To apply for admission, new freshmen students must complete UNL's Application for Admission, submit a nonrefundable $45 application fee, and request that official transcripts from their high school and any postsecondary institutions they have attended be sent from the school directly to the Office of Admissions, 1410 Q Street, Alexander Building East (0417), 402-472-2023. The deadline for submission for all materials for the First Semester and for all Summer Terms is May 1. For the Second Semester, the application deadline for all admissions materials is December 1.
Core Course Requirements
New admission requirements went into effect beginning with the Fall Semester, 1997. New, first-time UNL students coming directly from high school as well as transfer students who graduated from high school after January 1, 1997 will be expected to have completed the following 16 core course requirements for assured admission.
| Category | Units | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| English | 4 | All units must include intensive reading and writing experience. Innovative interdisciplinary courses and courses in speech and journalism may be substituted if they include substantial amounts of reading and writing. |
| Mathematics | 4 | Must include Algebra I, II, and Geometry, and one additional unit that build on a knowledge of Algebra II. |
| Social Sciences | 3 | At least one unit of American and/or world history and one additional unit of history, American government, and/or geography. |
| Natural Sciences | 3 | At least two units selected from biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences. One of the units must include laboratory instruction. |
| Foreign Language | 2 | Students who are unable to take two years of foreign language in high school may still qualify for admission. Such students will be required to take two semesters of foreign language at the University of Nebraska. These students are still required to complete 16 units of academic courses for admission. |
| Total Units | 16 |
In addition to completing the 16 core course requirements, students must meet at least one performance requirement for admission: class rank in the top one-half of their graduating class, or a 3.0 cumulative high school grade point average, or an ACT composite score of 20 or higher, or an SAT combined score of 1030 or higher.
Individual Review
Applicants who do not meet the requirements for Assured Admission will be considered for admission by Individual Review. Admissions officers will determine if a student is admissible through the Individual Review process. Students who are admitted by Individual Review and who have not yet completed the 16 core course requirements will be required to take designated UNL courses or the equivalent of these courses at another post-secondary institution within a specified period of time, to compensate for core course deficiencies.
Courses taken to compensate for core deficiencies must be completed within the first 30 hours of enrollment at UNL except for foreign language deficiencies, which must be completed within the first 60 hours of enrollment at UNL.
Deferred Admission
Students who are not admitted after individual review will receive Deferred Admission. These students will be expected to gain additional academic preparation at another post-secondary institution before they can reapply for admission to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The new 1997 admission requirements are also being applied at UNO and UNK, with the exception of the fourth year of Mathematics. Both UNO and UNK are requiring a 16th academic unit as part of the core course requirements, but are not requiring that the unit be in Mathematics, as is the requirement at UNL.