Program Background and History

Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) is a Christian liberal arts institution founded in 1902. Accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, PLNU offers Baccalaureate degrees (BA, BS, and BSN) in over 40 majors and several Master's degrees. The university has a history of strong programs in the sciences, nursing and education.

Situated on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean, PLNU currently serves 2,375 undergraduate and 795 graduate students, Because of the institution's location in a residential neighborhood, the number of students served by the university is capped by the City of San Diego. For the last several years, the institution has enrolled the maximum number of students allowed. Significant competition for this limited number of seats in the freshmen class has dramatically improved the quality of the student body.

In the early 1990s the administration of Point Loma Nazarene University decided to convert the academic year from a quarter schedule to a semester schedule. At that time, the faculty decided to continue to apply the rule that students who scored below the 35th percentile on the mathematics portion of the SAT were required to take a course in basic mathematical skills. The 35% percentile cut off was decided in the mid 1960s after correlating the data from students' SAT scores with our institutions home grown Mathematics Placement Exam.

The faculty and the administration saw the change in schedule as an opportunity to revise the general education curriculum.