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?
- 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.
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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.
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?

Contact details for Rio Salado College are given below.
Contact Details | |
---|---|
Address: | 2323 W 14Th St, Tempe, AZ 85281 |
Phone: | 480-517-8000 |
Can I Afford Rio Salado College?
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

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

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

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

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.
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.
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.
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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