At a Glance
Louisville admits 79.4% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
54.8%
receive need-based grant aid
$25,854
average debt at graduation
Louisville graduates carry an average of $25,854 in debt.
Merit Aid
2,677
students received merit aid
$9,916
average merit award
Getting In
Louisville admits 79.4% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 18% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 85% of the class submitted
24.8% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of Louisville gives essays less weight than many schools — academics drive most admissions decisions here. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
39.6% of Louisville classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Louisville, 39.6% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section I-3 (class sizes)
14:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
6.1%
Live on campus
25.6%
Men in fraternities
13.8%
Women in sororities
10.3%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Louisville's student body is 59.7% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Louisville graduates 43.7% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Louisville graduates 43.7% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Louisville
43.7%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $32,941*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2024–25, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
61.2%
Overall 6-yr rate
52.2%
Pell recipient rate
A 9 point graduation gap between lower-income and overall students suggests financial or academic challenges for some students.
Freshman Retention
81.5%
81.5% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Louisville.
The Belknap campus sits about three miles south of downtown Louisville, a city of roughly 600,000 on the Ohio River across from Indiana. UofL is a city university rather than a college town — most undergraduates commute, the Health Sciences campus is downtown in the hospital district, and student life mixes into the surrounding Old Louisville and Highlands neighborhoods rather than being contained by the campus edge.
Notable Alumni
Johnny Unitas
Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Baltimore Colts to the 1958 NFL Championship — the game credited with making pro football a television sport — and is credited with laying the foundation for the two-minute drill. He played at Louisville from 1951 to 1954.
Sue Grafton
Wrote the alphabet mysteries, the Kinsey Millhone series that began with "A Is for Alibi" and ran to twenty-five books. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature.
Class of 1961
Bob Edwards
Hosted NPR's Morning Edition for its first twenty-four years, becoming one of the most recognized voices in American public radio. He began his radio career in 1968, before finishing his degree.
Class of 1969
David A. Jones Sr.
Co-founded Humana, now a Fortune 500 health insurer still headquartered in Louisville, and led it as chief executive for 37 years. He studied accounting at UofL on a Navy ROTC scholarship.
Class of 1954
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Major city
Louisville, KY
Best For
Traditions
Throwing up the L
Students and fans form an L with the right hand — never the left — at games and ceremonies. The companion rule is that you do not step on the Cardinal Bird set into the sidewalk on Belknap campus.
Pennies on the Brandeis grave
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and his wife are interred beneath the portico of the law school that carries his name. During finals week students leave pennies, stones and the occasional box of animal crackers on the markers for luck.
The Crawfish Boil at the Red Barn
One of the longest-running events on the calendar, held each spring by the Student Activities Board at the Red Barn, the 19th-century barn that serves as the campus's student event space.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Louisville
Bourbon Trail distilleries, Bardstown and Loretto
About 1 hourKentucky's distillery country begins less than an hour south of the city, and Louisville itself sits at the head of the Urban Bourbon Trail downtown.
Mammoth Cave National Park
About 1 hour 45 minutesThe longest known cave system in the world, and the nearest national park to campus.
Cincinnati
About 1 hour 40 minutesThe closest larger metro, and the standard trip for a weekend somewhere else — also where the nearest NFL and MLB teams play.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF)
About 10 minutes from campus
For international flights: Nashville International (BNA) — about 2 hours 45 minutes by road.
Pro sports nearby
- Louisville City FC USL ChampionshipAbout 10 minutes away
- Racing Louisville FC NWSLAbout 10 minutes away
- Louisville Bats MiLBAbout 10 minutes away
- Cincinnati Bengals NFLAbout 1 hour 40 minutes away
Career Proximity
Louisville is a health care and logistics city — Humana is headquartered downtown, UPS runs its global air hub out of the airport, and the hospital district sits beside the university's own Health Sciences campus.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Humana
- UPS Worldport
- Norton Healthcare
- UofL Health
- Ford Louisville Assembly Plant
- Brown-Forman
Downtown Louisville, about 10 minutes from Belknap campus
Who Thrives Here
Louisville admits 79.4% of applicants, which makes it a realistic option rather than a lottery, and the SAT or ACT is optional — the middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted scored 1010–1230, and their average high school GPA is 3.60. It is overwhelmingly a Kentucky school: 92.6% of the entering class comes from in-state, and Kentucky residents pay $13,942 in tuition and fees against $30,288 for everyone else. It is a commuter campus more than a residential one — 25.6% of undergraduates live in university housing, and Greek life stays small at 13.8% of men and 10.3% of women, so the social center of gravity sits off campus and in the city itself. Health professions is the largest degree area at 15.6%, ahead of engineering at 12.8%, and the university's Health Sciences campus sits downtown in Louisville's hospital district rather than on the main Belknap campus. The trade-offs are real and worth naming before a family commits: 43.7% of students graduate in four years and 61.2% within six, the university meets 65.0% of demonstrated need, and graduates who borrow leave owing $25,854.