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Rio Salado College

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Rio Salado College Overview

Rio Salado College is a public institution located in Tempe, Arizona. Tempe is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

What Is Rio Salado College Known For?

5,573 Undergraduate Awards
  • Although it may not be available for every major, the associate's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Rio Salado College.
  • In 2017-2018, 100% of the faculty were full-time.

Best Schools

Rio Salado College Rankings

Rio Salado College holds the #6 spot on the Best Colleges in Arizona ranking.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Rio Salado College.

Rank Ranking Name Share
#1 Best Educational Administration Associate Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#1 Most Popular Criminal Justice & Corrections Undergraduate Certificate Schools Tweet It - Post It
#1 Best Value Educational Administration Associate Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#1 Most Popular Law Enforcement & Firefighting Undergraduate Certificate Schools Tweet It - Post It
#1 Most Popular Insurance Associate Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#8 Most Popular Visual & Performing Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools Tweet It - Post It
#39 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Associate Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#40 Best Law Enforcement & Firefighting Associate Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#49 Best Value Criminal Justice & Corrections Associate Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It
#50 Best Value Law Enforcement & Firefighting Associate Degree Schools Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Rio Salado College has earned from around the web.

Rank Ranking Name Source
#1 Best Educational Administration Associate Degree Schools College Factual
#3 Best Corrections Schools College Factual
#6 Best Insurance Schools College Factual
#118 Best Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting Schools College Factual
#119 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools College Factual
#154 Best Business Schools Business Degree Central

Where Is Rio Salado College?

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Contact details for Rio Salado College are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 2323 W 14Th St, Tempe, AZ 85281
Phone: 480-517-8000

Since Rio Salado College has an open admissions policy, you should not have any trouble getting into the school as long as you have a high school diploma or the equivalent.

Can I Afford Rio Salado College?

47% Take Out Loans
15.7% Loan Default Rate

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 Rio Salado College, approximately 47% of students took out student loans averaging $3,975 a year. That adds up to $15,900 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Rio Salado College is 15.7%. Watch out! This is significantly higher than the national default rate of 10.1%, which means you could have trouble paying back your student loans if you take any out.

Rio Salado College Undergraduate Student Diversity

2,634 Full-Time Undergraduates
60% Women
46% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
There are 17,362 undergraduate students at Rio Salado College, with 2,634 being full-time and 14,728 being part-time.

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Gender Diversity

Of the 2,634 full-time undergraduates at Rio Salado College, 40% are male and 60% are female.

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Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Rio Salado College students is as follows.

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Race/Ethnicity Number of Grads
Asian 122
Black or African American 169
Hispanic or Latino 729
White 1,316
International Students 1
Other Races/Ethnicities 297

Online Learning at Rio Salado College

8,677 Took All Classes Online
9,188 Took At Least One Class Online
-5.3% Avg Growth Over 4 Years
In 2019-2020, 9,188 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

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This school is the 8th most popular in Arizona for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Growth Rankings of Rio Salado College

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Rio Salado College was -5.3%. This is the #1,933 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Rio Salado College regardless of major.

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

Major 1-Year Growth Rate
Accounting 6%
Business Administration & Management 19%
Business Support & Assistant Services 30%
Business, Management & Marketing 31%
Criminal Justice & Corrections 28%
English Language & Literature 50%
Food, Nutrition & Related Services 20%
General Business/Commerce 22%
General Physical Sciences 56%
Health Professions 2%
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting 28%
Human Resource Management 14%
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities 22%
Liberal Arts General Studies 22%
Mental & Social Health Services 7%
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies 43%
Physical Sciences 56%
Public Administration & Social Service 82%
Visual & Performing Arts 11%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Rio Salado College 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 Rio Salado College.

Major Growth Rate Rank
Astronomy & Astrophysics #1
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology #4
Literature #7
Computer Systems Analysis #10
General Physical Sciences #11
Physics #15
Food Science Technology #21
Insurance #25
Chemistry #36
Sustainability Science #41
Food, Nutrition & Related Services #50
Music #55
Anthropology #56
General Biology #64
Physical Sciences #71
Computer Science #91
Economics #93
Design & Applied Arts #95
Political Science & Government #101
Geography & Cartography #101
Biological & Biomedical Sciences #139
History #154
History #154
Computer Software & Applications #156
Sociology #156
Social Work #157
Agriculture & Agriculture Operations #161
Legal Support Services #194
Mental & Social Health Services #194
Visual & Performing Arts #200
Communication & Media Studies #233
English Language & Literature #257
Instructional Media Design #289
Legal Professions #293
Health & Physical Education #299
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies #334
Human Resource Management #336
Information Technology #346
General Psychology #347
Business Support & Assistant Services #348
Communication & Journalism #353
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences #371
General Business/Commerce #386
Social Sciences #475

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%.

Rio Salado College Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major Basic Certificate Associate’s Undergraduate Certificate TOTAL
Criminal Justice & Corrections 1,478 109 497 2,084
Business Support & Assistant Services 1,188 1 0 1,189
Liberal Arts General Studies 0 442 0 442
Fine & Studio Arts 0 0 343 343
Mental & Social Health Services 76 32 42 150
Electrical & Power Transmission Installers 133 0 0 133
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 119 3 0 122
Business Administration & Management 63 45 0 108
Entrepreneurial Studies 104 0 0 104
Information Technology 48 30 10 88
General Business/Commerce 27 24 31 82
Plumbing & Water Supply 68 0 0 68
Vehicle Maintenance & Repair 68 0 0 68
Finance & Financial Management 67 0 0 67
Accounting 34 20 0 54
General Physical Sciences 0 54 0 54
Natural Sciences 0 0 49 49
Woodworking 49 0 0 49
Teacher Education Grade Specific 26 16 0 42
Legal Support Services 0 18 24 42
Human Resource Management 0 29 0 29
Public Administration 28 0 0 28
Carpentry 27 0 0 27
Advanced Dentistry & Oral Sciences 25 0 0 25
Dental Support Services 0 20 0 20
Computer Programming 14 5 0 19
Computer Systems Networking 0 0 13 13
Insurance 8 4 0 12
Computer Software & Applications 0 0 8 8
Linguistics & Comparative Literature 7 0 0 7
Design & Applied Arts 0 0 7 7
Human Development & Family Studies 3 3 0 6
Educational Administration 0 5 0 5
Nanotechnology 2 3 0 5
Food, Nutrition & Related Services 5 0 0 5
Writing Studies 4 0 0 4
Romance Languages 4 0 0 4
Instructional Media Design 3 0 0 3
Allied Health Professions 2 0 0 2
Natural Resources Conservation 2 0 0 2
Air Transportation 0 2 0 2
Graphic Communications 1 0 0 1
General Psychology 0 1 0 1
Food Science Technology 0 0 0 0
General Biology 0 0 0 0
Communication & Media Studies 0 0 0 0
Computer Science 0 0 0 0
Computer Systems Analysis 0 0 0 0
Other Education 0 0 0 0
Literature 0 0 0 0
Health & Medical Administrative Services 0 0 0 0
History 0 0 0 0
Sustainability Science 0 0 0 0
Health & Physical Education 0 0 0 0
Astronomy & Astrophysics 0 0 0 0
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology 0 0 0 0
Chemistry 0 0 0 0
Physics 0 0 0 0
Other Homeland Security 0 0 0 0
Anthropology 0 0 0 0
Economics 0 0 0 0
Geography & Cartography 0 0 0 0
Political Science & Government 0 0 0 0
Sociology 0 0 0 0
Human Services 0 0 0 0
Social Work 0 0 0 0
Dance 0 0 0 0
Drama & Theater Arts 0 0 0 0
Music 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 3,683 866 1,024 5,573

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.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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