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.
Ridgewater College was awarded 36 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is engineering technologies.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
Ridgewater College landed the #732 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 is an improvement over the previous year, when Ridgewater College held the #973 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Out of the 52 colleges in Minnesota, Ridgewater College is ranked at #28.
Returning adults and other non-traditional students may appreciate the fact that Ridgewater College has an open admissions policy. This means that you'll only have to submit basic materials, which may include proof that you completed high school or an equivalent program.
The student to faculty ratio at Ridgewater 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 Ridgewater College is 61%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate is a sign of how many full-time students like a college or university well enough to come back for their sophomore year. At Ridgewater College this rate is 62%, which is a bit lower than the national average of 68%.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,176 undergraduates at Ridgewater College with 1,752 being full-time and 1,424 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $8,614 | $9,149 | $10,168 | $14,516 | $15,527 |
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 Ridgewater 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 Ridgewater College, approximately 34% of students took out student loans averaging $5,337 a year. That adds up to $21,348 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at Ridgewater College is 1.0%. 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 the location of Ridgewater College.
Contact details for Ridgewater College are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 2101 15Th Ave Nw, Willmar, MN 56201 |
| Phone: | 800-722-1151 |
| Website: | www.ridgewater.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 211 | NA |
| Nursing | 72 | NA |
| Veterinary/Animal Health Technologies/Technicians | 43 | NA |
| Agricultural Economics & Business | 37 | NA |
| Electromechanical Engineering Technology | 32 | NA |
| Precision Metal Working | 30 | NA |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 27 | NA |
| Cosmetology | 24 | NA |
| Electrical & Power Transmission Installers | 23 | NA |
| Drafting & Design Engineering Technology | 22 | 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, 2,088 students took at least one online class at Ridgewater College. This is an increase from the 2,042 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 2,088 | 1,177 |
| 2021-2022 | 2,042 | 1,095 |
| 2020-2021 | 1,907 | 719 |
| 2018-2019 | 1,446 | 608 |
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.