At a Glance
There is no university in the country like Creighton University in terms of size, the array of professional and graduate programs offered, and the strong commitment to Catholic and Jesuit ideals and values. Founded in 1878 and one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States, Creighton is a vibrant and diverse learning community. The University is located in Omaha, Nebraska.
Nationally recognized for providing a challenging and balanced educational experience, the University offers a rigorous academic agenda with a broad range of disciplines, providing more than 7,700 undergraduate, graduate and professional students with degree programs that emphasize education of the whole person -- academically, socially and spiritually.
The principles of a Jesuit education, as defined by St. Ignatius of Loyola, have endured at Creighton: Change the world in Christ’s image. Study humankind. Transform yourself and your community. Seek truth in all you do. Go forth and set the world on fire. The University’s distinctive approach to education instills not just information but ideals, imbues not just technical skills but critical and creative thinking; and, inspires not just competence but professional distinction and faith-based leadership and service.
In addition to the College of Arts and Sciences, which enrolls 22 percent of the University’s students, Creighton schools and colleges include the College of Business, Graduate School, and Schools of Dentistry, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Health Professions and University College.
Creighton has several agreements to welcome international students and to enroll its students in universities outside the country recent agreement with the Washington, D.C.-based AMIDEAST, for example, resulted in opportunities for Creighton students to study in the Arab world and for Creighton to be one of only 18 U.S. institutions invited to join AMIDEAST’s Academic Consortium for Quality Assurance.
Creighton students may choose to participate in Creighton’s service-learning semester in the Dominican Republic (Encuentro Dominicano), enroll in faculty-led courses taught abroad (FLPAs) or study at one of 165 institutions located in 55 countries through Creighton’s exchanges or affiliate programs. Each year, more than 250 students study in countries such as China, Dominican Republic, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom or destinations such as Argentina, Estonia Ghana, Hungary, India, Jordan and Tanzania.
Hailing from 40 countries, about 185 international students each year pursue degrees at Creighton. The most represented countries of origin are China, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
Creighton participates in 14 NCAA Division I sports. The athletic teams are as strong on the court and field as they are in the classroom. Creighton student-athletes had a GPA of 3.37 in the spring of 2012 and the University’s athletic teams have been honored by the MVC and NCAA with numerous academic awards.
The Creighton men’s basketball team has won 20 or more games in 13 of the past 14 seasons and made 15 straight postseason appearances. Creighton is the only school in Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) history to attract more than 200,000 fans in a season (and has done so seven times) and in 2008-2009 became the first to surpass 300,000. The team plays its home games just six blocks from campus at CenturyLink Center Omaha, across the street from the new home of Creighton baseball and the Men’s College World Series, TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
On September 1, 2012 the Creighton-Alegent Strategic Affiliation expands the teaching affiliation between Creighton University and Alegent Health. Alegent’s network of healthcare facilities become the primary teaching sites for the School of Medicine as well as the other health sciences schools, Creighton University is responsible for the education component, enhancing both the academic experience for students and healthcare in the greater Omaha community.
Creighton has a long and rich history of groundbreaking research that makes a difference in people lives. Research is essential to discovering the underlying causes of disease as well as new ways to prevent and treat disease. Research awards to Creighton University for the 2011-12 academic year totaled $29.7 million.
Faculty
- With an undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 11 to 1, Creighton retains 759 full-time faculty including preclinical, clinical and administrative officers and 226 part-time faculty as well as those who contribute their services on a volunteer basis.
- Creighton University faculty members have received Fulbright and other fellowships, and have been named scholars-in-residence at the Securities and Exchange Commission and at the Congressional Budget Office.
- The University has 36 endowed chairs. Most of these reside in the University’s schools or colleges.
Students
- The academic profile of the 2012 freshman class places Creighton among the top six private universities in the Midwest with more than 4,000 undergraduates.
- Of the fall 2012 freshman class, 39 percent were ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and 50 percent scored 27 or above on the ACT (placing them in the top 13 percent in the nation) and had a median high school GPA of 3.83.
- Creighton is achieving success in socio-economic diversity, by providing more access to students and families while fulfilling an important aspect of the University’s mission. For the 2012-2013 academic year, 19 percent of Creighton’s freshman class is comprised of first-generation college students and 27 percent is comprised of students of color. Seventy-seven percent of the freshman class is from more than 100 miles away from Omaha; 40 percent is from more than 400 miles away.
- The 2012 freshman class was also very involved in high school activities. Eighty-two percent of the class was active in church and/or service organizations; 33 percent was involved in a student government position; 79 percent was active in a high school varsity sport; 16 percent was involved in speech, debate, Mock Trial or the Model UN; and 19 percent was involved in the school newspaper, literary magazine, yearbook, television or radio.
- The 2012 freshman class has a strong desire to continue their education beyond their undergraduate studies. Fifty-five percent of the Creighton freshmen indicate an interest in ultimately pursuing a professional program offered at Creighton. Of those indicating an interest in professional programs, 60 percent are interested in medicine.
- Since 2007, enrollment in the Graduate School has increased more than 70 percent. The School offers 28 master’s degree programs ranging from Atmospheric Sciences, Physics and International Relations, to English, Ministry, Theology and Education, to the medical and pharmaceutical sciences, Education, and Negotiation and Dispute Resolution.
- Three doctoral programs are offered, in the fields of Biomedical Sciences, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and Pharmacology. An interdisciplinary Ed.D. program in Leadership was initiated in the Spring of 2011.
- Creighton University has several online graduate programs, including:
- Master of Science in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
- Master of Security Analysis and Portfolio Management
- Master of Arts in Ministry
- Master of Science in Health Care Ethics
- Certificate in Catholic School Leadership
- Interdisciplinary Ed.D. in Leadership
- More than 35 percent of Creighton’s graduate students are now enrolled in online programs.
- A Master of Science in Bioscience Management was introduced in the summer of 2009. This is a professional science master’s program, and is the only program of its kind in Nebraska.
Legacy
- Twenty-five percent of the 2012 freshman class is comprised of “legacies,” with family ties to the University.
Student Achievements
- Creighton University students engage in a wide variety of research, scholarly and creative projects. They earn recognition from national academic honor societies and receive such prestigious awards as the Fulbright, as well as Goldwater, James Madison Foundation and National Science Foundation fellowships.
- Creighton University is included among colleges and universities that produced the most 2011-2012 U. S. Fulbright Fellows. The University had a student awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship in 2011.
Alumni
- More than 60,000 Creighton alumni live in 87 countries. Thirty percent live in Nebraska. The largest numbers of alumni who live outside the United States reside in Canada, Japan and Malaysia.
Graduation Outcomes
- More than 96 percent of 2012 graduates were employed or attending graduate/professional school within six months of graduation. The national average is between 70 - 80 percent.
- Close to half of students who graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences gained admission and chose to go directly to graduate or professional school.
Additional Information Points
- For the tenth consecutive year, Creighton University in 2012 was No. 1 in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of Midwest Regional universities. It is the 15th time in 16 years Creighton has been No. 1, and the 26th straight year the University has been ranked at or near the top of the magazine’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition. Creighton also was recognized as No. 1 in the Midwest region as a “best value,” where students get the best return on their tuition investment.
- Creighton University voluntarily sought accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association (NCA) in 2006-2007. The University was reaccredited until 2017 with no interim visits or reports. Besides assessing formal educational activities, it evaluates such things as governance and administration, financial stability, admissions and student services, institutional resources, student learning, institutional effectiveness and relationships with internal and external constituencies.
- Creighton’s Online Ministries provides one of the most traveled faith-based websites in the world – with more than 21 million hits a year from 143 countries. It can be found at http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html or by Googling “Online Ministries.”
- Creighton students, faculty and staff were involved in more than 800 service programs locally, regionally, nationally and internationally last year, contributing more than 295,000 volunteer hours to those in need. In addition, service-learning is incorporated into many Creighton courses.
- Creighton University has been recognized as an economic driver in the region, community service advocate and urban developer in a top 25 national ranking. In 2013, the University was named for the sixth year to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction for exemplary service for efforts and service to disadvantaged youth.
- Creighton University has campuses beyond the Omaha area including Creighton University School of Medicine at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. A public/private partnership with the University of Alaska Anchorage utilizes the distance education technology SPAHP developed to offer OTD and Pharm.D. degrees, and a campus in 1986 in Hastings, Neb. serves nursing students.
- Creighton University offers a noncredit, Pre-Med Educational Seminar (PMED) series to students planning to apply to medical school after their undergraduate careers. The five-semester series begins in the second semester of the freshman year and concludes after the second semester of the junior year and provides weekly seminars and other activities to strengthen the candidacy of Creighton students as they prepare for the medical school application process. Seminar activities include workshops that address interviewing, preparing an AMCAS application, writing personal statements and developing solid shadowing experiences, among other important topics. Students who successfully complete all five semesters are eligible to have a University letter included in their applications to medical school.
- Creighton ranked fifth in PC Magazine’s “Top Wired Colleges,” and was the only university in Nebraska and the only Catholic school in the nation recognized.
- Creighton was the first university in the country to notify students of acceptance by text message. The University also helped introduce in 2010 a new texting application called "4my411," which helps high school students gather information about various colleges and universities without filling out an inquiry form for every school they are interested in, and allows them to text their information to each school.
- Creighton seniors are significantly more engaged in class work, have more meaningful mentoring relationships with faculty, see their coursework as more relevant, useful and applicable to their academic success and future plans and have a better understanding of the issues facing their community, nation, and world than did seniors from other institutions, according to a college senior survey conducted by the Higher Education Institute at UCLA in 2011.
- For more than 30 year’s Creighton has had a growing relationship with the Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC) in the Dominican Republic. ILAC is an international, Catholic, Ignatian-inspired, collaborative health care and educational organization that promotes the well-being and spiritual growth of participants, including students, faculty and staff. Through Creighton’s ILAC/Omaha office, dozens of high school and college groups experience immersions at the center. Several surgery teams serve the rural poor at the center’s outpatient surgery center. The ILAC/Omaha office coordinates Creighton’s relationship with the Institute, the transformative Summer Program, in which 60 medical, dental, pharmacy and nursing students, along with 20 professionals, live among local families and serve six rural communities. In 2010, Creighton sent five health care teams to the Dominican Republic and collaborated with ILAC to provide health care and emotional support to victims of the Haiti earthquake.
- The Center for Catholic Thought at Creighton University was created in 2009 and serves students, faculty and the local Catholic community through a series of programs designed to explore and promote the Church’s intellectual tradition.
- The innovative Ratio Studiorum advising program helps first- and second-year students plan their curricula, careers and way of life, focusing on ethics, service to others and the search for truth and justice.
- In 2010, Creighton University entered into a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) to promote renewable energy and began assembling a large array of solar panels and wind turbines across the Creighton campus. The alternative energy project is the largest in the state and part of a new degree program for Creighton students studying technology and applied science in the College of Arts and Sciences.
- The Rasmussen Fitness and Sports Center opening in the fall of 2012, represents an important element of the University’s commitment to students’ health and wellness, as well as that of the greater campus community, through the development of an east-campus integrated athletics/fitness/recreation corridor. The two-level, 48,000 square foot Rasmussen Center will feature locker rooms, batting cages and fitness areas with cardio and free-weight equipment; its focal point is the multi-purpose 30,000 square-foot field house with synthetic turf and a suspended two-lane running track.
- Since 2000, Creighton University has invested more than $265 million in on-campus improvements and planned expansion to create a more vibrant and robust campus. The campus design and master plan have received top awards in landscape and architecture.