by our College Data Analytics Team
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.
Central Lakes College - Brainerd was awarded 15 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is liberal arts.
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Central Lakes College landed the #402 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Central Lakes College held the #1,032 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Central Lakes College also holds the #10 spot on the Best Colleges in Minnesota ranking.
See all of the rankings for Central Lakes College - Brainerd.
As long as you meet basic requirements, you should not have any trouble getting into Central Lakes College - Brainerd since the school has an open admissions policy. Still, be sure to submit any requested materials and that your application is completed in full.
With a student to faculty ratio of 18 to 1, Central Lakes College - Brainerd 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.
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 Central Lakes College - Brainerd is 58%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
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 Central Lakes College - Brainerd is 64%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 4,491 undergraduates at Central Lakes College with 1,581 being full-time and 2,910 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,460 | $9,816 | $12,776 | $15,573 | $16,785 |
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 Central Lakes College, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 Central Lakes College, approximately 36% of students took out student loans averaging $5,300 a year. That adds up to $21,200 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for Central Lakes College - Brainerd.
See which majors at Central Lakes College - Brainerd make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Central Lakes College - Brainerd.
Contact details for Central Lakes College are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 501 West College Drive, Brainerd, MN 56401-3900 |
| Phone: | 218-855-8000 |
| Website: | www.clcmn.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 301 | NA |
| Nursing | 79 | NA |
| Agricultural Economics & Business | 57 | NA |
| Vehicle Maintenance & Repair | 56 | NA |
| Ground Transportation | 46 | NA |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 43 | NA |
| Dental Support Services | 34 | NA |
| Accounting | 30 | NA |
| Electromechanical Engineering Technology | 29 | NA |
| Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants | 16 | NA |
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 2022-2023, 1,521 students took at least one online class at Central Lakes College - Brainerd. This is an increase from the 1,507 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 1,521 | 464 |
| 2021-2022 | 1,507 | 499 |
| 2020-2021 | 1,446 | 390 |
| 2018-2019 | 1,497 | 439 |
Learn more about online learning at Central Lakes College - Brainerd.
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.