Dillard University

Since1869, Dillard University has been committed to providing students with a quality four-year liberal arts education.Dillard is a fully accredited private, historically black university. In 2010, U.S. News & World Report ranked Dillard among the nation’s Top 10 HBCUs, based on comprehensive undergraduate studies. Dillard also was awarded a Top 10 Ranking in 2010 for liberal arts schools in the social mobility category by Washington Monthly.

The cornerstone of New Orleans’s Gentilly Community, the university sits on a beautiful and serene 55-acre campus, replete with signature live oak trees and a mixture of historic buildings and modern facilities.

Dillard students go on to some of the best graduate schools in the world. Dillard currently has alumni studying at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and the London School of Economics, among others. Dillard University is also the only university in the United States that is a partner in the Melton Foundation. Dillard students who become Melton Fellows participate in intercultural training, leadership development, and global education through symposia, travel, online activities, project grants, and social service. Host countries include China, Chile, Germany, India and the United States.

Dillard University's mission is to produce graduates who excel, become world leaders, are broadly educated, culturally aware, and concerned with improving the human condition. Through a highly personalized and learning-centered approach, Dillard's students are able to meet the competitive demands of a diverse, global and technologically advanced society.

General Education is your academic introduction to the university. This academic introduction is developed primarily through the General Education Curriculum, a set of course requirements that all students at Dillard University, regardless of their major, must meet. The courses offered in the General Education curriculum provide diverse perspectives and help you acquire the skills essential to university-level learning. Most students complete the General Education curriculum by the end of their sophomore year.

Dillard University's mission is to produce graduates who excel, become world leaders, are broadly educated, culturally aware, and concerned with improving the human condition. In order to be broadly educated, Dillard requires its undergraduate students to take the General Education courses listed below. We have a deep conviction that living a successful and satisfying life demands a wide range of skills and knowledge. Whatever your area of specialization or career plan, you will need the skills to reason logically and quantitively, and to communicate effectively. Further, as a consumer and citizen you will need to have an understanding of the ideas and cultural movements that shape our values, the ways in which humans organize and govern their socities, and the sciences that explain and increasingly shape our environment.

According to the National Association of Academic Advising (NACADA), academic advising is one of the critical components to progression and graduation. In an effort to provide more comprehensive services to first-year students, first-year students began being advised through FYEP in fall 2013. Centralizing all advising activities for first-year students within the FYEP resulted in a fall 2013 to spring 2014 retention rate of 94% for first-year students. This is the highest retention for a cohort of students in the last 5 years.

This outcome supports the premise that centralizing advising services for all students could have significant benefits.For this reason, ACE will restructure the advising model to have all students advised by Professional Advisors in a central location. These Professional Advisors would assist the students with monitoring their degree requirements, adhering to all academic policies and auditing all areas related to their degree programs.

In 1869, with the support of the Missionary Association of the Congregational Church (now the United Church of Christ) and the Freedman’s Aid Society of the United Methodist Church, Straight University and Union Normal School were founded.Later, they were renamed Straight College and New Orleans University, respectively.

Gilbert Academy, a secondary school, was a unit of New Orleans University. Straight College operated a law department from 1874 to 1886. New Orleans University in 1889 opened a medical department, including a school of pharmacy and a school of nursing. The medical department was named Flint Medical College and the affiliated hospital was named the Sarah Goodridge Hospital and Nurse Training School. The medical college was discontinued in 1911, but the hospital, including the nursing school, was continued under the name Flint Goodridge Hospital.

In 1930, New Orleans University and Straight College merged to form Dillard University. The trustees of the new university called for the implementation of a coeducational, interracial school, serving a predominantly African American student body adhering to Christian principles and values. The university was named in honor of James Hardy Dillard, a distinguished academician dedicated to educating African Americans.

Dillard students continue to excel academically, winning major awards such as the Luard Scholarship and gaining placement in prestigious graduate programs throughout the nation.

Today, as in earlier years, graduating seniors gather to repeat the time-honored tradition of walking down the Avenue of the Oaks to their graduation ceremony and their future, girded with a Dillard education.

The university houses several endowed chairs and a strong list of senior vice presidents, including a provost, the first in the university’s history. A major realignment of academic units has created two colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Professional Studies, to better serve students' need in today's growing global economy.

With 141 years of academic excellence to its name, Dillard University continues its historical commitment to excellence in education and strives to position itself as one of the nation’s premier centers for undergraduate research.