Ferris State University Data & Information Overview

If you want to know more about Ferris State University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource. If you're interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning

How Well Is Ferris State University Ranked?

2021 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.

Ferris State University was awarded 104 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is industrial production technology.

Overall Quality

Ferris is ranked #722 out of 1,715 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2021 Best Colleges list.

Ferris is also ranked #23 out of 42 schools in Michigan.

See all of the rankings for Ferris State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Ferris?

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at Ferris State University is 74%. That's higher than the rate at many schools, but still low enough to be considered somewhat selective. If you want to get in, you'll need good grades and to be able to show that Ferris is a good fit for you.

Average Test Scores

About 85% of students accepted to Ferris submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 480 and 590. Math scores were between 460 and 580.

Ferris received ACT scores from 33% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 19 and 25.

Learn more about Ferris State University admissions.

Ferris State University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Ferris State University, this ratio is 16 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

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 Ferris State University is 69%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Ferris State University

Freshmen Retention Rate

Ferris State University has a freshmen retention rate of 79%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Graduation Rate

When we say that a student has graduated on time, we mean that they have finished their bachelor's degree within four years. The on-time graduation rate at Ferris is 21%. That's lower than the national rate of 33.3%

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

Good Overall Diversity at Ferris

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 11,184 undergraduates at Ferris with 7,779 being full-time and 3,405 being part-time.

Ferris Diversity Score

College Factual computes an overall diversity score for each college and university that takes gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and age into account. Schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest, and those that cater to just one or two student groups are ranked the lowest.

The overall diversity score for Ferris is 69.63 out of 100, meaning that is is more diverse than most schools in the country.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Ferris State University.

How Much Does Ferris State University Cost?

The overall average net price of Ferris is $13,008. 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 Ferris

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$9,013	$10,960	$13,967	$16,310	$18,710

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 Ferris, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Ferris, approximately 68% of students took out student loans averaging $7,487 a year. That adds up to $29,948 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Ferris is 7.0%. 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 Ferris State University.

How Much Money Do Ferris Graduates Make?

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Ferris make around $44,500 per year during the early years of their employment. That's great news for Ferris students since it is 12% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at Ferris State University make the most money.

Location of Ferris State University

Located in Big Rapids, Michigan, Ferris State University is a public institution. The surrounding location of Big Rapids is ideal for students who enjoy the charms of a college town.

Get more details about the location of Ferris State University.

Contact details for Ferris are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1201 S State St, Big Rapids, MI 49307-2251
Phone:	231-591-2000
Website:	www.ferris.edu/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/FerrisState
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/FerrisState

Ferris State University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 75 majors graduated from Ferris State University. Of these students, 3,299 received undergraduate degrees and 382 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
Criminal Justice & Corrections	344	$35,700
Business Administration & Management	249	$44,200
Nursing	187	$59,700
Design & Applied Arts	143	$30,200
Industrial Production Technology	124	$72,300
Mechanical Engineering Technology	112	$67,200
General Biology	86	$20,400
Graphic Communications	75	$32,500
Social Work	74	$31,700
Liberal Arts General Studies	64	$28,000

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

Online Learning at Ferris

Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.

In 2017-2018, 3,706 students took at least one online class at Ferris State University. This is an increase from the 3,455 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	3,706	1,276
2016-2017	3,455	1,305
2015-2016	3,558	1,366
2014-2015	3,679	1,403
2013-2014	3,284	1,362

Learn more about online learning at Ferris 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

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Michael Barera under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.