School data & stats
Outcomes
Cost
Community
Overview
Azusa Pacific University is an evangelical Christian university in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, combining a conventional four-year residential experience with an explicitly faith-centered mission. Chapel attendance and faith formation are built into the undergraduate experience rather than offered as an optional add-on, and the university describes its academic mission in explicitly Christian terms across most programs. Its Los Angeles-area location gives it access to the region's healthcare, entertainment, and education job markets despite its distinctly evangelical campus culture.
Academics
Nursing, education, and ministry preparation are the university's strongest and best-known programs, reflecting both regional healthcare and education job demand and the school's theological seminary roots. Programs across the university tend to integrate a faith perspective explicitly into coursework rather than treating religious identity as separate from academics. Class sizes stay manageable, with a personal, mentoring-oriented relationship between faculty and students emphasized as part of the university's educational philosophy.
Campus & student life
Chapel services and small-group faith communities are a structured, recurring part of student life, not a peripheral option. The San Gabriel Valley setting is suburban rather than urban, though downtown Los Angeles and the broader Southern California job market are within reach. Campus culture is conservative-leaning and explicitly Christian, shaping social norms around behavior and lifestyle expectations in the student handbook.
Getting in
The application invites students to speak to their Christian faith and interest in the university's evangelical mission, alongside conventional academic materials. APU is not highly selective, and its pitch centers on integrating faith and vocation rather than academic prestige alone.
Admissions
Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)
Applying
apu.edu ↗High school coursework
Recommended4 years of English · 3 years of mathematics (Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, plus a third-year course) · 2 years of science (including a laboratory science) · 2 years of foreign language · U.S. history and government · Strong academic electives (including fine arts) · Biology, chemistry, and 2 years of algebra for nursing applicants
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