Seton Hall University

Admission to Seton Hall University is broadly accessible, even as the school has seen its national standing soften over the past decade. In the 2027 U.S. News rankings, the university placed 156th, showing modest stabilization after slipping from 124th in 2018 to a low of 165th in 2025. For the entering class of 2025, the university admitted 73.3% of applicants, positioning its acceptance rate near the middle of similarly ranked private comprehensive universities. However, the institution experiences a comparatively weak draw once acceptance letters go out. Its yield rate stood at 8.8%, which is higher than 10% of peer schools. For families planning college applications, these metrics indicate that admission remains attainable for students meeting standard academic benchmarks, though the low yield confirms that many admitted applicants ultimately decide to enroll elsewhere.

Applicants to Seton Hall University generally present competitive academic records, though testing policies have made standardized score submission less universal. For the class entering in 2025, the institutional median SAT score was 1310, which was higher than 63% of 27 peer private comprehensive universities with similar rankings. In high school achievement, a large portion of incoming students maintain strong academic marks, with a significant share entering with top grade point averages. Test submission has dropped sharply in recent years, with only a quarter of freshmen submitting SAT results. For international applicants, unofficial applicant cases collected by Forward Pathway showed an admitted student profile with a median unweighted GPA of 3.5 and a median SAT score of 1180. These metrics suggest that while the general admitted cohort exhibits solid academic preparation, international applicants with moderate test scores and steady high school marks remain competitive in the admissions review.

Academic programs at Seton Hall University are centered around healthcare, business, and legal studies, where its specialized offerings achieve notable standing. In 2025, the three largest undergraduate majors—General Biology, Registered Nursing, and General Finance—accounted for 33.1% of all bachelor's degree recipients, reflecting a moderate concentration in life sciences and commercial fields. While undergraduate enrollment is largest in these foundational disciplines, the university's highest-ranked programs reside at the graduate level. In the 2026 U.S. News graduate rankings, the health law program earned 12th place nationally, while physician assistant studies stood at 14th in 2025. At the doctoral level, law confers the vast majority of degrees. Career returns show strong compensation in clinical disciplines: according to 2023 earnings data, graduates in registered nursing earned median salaries of $96,072 one year after graduation. For prospective applicants, the institution offers strong professional pathways, particularly for students pursuing healthcare careers or preparing for advanced legal studies.

The student body at Seton Hall University totaled 9,571 students in 2025, composed primarily of undergraduate cohorts and a substantial graduate population. Female students form the majority across campus divisions, including both the entering undergraduate cohort and advanced degree divisions. Among the 1,601 freshman undergraduates entering in 2025, White and Hispanic students represent the two largest demographic groups, while Asian students accounted for 10.4% of the class. International students comprise a very small segment of the campus community, representing under two percent of first-year undergraduates and 3.4% of graduate students. Continuing undergraduates and transfer cohorts exhibit similar racial balances, while the graduate division displays a higher concentration of White students alongside smaller proportions of Asian and overseas scholars. Overall, the campus environment is predominantly domestic, with international and Asian students forming modest segments across both undergraduate and post-baccalaureate programs.

Undergraduate education at Seton Hall University is almost exclusively populated by traditional college-age students. In 2025, students aged 18 to 19 made up 46.6% of the undergraduate student body, while those aged 20 to 21 accounted for 42.4%. Only a small fraction of undergraduates are 22 or older, which creates a campus rhythm centered on recent high school graduates living and studying together. In contrast, the graduate student population skews toward early-career adults. Students aged 22 to 24 form the largest graduate cohort at 36.8%, followed by individuals in their late twenties and thirties pursuing specialized master's and doctoral credentials. This age division separates the daytime undergraduate environment from the more career-oriented graduate programs.

International enrollment at Seton Hall University has declined over the past decade and represents a small slice of total enrollment. In 2025, international students comprised 1.7% of the undergraduate population, a share that is higher than only 10% of 30 private comprehensive universities with similar rankings. In the graduate division, international students accounted for 3.4% of enrollment. Among degree recipients in 2025, international students earned a small proportion of bachelor's degrees, with business disciplines such as general finance and marketing seeing the highest international participation among the largest undergraduate majors. At the graduate level, international students earned 4.6% of master's degrees, with programs such as social work recording higher international representation than healthcare fields like health law or occupational therapy. For prospective international students, these figures indicate a predominantly domestic student body, meaning foreign applicants will find relatively small international peer networks across most academic departments.

Students considering Seton Hall University will find several prominent higher education institutions nearby in northern New Jersey. Just 3.6 kilometers away, New Jersey Institute of Technology is a national university ranked 85th in the 2027 rankings. In neighboring Newark, Rutgers University-Newark is a national university located 3.7 kilometers from campus and ranked 73rd. A short drive north brings applicants to Montclair State University, a national university 8.5 kilometers away that ties Seton Hall at 156th. Further east along the Hudson waterfront in Hoboken, Stevens Institute of Technology sits 11.6 kilometers from campus, holding the 59th spot among national universities. These neighboring institutions offer families valuable regional alternatives within close geographic proximity.

Campus safety at Seton Hall University has shown consistent improvement, with overall incident rates trending downward over the past decade. The university's crime rate per 1,000 students stood at 5.5 in 2025, down from earlier years. From 2023 to 2025, safety records were dominated by university disciplinary actions rather than violent criminal activity. Disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations formed the largest category, totaling 340 incidents over that three-year span, followed by 151 disciplinary referrals for drug violations. Criminal offenses occurred with much lower frequency during the same period, including small numbers of thefts and relationship-related offenses. For incoming students, these records suggest that campus security is largely focused on enforcing campus substance conduct policies among students rather than handling severe property or personal safety threats.