The
University of Louisiana at Lafayette is located in Lafayette, Louisiana, the second largest university in the state and the largest campus in the eight-member University of Louisiana system. UL Lafayette enrolls 17,075 undergraduates and graduates and employs 713 faculty. The university takes part in the Southeastern Universities Research Association and is categorized as a Carnegie RU/H (Research University (high research activity).
Admissions are very selective.
UL Lafayette has 10 colleges and schools, and one of the largest honors programs in the state. It offers 80 undergraduate, 29 graduate, and 9 doctoral degree programs. In 2006, UL Lafayette was featured in
America's Best Value Colleges, a Princeton Review/Random House college guidebook featuring fewer than 100 U.S. schools. It's recognized for its distinguished programs in
computer science,
business, and
environmental biology. It offers Louisiana's only doctoral program in
Francophone studies and the only doctoral degree in
cognitive science.
UL Lafayette's
athletic teams are known as the Ragin' Cajuns, and they participate in the NCAA Division I (I-A for football) in the
Sun Belt Conference. UL Lafayette's baseball team has won several Division I and conference championships in addition to setting several records. The basketball team has also garnered some conference championships and made several NCAA tournament appearances.
UL Lafayette alumni include novelist James Lee Burke, country singer and songwriter Eddy Raven, exercise guru Richard Simmons, Tony Award-nominee and
Rescue Me actor Daniel Sunjata, current Louisiana governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and numerous professional athletes.
