by our College Data Analytics TeamSonoran Desert Institute is a private for-profit institution in Tempe, Arizona enrolling 5,435 undergraduates. It has an on-time graduation rate of 33%, near the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #2,972 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 58%), and its Value for Your Money analysis rates it a Fair Price.
Source: IPEDS 2025; College Scorecard July 2026; College Factual rankings 2027. Data as of: July 2026.
Sonoran Desert Institute ranks #2,972 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 58%.
In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
College Factual ranked Sonoran Desert Institute as #2,972 out of 5,159 colleges and universities in the country on its 2027 Best Colleges list.
Sonoran Desert Institute also holds the #42 spot on the Best Colleges in Arizona ranking.
See all of the rankings for Sonoran Desert Institute.
Learn more about Sonoran Desert Institute admissions.
The student to faculty ratio at Sonoran Desert Institute is 32 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 Sonoran Desert Institute is 5%. 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 Sonoran Desert Institute is 69%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor’s degree within four years. At Sonoran Desert Institute this rate is 33%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Sonoran Desert Institute.
During the most recent academic year, there were 5,435 undergraduates at Sonoran Desert Institute.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Sonoran Desert Institute.
The overall average net price of Sonoran Desert Institute is $17,140. 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.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $20,144 | $20,584 | $20,960 | $23,603 | $25,204 |
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 Sonoran Desert Institute, 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 Sonoran Desert Institute, approximately 28% of students took out student loans averaging $7,471 a year. That adds up to $29,884 over four years for those students. Get more details about paying for Sonoran Desert Institute.
Sonoran Desert Institute is an private for-profit institution found in Tempe, Arizona. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life. Get more details about the location of Sonoran Desert Institute.
Contact details for Sonoran Desert Institute are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1555 W University Dr., Suite 103, Tempe, AZ 85281 |
| Phone: | 4803142102 |
| Website: | sdi.edu |
In the latest year of available data, students from 3 majors graduated from Sonoran Desert Institute. 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 | 3,343 | NA |
| Precision Systems Maintenance | 2,979 | $65,785 |
| Electromechanical Engineering | 364 | NA |
5,437 students took at least one online class at Sonoran Desert Institute.
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.
Learn more about online learning at Sonoran Desert Institute.
Want to see how other colleges compare to Sonoran Desert Institute? Compare them side by side using College Combat, a free interactive tool for comparing colleges on the features you care about.
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.