Dillard University

Private · Selective · LA

Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans (CC BY-SA 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationLA · South

SettingUrban

Undergrads1,063

Student:faculty14:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate28.8%

6-yr grad rate43.3%

Drop-out rate22%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$24k

Out-of-state tuition$24k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity99.3%

Gender diversity72.3%

International3%

IdentityHBCU · United Methodist

Overview

Dillard University is a historically Black university in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, carrying Methodist and United Church of Christ heritage from its founding through the merger of two earlier institutions. Its white-columned campus along the Avenue of the Oaks is one of the more visually distinctive HBCU settings in the country, and the university has rebuilt and grown in the years since Hurricane Katrina forced a citywide reckoning with how New Orleans's institutions would recover.

Academics

Nursing and physics are particular strengths — Dillard graduates a notable share of the country's Black physicists, a distinction the university takes seriously as part of its mission and actively recruits around. Class sizes are small, consistent with close faculty mentorship typical of HBCUs of its scale, and the university's core curriculum reflects its liberal-arts, church-founded roots alongside its STEM strengths.

Campus & student life

The campus sits within New Orleans proper, and student life is deeply tied to the city's culture, food, music, and traditions alongside the university's own Methodist-rooted community heritage. The Avenue of the Oaks and the campus's historic buildings give Dillard a distinctly Southern, formal aesthetic that stands out even among other HBCU campuses, and students are close enough to the city to be genuinely part of it rather than separate from it.

Getting in

Dillard reviews applicants holistically, with attention to academic preparation alongside community involvement and fit with the university's small, close-knit character. Essays that reflect genuine interest in the university's HBCU mission and its particular strengths in nursing or the sciences tend to stand out, consistent with a school that recruits deliberately around those specialties.

After graduation

Dillard's physics program feeds graduates directly into graduate STEM programs and research careers at a rate the university is known for nationally relative to its size, and nursing graduates are well placed in the New Orleans region and beyond. The alumni network is smaller than a big flagship's but closely tied to New Orleans's civic, religious, and professional life.

Worth knowing

The physics program's track record producing Black physicists is a genuinely distinctive strength worth knowing about for students interested in STEM fields at an HBCU of this size, and the university's post-Katrina rebuilding is part of its recent institutional identity worth understanding as context.

dillard.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate41.9%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 968–1202 · ACT 18–22

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying (2026-27 cycle)

Apply through Common App, Common Black College App, or Own application.

Priority / scholarshipJun 1

Verified from the school’s admissions pages ↗