Palo Alto University
About
Palo Alto University (PAU) is a private university in Palo Alto, California, that focuses on behavioral health disciplines like counseling, psychology, and social work. It was founded in 1975 as the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology and became Palo Alto University in 2009.
Academic programs at Palo Alto
Top program areas ranked by completions.
Top program families by completions
Enrollment trends & demographics
Fall headcount, 12-month unduplicated enrollment, and student body composition.
Gender split
Race / ethnicity composition
Student-faculty ratio
Student-to-faculty ratio and instructional staff counts.
Palo Alto vs Peer comparison
The peer institutions Palo Alto selected for federal comparison reporting.
A larger shape on any axis means this institution outperforms its peers on that dimension. For acceptance rate and net price, lower raw values are inverted so "more selective" and "more affordable" appear larger.
| Carnegie | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SubjectPalo Alto University | — | — | 1,065 | — | — |
Adler University | — | — | 1,631 | — | — |
California Institute of Integral Studies | — | — | 1,874 | — | Doctoral/Professional |
Saybrook University | — | — | 1,057 | — | Doctoral/Professional |
The Chicago School at Chicago | — | 34.5% | 1,100 | — | — |
The Chicago School at Los Angeles | 0% | 46.3% | 3,344 | — | — |
The Chicago School at Washington DC | — | — | 564 | — | — |
The Wright Institute | — | — | 518 | — | — |
William James College | — | — | 967 | — | — |
| Peer group median | 0% | 40.4% | 1,065 | — |
Palo Alto Institutional Research office
The IR team responsible for the institution's federal reporting.
We maintain the data infrastructure that supports institutional effectiveness, strategic planning, and evidence-based decision making at PAU. The Office of Institutional Research and Digital Transformation provides accurate, accessible data to internal and external stakeholders, supports compliance with accreditation and federal reporting requirements, and coordinates the university's technology strategy.
Visit IR office page- Jeff HarrSenior Director of Institutional Research and Digital Transformation
- Christopher OlbrychInstitutional Research Administrator
Reports & documents (1)
Dashboards, factbooks, data dictionaries, and other reference material published by the IR office.
Grants & funding (4)
Federal grant awards and open funding opportunities awarded to this institution.
- awardLGBTQ+ Clinical AcademyCounty of Santa Clara Behavioral Health Services Departmentinstitution_site
- awardLongevity, Equity, and Aging Research Network (LEARN)National Institutes of Health (NIH)institution_site
- awardPilot Effectiveness Trial of Cognitive Processing Therapy Augmented with a Suicide Risk Management Protocol (CPT+SRM)National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)institution_site
- awardTesting the Role of Attentional and Audio Vocal Mechanisms in a New Internet-Based Intervention for Social Anxiety: iExposureNational Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)institution_site
Notable alumni of Palo Alto (3)
A curated list of alumni recognized for notable achievements across industries.
- Joseph Bankman
- Lisa M. Brown
- Sara Nasserzadeh
Have a question this page can’t answer?
Ask Clema anything about Palo Alto University and its peers — plain language in, cited answers out, in minutes instead of days.
Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card