Northwood University Overview

Northwood University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Midland, Michigan. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

What Is Northwood University Known For?

• Students at Northwood may have an easier time interacting with their teachers since the student to faculty ratio at the school is 9 to 1.
• The 4% student loan default rate at Northwood is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Northwood.
• In 2019-2020, 100% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from Northwood makes roughly $55,963 a year. This is 37% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• It takes the average Northwood student 4.2 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Northwood University Rankings

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Northwood.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Specialized Sales Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Radio, TV & Digital Communication Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Hospitality Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#20	Best International Business Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#22	Best Entrepreneurial Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#34	Best Public Relations & Advertising Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#53	Best Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#62	Best Business Administration & Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#77	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#85	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Northwood has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Vehicle and Vehicle Parts and Accessories Marketing Operations Schools	College Factual
#4	Best Fashion Merchandising Schools	College Factual
#5	Best Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#113	Best Marketing Schools	College Factual
#190	Best Business Administration & Management Schools	College Factual
#232	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual

Where Is Northwood University?

Contact details for Northwood are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	4000 Whiting Dr, Midland, MI 48640-2398
Phone:	800-622-9000
Website:	www.northwood.edu
Facebook:	http://facebook.com/northwoodu
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/northwoodu

How Do I Get Into Northwood?

You can apply to Northwood online at: apply.northwood.edu/Pages/Welcome.aspx

Admission Requirements for Northwood

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	recommended
Recommendations	recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Northwood?

With an acceptance rate of 77%, Northwood may not be as selective as some schools, but you should not take admittance for granted. Be sure to submit the best application you can.

Approximately 67% of accepted students are men and 33% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 77%, and the acceptance rate for women is 76%.

Average Test Scores

About 84% of students accepted to Northwood submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 490 and 590. Math scores were between 500 and 590.

Northwood received ACT scores from 25% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 17 and 24. Math scores were between 19 and 25. Composite scores were between 19 and 25.

Can I Afford Northwood University?

The overall average net price of Northwood is $37,150. 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.

Student Loan Debt

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 Northwood, approximately 90% of students took out student loans averaging $7,704 a year. That adds up to $30,816 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Northwood is 4.3%. 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.

Northwood University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 2,254 undergraduate students at Northwood, with 1,358 being full-time and 896 being part-time.

There are also 287 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,358 full-time undergraduates at Northwood, 61% are male and 39% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Northwood University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	24
Black or African American	97
Hispanic or Latino	75
White	989
International Students	33
Other Races/Ethnicities	140

Geographic Diversity

Michigan students aren't the only ones who study at Northwood University. At this time, 15 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 31 countries are represented at Northwood. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Netherlands, and Germany.

Online Learning at Northwood University

In 2019-2020, 1,776 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Northwood has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 5th most popular in Michigan for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Northwood

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Northwood University was $29,480 for both in-state and out-of-state students. The following table shows how Northwood is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing	#7	#7
Insurance	#10	#10
Entrepreneurial Studies	#21	#21
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	#23	#23
Hospitality Management	#37	#37
International Business	#54	#54
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies	#59	#56
Health & Physical Education	#59	#59
Information Science	#72	#60

Online Growth Rankings of Northwood

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Northwood University was 1.9%. This is the #1,639 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Northwood regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Northwood majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Accounting	10%
Communication & Journalism	21%
Hospitality Management	33%
Insurance	17%
Marketing	4%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Northwood ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at Northwood.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing	#16
Insurance	#22
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	#47
International Business	#77
Information Science	#97
Hospitality Management	#116
Management Information Systems	#117
Finance & Financial Management	#154
Entrepreneurial Studies	#157
Marketing	#249
Health & Physical Education	#265
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies	#292
Communication & Journalism	#320
Computer Information Systems	#371

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Northwood University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Associate’s	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	19	389	141	549
Accounting	0	110	0	110
Marketing	0	92	0	92
Finance & Financial Management	0	43	14	57
Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing	0	51	0	51
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	25	0	25
Health & Physical Education	0	22	0	22
International Business	0	18	0	18
Public Relations & Advertising	0	16	0	16
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	15	0	15
Information Science	0	14	0	14
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	12	0	12
Hospitality Management	0	9	0	9
Insurance	0	6	0	6
Business/Managerial Economics	0	5	0	5
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	0	3	0	3
Computer Information Systems	0	3	0	3
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	0
Information Technology	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	19	833	155	1,007

References

*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.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics

More about our data sources and methodologies.