At a Glance
Creighton University, founded in 1878, is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States designed in the Society of Jesus tradition and Catholic identity of academic excellence and service to others. The University is located in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2011, Omaha was named the No. 1 city in best value by Kiplinger because of its vibrancy, cost of living and low unemployment rate.
The University provides its more than 7,600 professional and graduate students an atmosphere that challenges them academically and professionally and supports and inspires them individually.
Nationally recognized for providing a balanced educational experience, the University offers a rigorous academic agenda with a broad range of disciplines, providing undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs that emphasize educating 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, inspires not just competence but professional distinction and faith-based leadership and service.
In addition to the College of Arts and Sciences, which enrolls 34 percent of the University’s students, Creighton University includes the College of Business, the Graduate School, and the 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 U.S. A 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, over 250 students study in popular countries such as China, Dominican Republic, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom or destinations like Ghana, Hungary, India, Jordan and Singapore.
Hailing from 44 countries, about 200 international students 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 strong on the court and field as well as in the classroom. Creighton student-athletes had a GPA of 3.35 in the spring of 2011 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 12 of the past 13 seasons and made 14 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.
The University’s academic medical center, Creighton University Medical Center, is home to top-ranked programs in cardiovascular services and digestive services and is internationally recognized for research, prevention and treatment in hereditary cancers and osteoporosis.
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 2010-11 academic year totaled almost $41.7 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 2011 freshman class places Creighton among the top 10 private universities in the Midwest with more than 4,000 undergraduates.
- Of the fall 2011 freshman class, 43 percent were ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and 53 percent scored 27 or above on the ACT (placing them in the top 12 percent in the nation) and the average high school GPA was 3.77.
- Creighton is achieving success in socio-economic diversity, by providing more access to students and families and fulfilling an important aspect of the University’s mission. For the 2011-2012 academic year, 25 percent of Creighton’s freshman class is comprised of first-generation college students and 25 percent are students of color. Seventy-two percent of the freshman class is from more than 100 miles away from Omaha; 39 percent from more than 400 miles away.
- The 2011 freshman class was also very involved in high school activities. Eighty-two percent of the class was active in church and/or service organizations; 37 percent was involved in a student government position; 76 percent was active in a high school varsity sport; 17 percent was involved in speech, debate, Mock Trial or the Model UN; and 23 percent was involved in the school newspaper, literary magazine, yearbook, television or radio.
- The 2011 freshman class has a strong desire to continue their education beyond their undergraduate studies. Sixty-one 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, 59 per cent are interested in medicine.
- Since 2007, enrollment in the Graduate School has increased more than 70 percent. The School offers 27 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 30 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-six percent of the 2011 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 2009-2010 U. S. Fulbright Fellows. The University also had two students awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship in 2010.
Alumni
- More than 60,090 Creighton alumni live in 89 countries. Nearly 30 percent live in Nebraska. The largest number of alumni that live outside the United States reside in Canada, Japan and Malaysia.
Graduation Outcomes
- More than 93.5 percent of Creighton 2011 graduates were employed, involved in volunteer work or attending graduate/professional school within six months of graduation. The national average is 84 percent.
- The average starting salary for all graduates from all undergraduate schools and colleges remains stable with the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Business enjoying slightly higher starting salaries.
- More than 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 eighth consecutive year, Creighton University in 2010 was No. 1 in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of Midwest Regional ’ universities. It is the 13th time in 14 years Creighton has been No. 1, and the 24th 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 visitors a year from 143 countries. It can be found at http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html
- Creighton students, faculty and staff were involved in more than 800 programs locally, regionally, nationally and internationally last year, contributing more than 295,000 volunteer hours to the needy. In addition, service-learning is incorporated into many Creighton courses.
- Creighton University has been recognized as an economic driver, community service advocate and urban developer in a Top 25 national ranking. In 2008 and 2009, the University was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for exemplary service for its efforts and service to disadvantaged youth.
- 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-level 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, by allowing 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.
- For more than 30 year’s Creighton has had a powerful 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 integral 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 the centerpiece of 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 a 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 at various locations 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.
- Since 2000, Creighton University has invested more than $285 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.