by our College Data Analytics TeamIn its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
Northwestern Michigan College was awarded 4 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is engineering technology.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
NMC is ranked #1,731 out of 2,152 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2025 Best Colleges list.
NMC is also ranked #46 out of 56 schools in Michigan.
Returning adults and other non-traditional students may appreciate the fact that Northwestern Michigan College has an open admissions policy. This means that you'll only have to submit basic materials, which may include proof that you completed high school or an equivalent program.
The student to faculty ratio is often used to measure the number of teaching resources that a college or university offers its students. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1, but at NMC it is much better at 11 to 1. That's good news for students who want to interact more on a personal level with their teachers.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at Northwestern Michigan College is 33%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 92% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Northwestern Michigan College enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full time students who obtain their bachelor's degree in four years or less. This rate is 25% for first-time, full-time students at NMC, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Northwestern Michigan College.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,278 undergraduates at NMC with 1,200 being full-time and 2,078 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $3,824 | $3,838 | $4,487 | $10,166 | $9,163 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of NMC, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At NMC, approximately 30% of students took out student loans averaging $5,882 a year. That adds up to $23,528 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for Northwestern Michigan College.
See which majors at Northwestern Michigan College make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Northwestern Michigan College.
Contact details for NMC are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1701 E Front St, Traverse City, MI 49686 |
| Phone: | 231-995-1000 |
| Website: | https://www.nmc.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 360 | NA |
| Nursing | 40 | NA |
| Marine Transportation | 37 | $87,281 |
| Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants | 34 | NA |
| Culinary Arts | 21 | NA |
| Air Transportation | 20 | NA |
| Dental Support Services | 17 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 15 | NA |
| General Engineering Technology | 13 | NA |
| Human Development & Family Studies | 11 | NA |
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2022-2023, 2,047 students took at least one online class at Northwestern Michigan College. This is a decrease from the 2,433 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 2,047 | 873 |
| 2021-2022 | 2,433 | 1,210 |
| 2020-2021 | 2,113 | 705 |
| 2018-2019 | 1,216 | 447 |
Learn more about online learning at Northwestern Michigan College.
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.