Welcome to the College of Southern Nevada.
The College of Southern Nevada guarantees access to a quality education in high-demand professional and technology centered careers. At CSN, education is driven by progressive, faculty-crafted learning environments in state of the art facilities with comprehensive student services and energetic community partnerships. Please take a few minutes to look through our View Book.
Celebrating a million alumni, the multi-campus College serves two-thirds of Nevada’s population and 40 percent of Nevada’s higher education students. As the fourth largest two-year college of its kind in the United States and Nevada’s largest institution of higher learning, CSN educates a professional and technology savvy work force that has been the backbone of the state’s dynamic growth and prosperity since 1971 when CSN opened its doors as Clark County Community College with 402 students.
To meet demand to develop public health administrators and college faculty in dental hygiene, CSN also awards a four-year baccalaureate degree (B.S. in Dental Hygiene), in addition to its nationally recognized associate degree program in dental hygiene.
In the last decade, CSN more than doubled its size in student enrollment and full-time faculty. Each semester, CSN registers nearly 40,000 students. Over 1,800 students graduate yearly with associate degrees and certificates of achievement.
The College employs over 2,800 people while operating three main campuses and 11 academic centers and sites in four counties, in a 42,000 square mile area the size of Virginia. The staff includes about 500 full-time faculty (nearly a third with doctorates) and more than 800 part-time instructors in over 125 career fields.
During the last decade, CSN has doubled facility space to over a million square feet. The College's most recent building addition, the $25 million library and classroom facility on the Charleston campus, is now open. CSN is seeking to develop a fourth campus in the Northwest region of the Las Vegas Valley in cooperation with the City of Las Vegas. Our CSN Foundation trustees have received generous contributions from community partners to support these and other building and equipment needs along with funds for student scholarships.
The College, its students, faculty and staff contribute $1.6 billion to the regional economy, according to an analysis of the CSN’s socioeconomic benefits conducted by CCbenefits, Inc. That study showed CSN students receive an annual rate of return of 19.5 percent on their educational investment. For every dollar invested in education, students receive a cumulative return of $5.50. For every dollar taxpayers invest in CSN they receive a cumulative return of $3.60. A CSN associate degree will increase a student’s earnings to $44,400 per year, 37 percent more than the average high school graduate. That translates to lifetime earnings of $420,900 more than someone with a high school diploma or GED. Statistically higher education is correlated with improving the quality of life of graduates, so the public is saving $11.5 million a year in monies that would have gone toward medical, crime related, welfare and unemployment expenses.
Other major recent achievements include: three Community College High Schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the best in the nation, a culinary team that has won best in state for 11 consecutive years, the state's best diversity recruitment and largest online learning program enrollments, one of the nation’s most successful international student-study programs, special tutoring/retention services, Learning & Earning mentoring for at-risk teens and intercollegiate men’s baseball and women’s softball teams. The Coyotes’ baseball team won the 2003 national title as well as three conference titles.
CSN programs reflect the latest educational developments in public and private sector professions. An overwhelming majority of students in surveys testified to the value of CSN’s hallmarks: talented faculty, small classes, individual attention, student success services and schooling relevant to career and job skills demanded by commerce and industry. These hallmarks contribute to the success of an aggressive work force and economic development program that is improving employee productivity and the region’s economic prosperity.
