Auburn University Rankings
For more than 160 years, an Auburn degree has prepared and inspired a new generation of students to be the difference maker in their professions, their communities and beyond. We’re here to ignite your talents, challenge you in ways you never thought possible and provide the tools you need to go out and transform the world.
Prestive and Value Facts
Auburn is consistently ranked among the best public universities in the nation. As a top research institution with a Carnegie R1 classification, we’re among the nation’s elite. Auburn is also one of Kiplinger’s “100 Best Values in Public Colleges,” meaning we deliver the best for less.
Best Value College in Alabama, Money 2020, Niche.com 2021
Auburn earned the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, recognized nationally for the scope, quality and impact of its outreach mission through its engagement in the community.
U.S. News & World Report ranks Auburn #1 in the state of Alabama and has also ranked the university among the top 50 public universities in the nation, 2020.
The Princeton Review (2021) also named Auburn #1 Best Recreational Facilities, #3 Students Pack the Stadium, #8 Students Love It Here, #10 Happiest Students
93% of recent graduates say they would choose Auburn again.
Named by Forbes (2019) and Niche.com (2021) as the top university in the state of Alabama.
Kiplinger’s listed Auburn as the #1 public college in the state, 2019.
97% of recent graduates feel their Auburn education has enhanced their opportunity for future advancement.
Auburn is among a distinctive body of institutions designated as land-, sea- and space-grant universities.
Named a Military Friendly University by Victory Media, as an institution recognized for exhibiting leading practices in recruiting and supporting post-military students.
Auburn is a Carnegie R1 Institution — a doctoral university with a “very high research activity” level.
The National Security Agency designated Auburn as a Center of Academic Excellence because of outstanding programs, information security and assurance.
The Auburn Experience
Start your journey at Auburn. Our robust academics (150+ majors in 12 colleges and schools) are complemented by numerous opportunities for leadership and involvement in more than 550 student organizations. Take a look at what others are saying about Auburn as well as outstanding facts about our unique and lively campus life.
Auburn earned a top spot on Southern Living's list of "The South's Best College Towns."
Men's Health ranked Auburn's Recreation and Wellness Center as one of the “Coolest College Recreation Centers in America.”
The center's group fitness program offers classes ranging from cycling, zumba and HIIT classes, to yoga and meditation.
Among the facility's features are two rock climbing towers and a bouldering wall, a 1/3-mile corkscrew track, a 45-person tiger paw-shaped hot tub and a PGA golf simulator.
Auburn has more than 550 organizations and clubs, from AU Singers to the Wrestling Club.
The 30,737 students that make up Auburn's student body represent all 50 states and 106 countries.
The Davis Arboretum is home to more than 300 native plant species and more than 1,000 individual native azaleas.
The oak and deciduous azalea collections are the only nationally accredited collections through the Plant Collections Network in the SEC.
The arboretum was named in the list of the 30 most beautiful college arboretums by collegerank.net.
As the first in the state to earn the Bee Campus USA designation, Auburn is committed to support pollinators and their habitats, including bees, butterflies, birds and bats, among thousands of other species.
According to the National Survey of Student Engagement, our students report higher satisfaction with their overall academic experience than students at peer institutions.
Additionally, 56% of Auburn seniors indicated that they participated in an internship, co-op, field experience, student teaching, or clinical placement, while 43% reported that they held a formal leadership role in a student organization or group—both higher than at peer institutions.
Academic Support, located in the Ralph Brown Draughon Library, offers free tutoring, supplemental instruction and academic coaching.
Auburn is included in The Princeton Review's Guide to Green Schools, 2021.
Auburn has earned the Tree Campus USA® designation from the Arbor Day Foundation for 10 consecutive years.
Tiger Transit operates more than 20 transit routes, which run throughout town and campus; the Department of Campus Safety and Security runs a night security shuttle service to on-campus locations.
The Student Center provides places for students to congregate, eat and study. Last year, nearly two million people visited.
Auburn received the first Bicycle Friendly University award in Alabama, promoting safe, accessible bicycling on campus.
Auburn University Research
As a top-tier Carnegie R1 research university, Auburn is a leader in developing critical answers to real-world challenges. We are committed to excellence through such research priorities as cyber and homeland security, smart solutions and systems, health sciences and resilient community-building.
Auburn is home to the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence, and its faculty have led additive manufacturing projects sponsored by the Army, Navy, NASA, NIST and private industry.
Cancer research is a primary focus of the College of Veterinary Medicine, one of the few veterinary colleges in the country with an on-campus linear accelerator, MRI and CT scan.
The MRI Research Center leverages the university's existing expertise in engineering, sciences and veterinary medicine to improve health care; it houses an open-bore 3T MRI scanner for clinical and research use, and one of the first actively shielded, whole-body 7T MRI scanners in the U.S.
The Auburn Research and Technology Foundation and the Auburn Research Park combine research and the business community to complement the economic development and research initiatives of the university. In addition to facilitating the commercialization of university technologies and industry-university partnerships, the research park offers employment opportunities for Auburn students and graduates. The park’s New Venture Accelerator helps bring the latest discoveries and technologies to the marketplace, to benefit Alabama’s citizens and the world.
Auburn is one of the few institutions in the U.S. that has been designated by the National Security Agency as a Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations, Cyber Defense and Information Assurance.
The College of Sciences and Mathematics' one-of-a-kind Magnet Laboratory and 6,000-pound superconducting magnet supports plasma physics research, allowing researchers to shape the structure of the magnetic field and, as a result, to perform potentially groundbreaking experiments.
The National Center for Asphalt Technology is a nationally recognized facility that provides leadership in research and testing for the asphalt pavement industry and serves as a clearinghouse for technical information.
Auburn is home to one of the world's leading research centers in the area of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Many retailers and grocers rely heavily on microchip RFID tags to improve on-shelf availability, detect and prevent theft, find a product's present location, verify its sell-by date and track quantities sold.
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education has given Auburn the R1 “very high research activity” designation, recognizing it as one of the most research-active doctoral universities in the U.S.
Interdisciplinary research teams from across campus are focused on solving challenges, including rural housing affordability and health disparities, environmental health issues and a number of metabolic and neurological diseases.
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities designated Auburn as an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University for its excellence in community, social and cultural development work.
Take a look at the growing list of Auburn-developed technologies and research
- A vaccine-like immune stimulator to promote growth in agricultural production animals
- Novel actuators to improve mobility in robotic systems
- A mouse imaging spinner which provides a way to acquire optical images from multiple orientations around a mouse using an optical imaging device
- A specially designed belt to relieve discomfort for marching band drummers
- Vapor Wake® canine-based explosives detection
- Antimicrobial non-woven textiles (including bandages and face masks) to prevent spread of infection
- New varieties of golden kiwi, chestnut and peanut
- An optical microscope that shows live cells in real time at ultra-high resolutions
- A new compound to treat Alzheimer’s disease with reduced side effects
- A unique plasma blasting device that may reduce the need for more dangerous chemical explosives
- Bacterial strains that improve crop productivity
- Antimicrobial coatings with potential to prevent diseases from spreading on contaminated surfaces
- Bacteria-eliminating chemical technology currently marketed as a water purification process
- Ubiquitous microelectromechanical devices made from cellulose, instead of the traditional silicon
- An electrochemical protein assay that can achieve protein detection in the picomolar range
- An egg-injected avian flu vaccine
- Food safety sensors for detecting pathogens in the supply chain
- A popular and widely used flea pill for dogs
- A vaccine to combat horn fly infestations in cattle
- A method to produce an MRI contrast agent that is safer than current options on the market
- A bio-based soil amendment to improve crop yield
- Contact lens-based drug delivery
- Antibodies to detect illegal ingredients in animal feed, and to help prevent the spread of mad cow disease
- Highly efficient catalyst system to remove impurities from natural gas
- A hybrid catfish with increased growth and improved disease resistance
- Novel semiconductor technology with utility in LEDs
- Vaccines against two dangerous warm-water aquaculture pathogens
- Probiotics with applications in aquaculture for growth enhancement, disease control and improved water quality
- A transparent UV protection film made from renewable materials
- Pharmaceutical compounds with broad spectrum anti-viral activity, including Ebola and Norovirus
- A gene therapy against the birth defect GM1 gangliosidosis, currently in human clinical trials
- A device to measure the amount of carbon in soil, to help enable advancements to combat climate change
- A software program that helps achieve diversity in college admissions without the use of quotas
- Novel nanoparticles that can enhance a user’s sense of smell
- Custom 3D printed protective equipment for athletes
- Use of soy components to produce sensors and feed binders
- Advanced 2D materials to produce aluminum-based batteries
- A biofilm-based photobioreactor that can turn livestock waste into value-added products
- A renewable catalyst for the removable of toxic chemicals from ground and drinking water
Community and Global Outreach
Auburn is listed with distinction on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, which annually highlights the meaningful and measureable outcomes of the roles universities play in solving community challenges, and placing more students on a lifelong path of civic engagement.
Rural Studio
Auburn students who participate in the world-renowned Rural Studio build innovative and practical homes to benefit citizens of West Alabama. Work has evolved toward community-oriented projects, which have become multi-year, multi-phase efforts spanning several counties. Rural Studio has also begun a collaboration with Fannie Mae to help those in poor, rural areas gain greater access to resources that will ultimately lead to finding affordable housing options.
Alternate Spring Breaks
This program offers affordable service learning projects that encourage an understanding of pressing social issues in a significant way. Projects have included helping domestic and international communities that lack adequate health care, volunteering at an animal sanctuary or marine life center, rebuilding distressed, foreclosed homes and helping fulfill the vacation dreams of families with children suffering from life-altering diseases or illnesses.
Auburn University Dance Marathon
Dance Marathon, one of campus’ largest fundraisers, is a year-long effort to raise money and awareness for Children's Miracle Network, benefiting nearby Children’s Hospital at Piedmont Columbus Regional. In its eight years, AUDM has raised more than $2 million. The event also hosts families from Children's Miracle Network, allowing students and donors to visit with those they’ve been helping.
Engineers Without Borders
More than two miles up in the Andes Mountains in Quesimpuco, Bolivia, and in the remote village of Kabya, Rwanda, groups of Auburn Engineering students work to provide these communities with sustainable water resources for the most basic human needs. In addition to developing the engineering concepts to produce clean drinking water, these service-learning groups help build irrigation and hydroponics systems, hand-powered washing machines and solar showers.
War on Hunger
The United Nations' World Food Programme, the world's largest humanitarian agency, selected Auburn as its lead academic partner in the International War on Hunger campaign. The partnership has led to more than 300 higher education institutions mobilizing under the banner of Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFWH) and university presidents joining together to commit to addressing food insecurity.
Exceptional Students & Alumni
Auburn students and alumni are successful in the boardroom and the classroom. An Auburn University education, student experience and mentoring provide the skills and strategies to turn career dreams into realities.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Inc., is a 1982 graduate in industrial engineering.
Harold Melton, a 1988 alumnus and the Presiding Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, served as SGA president while at Auburn. The student center was recently named in his honor to recognize his accomplishments both while at Auburn and throughout his career.
Auburn alumna Octavia Spencer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2011 for her role in The Help.
Jim Voss, a 1972 Auburn graduate, flew five space missions for NASA and spent 163 days on board the International Space Station as part of the Expedition II Crew in 2001.
Catherine Tabor
Fulbright Scholarship
Tabor is a 2016 graduate earning a double bachelor's degree in German and English literature with a double minor in psychology and community and civic engagement was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to Austria where she served as an English teaching assistant at a local middle school while pursuing graduate course work in sociology at the University of Vienna. A 2020 graduate from the University of Alabama School of Law she was admitted to the Tennessee Bar and practices law in Nashville, Tennessee.
Ben Cole
Fulbright Grant
Cole graduated in 2016 in public administration with a minor in German and was awarded the Fulbright Grant to pursue graduate study at The University of Cologne where he pursued a doctorate in international security studies. Currently, Ben is finishing his Ph.D. in Cologne where his dissertation examines the German government’s response to the rise of Islamic extremism.
Jennifer Kaczmarek
Goldwater Scholarship
Kaczmarek graduated in the spring of 2017 with a degree in chemical engineering in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. A three-year member of the Auburn University Marching Band, Jennifer was awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship during her junior year and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship her senior year. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Sarah Pitts
Fulbright Scholar
Pitts graduated in 2017 in the College of Liberal Arts earning a double bachelor's degree in English literature and Spanish with a minor in political science. After spending a year as an Americorps volunteer, she travelled to Colombia as a Fulbright Scholar English Teaching Assistant. In addition to her selection as a Fulbright Scholar, Sarah was also a finalist for the Truman Scholarship during her junior year and a Rhodes Scholarship during her senior year. Sarah currently resides in San Francisco and works as a magazine editor.
Alyssa Patterson
Fulbright Scholarship Teaching Assistant
Patterson is a 2018 graduate in the College of Education earning a bachelor's degree in exercise science and a minor in philanthropy and nonprofit studies. During her senior year she was selected for the Fulbright Scholarship English Teaching Assistant to Taiwan. While at Auburn, Patterson participated in a number of leadership activities to include serving as a student recruiter with the Office of Admissions and in a variety of roles with the Black Student Union. She also is a certified United States Gymnastics Association instructor and for the past three years has taught adaptive gymnastics. Alyssa is currently finishing her MSc in global health at Georgetown University.
Brad Bayuga
Congress-Bundestag Exchange for Young Professionals Fellowship
Bayuga graduated in 2019 in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering majoring in software engineering and minoring in German. During his senior year he was awarded the Congress-Bundestag Exchange for Young Professionals Fellowship. This intensive international program, funded by the German Bundestag and U.S. Department of State, selects a small group of young professionals to spend one year in Germany, studying and interning with a German software firm.
Mina Narayanan
Gates Cambridge Scholarship
Narayanan is a 2019 graduate with a double-major in software engineering and political science. Mina was named a finalist for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship in the fall of her senior year and she was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship during the spring of her senior year. Mina is currently finishing her Master of Science in public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and serving as a program analyst with the U.S. Department of State.
Natalie Palmquist
Rhodes Scholarship Finalist
Palmquist is a spring 2019 civil engineering graduate with a minor in philanthropy and nonprofit studies. Throughout her time at Auburn, she served on the Auburn University Engineers without Borders chapter where she was elected president during her senior year and served as the Rwandan team leader. She was a program intern with Engineering Ministries International in Delhi, India in the summer of her junior year, an undergraduate teaching assistant in the College of Human Sciences and vice president of the Turkish Student Organization. In the fall of her senior year she was named a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. Palmquist is currently pursuing a master’s degree in international development studies at Universite Grenobles Alpes, France.
Laura Minton
Dean’s Medal Recipient
Minton graduated Auburn with a 4.0 in biomedical sciences in 2020 and was a Dean’s Medal recipient, with the highest University Honors College Scholar Distinction. Minton was the recipient of a full-ride Auburn Presidential academic scholarship, won the Auburn Alumni Association Be the Creed award and the Marks Family/GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Scholarship for biochemistry research. She is currently attending medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Auburn Family & Spirit
The Auburn Family is ready to welcome you to an unforgettable environment and to guide and support you on your journey. Our strong traditions and school spirit create lasting bonds–this is where you'll make friends for a lifetime. You'll be a member of the Auburn Family, a 233,000-strong, worldwide network of passionate alumni who share the same connection and drive for success.
The Golden Eagle
Aurea, who officially became War Eagle VIII in 2019, is the symbol of the Auburn spirit. She mesmerizes fans with her pre-game flights during football season and will help educate the public about raptors at her home in the Southeastern Raptor Center, part of the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine.
ESPN named Auburn's eagle flight the SEC's best pre-game tradition.
War Eagle
Not only is "War Eagle" Auburn's famous battle cry, but a universal greeting among all Auburn fans and alumni. If you are wearing your Auburn pride, don't be surprised if you hear a "War Eagle."
The Auburn Family
At Auburn, you aren't just another student or alumnus, you are part of the Auburn Family for life. No matter where you came from and where you go, you'll always share this connection.
247 Sports ranked Auburn #1 as the top tailgate location and Insider ranked Auburn in the top 25 tailgates in the country.
Aubie
Running into Aubie around campus or at an event can be the highlight of your day. The fun-loving mascot has won nine Universal Cheerleaders Association mascot national titles (the most of any mascot) and has been inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame.
Aubie was the first inductee into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2006.
The Auburn Creed
Written by George Petrie in 1943, these eight stanzas embody the beliefs of Auburn men and women. The values set forth in the Auburn Creed are what we strive to live accordingly every day.
George Petrie was an Auburn professor and founder of Auburn’s football team; he was the first Auburn faculty member to hold an earned Ph.D.
The Auburn Creed
I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.
I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully.
I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.
I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities.
I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.
I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all.
I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God."
And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it.
-George Petrie (1943)
Rolling Toomer's Corner
The time-honored tradition of rolling the Auburn Oaks in Samford Park at Toomer’s Corner after a big victory is something you will always remember as an Auburn Tiger. You’ll find yourself in the company of friends, faculty, celebrities, the mayor and families caught up in the spirit.
Telegraph ticker tape reporting the news of Auburn’s away-game wins was originally used to roll power lines.
The New York Post named rolling Toomer’s Corner as one of the top college experiences to see live in the nation.
Rolling Toomer’s Corner has been named the nation’s “Best Sports Tradition” by USA Today's 10 Best Reader's Choice travel award contest.