SOWELA Technical Community College Overview
Located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, SOWELA Technical Community College is a public institution. The city atmosphere of Lake Charles makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.
What Is SOWELA Technical Community College Known For?
- The highest award offered at SOWELA is the undergraduate certificate.
- For the 2017-2018 academic year, 54% of the faculty were full-time.
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SOWELA Technical Community College 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 SOWELA.
Awards From Around the Web
The following table lists some notable awards SOWELA has earned from around the web.
Rank | Ranking Name | Source |
---|---|---|
#3 | Best Value Colleges for Industrial Production Technology | College Factual |
#5 | Best Other Industrial Production Technologies Schools | College Factual |
#6 | Best Value Colleges for Engineering Technologies | College Factual |
#16 | Best Industrial Production Technology Schools | College Factual |
#20 | Best Engineering Technologies Associate Degree Schools | College Factual |
#22 | Best Electromechanical Engineering Technology Schools | College Factual |
Where Is SOWELA Technical Community College?

Contact details for SOWELA are given below.
Contact Details | |
---|---|
Address: | 3820 Senator J. Bennett Johnston Ave, Lake Charles, LA 70615 |
Phone: | 337-421-6565 |
How Do I Get Into SOWELA?
You can apply to SOWELA online at: www.sowela.edu/admissions/how-to-enroll/application/
Can I Afford SOWELA Technical Community College?
Student Loan Debt
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 SOWELA, approximately 1% of students took out student loans averaging $7,961 a year. That adds up to $31,844 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at SOWELA is 24.1%. 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.
SOWELA Technical Community College Undergraduate Student Diversity

Gender Diversity
Of the 1,492 full-time undergraduates at SOWELA, 48% are male and 52% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity
The racial-ethnic breakdown of SOWELA Technical Community College students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity | Number of Grads |
---|---|
Asian | 7 |
Black or African American | 351 |
Hispanic or Latino | 48 |
White | 968 |
International Students | 22 |
Other Races/Ethnicities | 96 |
Over 10 countries are represented at SOWELA. The most popular countries sending students to the school are India, Vietnam, and Nepal.
Online Learning at SOWELA Technical Community College
The following chart shows how the online learning population at SOWELA has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 28th most popular in Louisiana for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.
Online Growth Rankings of SOWELA
The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at SOWELA Technical Community College was 41.0%. This is the #751 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at SOWELA regardless of major.
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%.
SOWELA Technical Community College Undergraduate Concentrations
The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.
Major | Basic Certificate | Associate’s | Undergraduate Certificate | TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|
Industrial Production Technology | 131 | 123 | 121 | 375 |
Electromechanical Engineering Technology | 82 | 79 | 88 | 249 |
Electrical & Power Transmission Installers | 87 | 55 | 81 | 223 |
Liberal Arts General Studies | 0 | 15 | 203 | 218 |
Business Support & Assistant Services | 148 | 7 | 15 | 170 |
Precision Metal Working | 91 | 0 | 54 | 145 |
General Business/Commerce | 59 | 32 | 38 | 129 |
Computer Information Systems | 39 | 20 | 16 | 75 |
Accounting | 37 | 16 | 17 | 70 |
Culinary Arts | 35 | 7 | 21 | 63 |
Criminal Justice & Corrections | 25 | 19 | 18 | 62 |
Design & Applied Arts | 18 | 9 | 24 | 51 |
Vehicle Maintenance & Repair | 17 | 3 | 30 | 50 |
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants | 0 | 0 | 36 | 36 |
Physical Science Technicians | 20 | 7 | 7 | 34 |
Nursing | 0 | 33 | 0 | 33 |
Drafting & Design Engineering Technology | 3 | 8 | 21 | 32 |
Plumbing & Water Supply | 22 | 0 | 0 | 22 |
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
Allied Health Professions | 0 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
Computer Programming | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
Forestry | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Computer Systems Networking | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
TOTAL | 830 | 442 | 796 | 2,068 |
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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