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Southwest Minnesota State University Data & Information Overview

174 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
91% Acceptance Rate
This overview covers the essential stats on Southwest Minnesota State University, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.
Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you’ll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump to any section on this page.

How Well Is Southwest Minnesota State University Ranked?

#1,176 Best Colleges in Nation
#48 Best Colleges in MN
General Education Highest Ranked Major

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.

Southwest Minnesota State University was awarded 174 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general education.

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Southwest Minnesota State University as #1,176 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list.

Southwest Minnesota State University also holds the #48 spot on the Best Colleges in Minnesota ranking.

See all of the rankings for Southwest Minnesota State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Southwest Minnesota State University?

91% Acceptance Rate
56% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 91%, Southwest Minnesota State University has a fairly liberal admissions policy. However, don't just assume you'll get in! Put together a good application and make sure you include all requested documents and materials.

Learn more about Southwest Minnesota State University admissions.

Southwest Minnesota State University Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
51% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 16 to 1, Southwest Minnesota State University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

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 Southwest Minnesota State University is 51%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  51 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Southwest Minnesota State University

63% Freshmen Retention
35% On-Time Graduation Rate

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 Southwest Minnesota State University is 63%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  63 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from Southwest Minnesota State University have a four-year graduation rate of 35%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  35 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Southwest Minnesota State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,610 Full-Time Undergraduates
21.7% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
58.6% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 6,846 undergraduates at Southwest Minnesota State University with 1,610 being full-time and 5,236 being part-time.

How Much Does Southwest Minnesota State University Cost?

$13,872 Net Price
68% Take Out Loans
$28,196 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Southwest Minnesota State University is $13,872. 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 Southwest Minnesota State University

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$10,578 $10,945 $12,156 $16,682 $18,155

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 Southwest Minnesota State University, 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 Southwest Minnesota State University, approximately 68% of students took out student loans averaging $7,049 a year. That adds up to $28,196 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Southwest Minnesota State University is 5.9%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Southwest Minnesota State University.

How Much Money Do Southwest Minnesota State University Graduates Make?

$43,800 Avg Salary of Grads
Average Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Southwest Minnesota State University with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $43,800 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 Southwest Minnesota State University make the most money.

Location of Southwest Minnesota State University

Minnesota State
1,610 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Southwest Minnesota State University is a public institution located in Marshall, Minnesota. Marshall is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

Get more details about the location of Southwest Minnesota State University.

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Contact details for Southwest Minnesota State University are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1501 State St, Marshall, MN 56258-5468
Phone: 507-537-7678
Website: www.smsu.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SMSUToday
Twitter: https://twitter.com/smsutoday

Southwest Minnesota State University Majors

40 Majors With Completions
470 Undergraduate Degrees
169 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 40 majors graduated from Southwest Minnesota State University. Of these students, 470 received undergraduate degrees and 169 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Nursing 80 $63,193
Teacher Education Grade Specific 67 $37,319
Health & Physical Education 48 $30,486
Business Administration & Management 27 $38,735
Special Education 21 NA
Teacher Education Subject Specific 18 NA
Accounting 18 $36,831
Criminal Justice & Corrections 15 NA
Social Work 14 $33,078
General Biology 14 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Southwest Minnesota State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Southwest Minnesota State University

24% Take At Least One Class Online
10% 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, 1,643 students took at least one online class at Southwest Minnesota State University. This is an increase from the 1,549 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 1,643 668
2019-2020 1,549 574
2018-2019 1,455 525
2017-2018 1,414 471
2016-2017 1,340 441

Learn more about online learning at Southwest Minnesota State University.

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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