by our College Data Analytics TeamFind out more about how Polk State College ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
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.
Polk State College was awarded 37 badges in the 2026 rankings.
Polk State is ranked #1,229 out of 3,449 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual’s 2026 Best Colleges list.
Within the state, Polk State holds the #35 spot on the Best Colleges in Florida ranking.
The student to faculty ratio at Polk State 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.
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 Polk State College is 38%. 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 Polk State College is 70%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor’s degree from Polk State have a four-year graduation rate of 34%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Polk State College.
The current enrollment includes 5,954 undergraduates at Polk State.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Polk State College.
The typical net cost at Polk State is $16,772. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. 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 price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Polk State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 Polk State, approximately 6% of students took out student loans averaging $3,546 a year. That adds up to $14,184 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 6.1%. 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 Polk State College.
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Polk State College with a bachelor’s degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $40,624 in their early years. This is about 17% less than the average pay for college graduates overall. However, graduates with your major may make more.
Polk State College is an public institution found in Winter Haven, Florida. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life. Get more details about the location of Polk State College.
Contact information for Polk State College can be found below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 999 Avenue H NE, Winter Haven, FL 33881-4299 |
| Phone: | 8632971000 |
| Website: | www.polk.edu |
In the latest year of available data, students from 12 majors graduated from Polk State College. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.
| Most Popular Majors | Completions | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Disciplinary Studies | 1,854 | NA |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 794 | $23,837 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 259 | $30,427 |
| Business Administration & Management | 257 | $36,616 |
| Nursing | 202 | $60,333 |
| Allied Health Professions | 87 | $47,233 |
| Air Transportation | 41 | NA |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 33 | NA |
| Health/Medical Admin Services | 31 | NA |
| Child Development & Family Studies | 29 | $21,337 |
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.
8,105 students took at least one online class at Polk State 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.