Southern University and A&M College is a public institution that was founded in 1880. It has a urban setting and the campus size is 964 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Southern University and A&M College's ranking in the 2014 edition of Best Colleges is Regional Universities (South), Tier 2.

Southern University is a comprehensive institution providing four-year baccalaureate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs. The campus is part of the only historically black land-grant university system in the United States. The University offers 31 bachelor's, 20 master's, two post masters certificates, and six doctorates. More African-American graduates, together, in engineering, technology, computer science, and mathematics have earned their degrees from Southern University than from any other university in America.