developers and other digital media industry professionals to Baton Rouge to host lectures, workshops and other events for aspiring artists, programmers and entrepreneurs.

The Chancellor’s Future Leaders in Research Program, one of the many research opportunities available at LSU, offers Chancellor's Alumni Scholars, LSU Alumni Association Top 100 Scholars or Distinguished Freshmen the opportunity to be a direct participant in the research of a faculty member for four years.

In cooperation with the LSU Museum of Natural Science, the LSU Department of Biological Sciences directs the foremost graduate program in museum-based ornithology in the world.

The LSU Museum of Natural Science is currently one of the nation's largest natural history museums, with holdings of over 2.5 million specimens and is the only comprehensive research museum in the south-central United States.

The Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) scientific ballooning program is led by the LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy who also lead the High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) balloon project and offer the LaACES student ballooning program.

The LSU Department of English’s Louisiana Shakespeare Project, which promotes and enhances the study of Shakespeare and the Renaissance at LSU while extending LSU's resources into the community through outreach programs, has partnered with the London Globe Theatre’s “Globe Education” program since 2005.

LSU's instructional programs including bachelor's degrees in 72 major fields, master's degrees in 72 major fields and doctoral degrees in 54 major fields.