College of Liberal Arts University of Minnesota
101 Pleasant St SE
215 Johnston Hall
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Student Info: 612-625-2020
General: 612-624-8480

About CLA

Established in 1868, the College of Liberal Arts supports the University of Minnesota's land-grant mission as home to disciplines in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. With departments throughout the Minneapolis campus, it is the largest college and home to 16,943 students (14,773 undergraduate and 2,170 graduate students).

Program Rankings

Research-doctorate programs ranked in the top 25 (public and private universities)

Source: National Research Council, 1995*

  • Classics - 24th
  • Economics - 10th
  • Geography - 3rd
  • German Language and Literature - 11th
  • History - 21st
  • Political Science - 13th
  • Psychology - 7th
  • Sociology - 24th
  • Statistics - 13th

*The National Research Council reviews and ranks graduate programs approximately every 10 years.

Graduate program rankings (public and private universities)

Source: U.S. News and World Report, 2007 rankings

  • Art
    • Ceramics - 10th
  • Audiology - 13th
  • Economics - 15th
    • Macroeconomics - 5th
  • History - 22nd
    • African History - 8th
    • Women's History - 8th
  • Political Science - 18th
    • Political Theory - 8th
  • Psychology - 16th
    • Clinical Psychology - 4th
    • Industrial/Organizational Psychology - 2nd
  • Sociology - 22nd
  • Speech/Language Pathology - 15th
  • Statistics - 6th

About Our Faculty

  • CLA has 581 tenured and tenure-track faculty
  • 14% of CLA's tenured and tenure-track faculty are faculty of color; up from 6% a decade ago
  • 38% of CLA's tenured and tenure-track faculty are women; compared to 29% in 1996
  • CLA faculty have received numerous nationally recognized awards in many fields.

Students at a Glance

Undergraduate student enrollment 14,773
Graduate student enrollment 2,170
Number of undergraduate degrees awarded in 2006-07 3,130
Number of graduate degrees awarded in 2006-07 460
Students of color 18%

About the Class of 2011

16,288 students applied for the 2,600 spots in CLA's class of 2011. This number is more than double the number of students (7,303) who applied for freshman admission a decade ago.

  • 88% graduated in the top 25% of their high school class
  • 37% ranked in the top 10% of their high school class
  • 18% are students of color
  • 60% are women
  • 25.8 is the average ACT score; 32% scored 28 or higher

Graduating and Retaining Students

Fall 2006 freshmen who returned to CLA for their sophomore year in fall 2007 87%
Students in the class of 2011 who took a full course load in fall 2007 and are on track to graduate in 4 years 99%
CLA students who take more than 12 credits per semester (up from 70% in 1996) 89%

Gifts by Use (total as of FY07)

  Donors Dollars % of Total Gifts
Academic Program, Faculty 5,412 4,017,289 42.1%
Support, Research & Outreach Fellowships 832 3,094,146 32.4%
Student Support/Scholarships 1,507 2,341,116 24.5%
Capital Improvements/Facilities 33 98,390 1.0%
TOTAL 7,784 $9,550,941