by our College Data Analytics TeamCollege 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.
Northwest-Shoals Community College was awarded 1 badge in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is multi / interdisciplinary studies.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
College Factual ranked NW-SCC as #1,744 out of 2,152 colleges and universities in the country on its 2025 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when NW-SCC held the #1,906 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
NW-SCC is also ranked #31 out of 42 schools in Alabama.
See all of the rankings for Northwest-Shoals Community College.
Northwest-Shoals Community College has an open admissions policy, so you should not have much trouble being accepted by the school. Still, it is important to fill out the application completely and submit any requested materials, which may include proof that you have a high school diploma or the equivalent.
The student to faculty ratio at Northwest-Shoals Community College is about average at 16 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.
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 Northwest-Shoals Community College is 39%. This is lower 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 Northwest-Shoals Community College is 64%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,360 undergraduates at NW-SCC with 1,081 being full-time and 2,279 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $849 | $1,568 | $5,611 | $8,422 | $8,612 |
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 NW-SCC, 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 NW-SCC, approximately 19% of students took out student loans averaging $3,255 a year. That adds up to $13,020 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for Northwest-Shoals Community College.
See which majors at Northwest-Shoals Community College make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Northwest-Shoals Community College.
Contact details for NW-SCC are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 800 George Wallace Blvd, Muscle Shoals, AL 35661 |
| Phone: | 256-331-5200 |
| Website: | https://www.nwscc.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 581 | NA |
| Precision Metal Working | 188 | NA |
| Heavy/Industrial Equipment Maintenance | 85 | NA |
| Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants | 77 | NA |
| Electrical & Power Transmission Installers | 71 | NA |
| Environmental Control Technology | 65 | NA |
| Nursing | 59 | NA |
| Allied Health Professions | 50 | NA |
| Cosmetology | 48 | NA |
| Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies | 46 | 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, 1,526 students took at least one online class at Northwest-Shoals Community College. This is an increase from the 1,442 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 1,526 | 614 |
| 2021-2022 | 1,442 | 609 |
| 2020-2021 | 1,451 | 560 |
| 2018-2019 | 1,293 | 422 |
Learn more about online learning at Northwest-Shoals Community 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.