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California Lutheran University

Thousand Oaks, California

https://www.callutheran.edu

#279 National Colleges

71.42% Admission Rate
Not Very Selective

3,077 Undergraduates Enrolled

  • Private nonprofit
  • Master's Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs
  • Four-year, full-time, selective, higher transfer-in
  • Four-year, medium, primarily residential
  • Hispanic-Serving Institution
  • Religious Affiliation: Evangelical Lutheran Church
California Lutheran University (CLU, Cal Lutheran, or Cal Lu) is a private liberal arts university in Thousand Oaks, California. It was founded in 1959 and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but is nonsectarian. It opened in 1960 as California Lutheran College and was California's first four-year liberal arts college and the first four-year private college in Ventura County. It changed its name to California Lutheran University on January 1, 1986.It is located on a 290-acre (120 ha) campus, 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Los Angeles. It offers degrees at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels, as well as post-master's and post-bachelor's certificates. CLU offers 36 majors and 34 minors. The university is based in Thousand Oaks, with additional locations in Woodland Hills (Los Angeles), Westlake Village, Oxnard, Santa Maria, and Berkeley.

Notable speakers at CLU have included U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush. CLU hosted the preseason training camp for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League for 27 years and serves as the year-round training site for the Los Angeles Rams.

Cal Lutheran has been called the West Coast's “Cradle of Coaches”; nearly 1 in 4 of football coach Bob Shoup’s players would go on to coach at some level. 144 players have become football coaches, and several have been drafted to the NFL. Particularly many players were drafted following the NAIA Championship win in 1971. The celebration was held at the Hollywood Palladium in conjunction with the Dallas Cowboys that won their first Super Bowl the following month. In college baseball, 24 student players have been drafted for Major League Baseball as of 2014.

Numerous films have been shot on campus and in surrounding areas, including Spartacus, Welcome to Hard Times, Wuthering Heights, Lassie, and Gunsmoke.

"California Lutheran University." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 February 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Lutheran_University.
Location

City
Thousand Oaks, California

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Locale
City: Midsize (population of at least 100,000 but less than 250,000)

Region
Far West (AK, CA, HI, NV, OR, WA)

Academics

Predominant Degree Awarded
Predominantly bachelor's-degree granting

Highest Degree Awarded
Graduate degree

Most Popular Fields

Field % Students
Business, Management, Marketing, And Related Support Services 25.4%
Psychology 12.3%
Communication, Journalism, And Related Programs 12.3%
Social Sciences 10.6%
Biological And Biomedical Sciences 8.3%
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, And Fitness Studies 7.1%
Liberal Arts And Sciences, General Studies And Humanities 4.3%
Computer And Information Sciences And Support Services 4.0%
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 3.6%
Visual And Performing Arts 3.5%
Physical Sciences 2.3%
History 2.0%
English Language And Literature/Letters 1.9%
Natural Resources And Conservation 1.0%
Mathematics And Statistics 0.9%
Philosophy And Religious Studies 0.3%
Foreign Languages, Literatures, And Linguistics 0.3%
Theology And Religious Vocations 0.1%
Engineering 0.1%

Cost

Tuition
$44,382.00

Percentage Students Receiving Aid
52.73%

Average Net Cost After Aid
$26,489.00

Admissions

SAT Scores

1168 Composite Average
Percentile 75% 50% 25%
Math 620 575 530
Verbal 630 585 540

ACT Scores

24 Cumulative Average
Percentile 75% 50% 25%
Math 27 23 19
English 27 24 21