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Ridgewater College Data & Information Overview

192 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
8% Student Loan Default Rate
If you want to know more about Ridgewater College, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Ridgewater College Ranked?

#973 Best Colleges in Nation
#41 Best Colleges in MN
Agribusiness/Agricultural Business Operations Highest Ranked Major
Value Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Ridgewater College was awarded 192 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is agribusiness/agricultural business operations.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

Ridgewater College landed the #973 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Ridgewater College held the #1,131 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Ridgewater College also holds the #41 spot on the Best Colleges in Minnesota ranking.

See all of the rankings for Ridgewater College.

Is It Hard to Get Into Ridgewater College?

Open Admissions Policy

Acceptance Rate

Returning adults and other non-traditional students may appreciate the fact that Ridgewater 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.

Learn more about Ridgewater College admissions.

Ridgewater College Faculty

19 to 1 Student to Faculty
58% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Ridgewater College is 19 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1. This may indicate that some of your classes will be larger in size than they would be at other schools. However, upper level classes will probably be smaller.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Ridgewater College is 58%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  58 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Ridgewater College

64% Freshmen Retention

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Ridgewater College is 64%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  64 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Ridgewater College.

Ridgewater College Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,752 Full-Time Undergraduates
17.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
59.1% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,176 undergraduates at Ridgewater College with 1,752 being full-time and 1,424 being part-time.

How Much Does Ridgewater College Cost?

$11,436 Net Price
31% Take Out Loans
$20,712 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Ridgewater College is $11,436. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Ridgewater College

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$9,554 $9,977 $11,350 $14,561 $15,474

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 Ridgewater College, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Ridgewater College, approximately 31% of students took out student loans averaging $5,178 a year. That adds up to $20,712 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Ridgewater College is 8.2%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for Ridgewater College.

How Much Money Do Ridgewater College Graduates Make?

$39,349 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Ridgewater College with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $39,349 in their early years. This is right on par with the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year. Also, graduates in your major field may make more.

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See which majors at Ridgewater College make the most money.

Location of Ridgewater College

Minnesota State
1,752 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Ridgewater College is a public institution located in Willmar, Minnesota. Willmar is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

Get more details about the location of Ridgewater College.

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Contact details for Ridgewater College are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 2101 15Th Ave Nw, Willmar, MN 56201
Phone: 800-722-1151
Website: www.ridgewater.edu/

Ridgewater College Majors

37 Majors With Completions
789 Undergraduate Degrees
Learn more about the majors offered at Ridgewater College along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Ridgewater College

72% Take At Least One Class Online
38% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2020-2021, 2,042 students took at least one online class at Ridgewater College. This is an increase from the 1,907 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 2,042 1,095
2019-2020 1,907 719
2018-2019 1,617 661
2017-2018 1,446 608
2016-2017 1,385 482

Learn more about online learning at Ridgewater College.

Notes and References

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.

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