Locations

Founded in 1891, Lenoir-Rhyne University is a co-educational, private liberal arts institution with 45+ undergraduate degree programs and 20+ graduate degree programs.

LR enrolls more than 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students. LR’s main campus is in Hickory, North Carolina, where both undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered.

The university also offers graduate degree programs online and at locations in Asheville, North Carolina, and Columbia, South Carolina.

LR is affiliated with the North Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and welcomes students from all religious backgrounds.

One University, Multiple Locations

Discover our campuses, visit or connect with us and see for yourself all that LR has to offer.

Two students take a selfie at end of commencement ceremony

2,300⁺

Student enrollment across locations

Professor delivers lecture in front of class

$30M

Financial aid awarded to students annually

Three students in classroom listening to professor lecture

Two counseling students working on assignment in class

Students works with table-based tablet in classroom

News & Events

Ethan Craig sits in a red-orange chair in a hallway in the Mitford Museum

At home in the Mitford Museum

First-year student Ethan Craig ’30 turned a summer internship at the Mitford Museum into hands-on experience in museum curation — and caught a glimpse of the places his passion for art might someday lead.

Two students in volleyball shirts wheel a cart outside Fritz-Conrad

Fun facts for Move-In Day 2026

Who are the newest Bears? Get to know Lenoir-Rhyne’s record-breaking incoming class by exploring the facts about where they’re coming from, what they’ll study and more.

September 10 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM / P.E. Monroe Auditorium

Visiting Writers Series: Andrew McCarthy

October 08 6:30 PM - 7:00 PM / P.E. Monroe Auditorium

Visiting Writers Series: Patrick Ryan