What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$14,601 to $25,186 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $32,941 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $17,149.Aid and debt
54.8%
receive need-based grants
$25,854
average debt at graduation
2,677
students got merit aid
about 16% of undergraduates
$9,916
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1010–1230 · 18% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 19–27 · 85% of the class submitted
24.8% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- Important
- SAT/ACT scores
- Considered
- Class rank
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Not considered
- Character
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Louisville rates course rigor as Very Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong.
Louisville doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Louisville just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Louisville essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
39.6% of Louisville classes have fewer than 20 students.
39.6%
under 20 students
50.5%
20 to 49
9.9%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Louisville CDS 2024–25, I-3.
14:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
6.1%
first-years from out of state
25.6%
live on campus
13.8%
of men in fraternities
10.3%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White59.7%
- Black16.3%
- Hispanic8.7%
- Multiracial6.2%
- Asian5.8%
- Unknown / other1.3%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Louisville CDS 2024–25, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
43.7% of Louisville students graduate in 4 years.
43.7%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2018
61.2%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2018
81.5%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
52.2% finish in 6 years, against 61.2% of all students.
A 9-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
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.
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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.
The City
Major city
Louisville, KY
Best For
Notable alumni
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.
Traditions
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 from Louisville
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 and game days
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
Internships and jobs nearby
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
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 61.0% of demonstrated need, and graduates who borrow leave owing $25,854.