St Olaf College Overview

St Olaf College is a private not-for-profit institution located in Northfield, Minnesota. The surrounding location of Northfield is ideal for students who enjoy the charms of a college town.

What Is St Olaf College Known For?

• The student loan default rate at St. Olaf is 1%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the bachelor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at St. Olaf.
• In 2019-2020, 71% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from St. Olaf with a bachelor's degree make about $60,242 a year. That's 48% more than those who graduate from other schools.
• It takes the average St. Olaf student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

St Olaf College Rankings

St. Olaf landed the #132 spot in our 2023 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 2,018 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. Out of the 49 colleges in Minnesota, it is ranked at #5.

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.

St. Olaf has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#139	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#11	Best General Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Chemistry Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#19	Best Teacher Education Subject Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#20	Best Physical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#21	Best Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#38	Best Health & Physical Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#41	Best General Biology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#44	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#45	Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#49	Best Public & Social Service Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Norwegian Language & Literature Schools	College Factual
#21	Best Teaching Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Teaching Degree Search
#40	Best Music Schools	College Factual
#83	Best Visual & Performing Arts Schools	College Factual
#102	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Schools	College Factual
#127	Best Education Schools	College Factual

Where Is St Olaf College?

Contact details for St. Olaf are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1520 St Olaf Ave, Northfield, MN 55057-1098
Phone:	507-786-2222
Website:	wp.stolaf.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/stolafcollege?sk=wall
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/StOlaf

How Do I Get Into St. Olaf?

You can apply to St. Olaf online at: wp.stolaf.edu/admissions/apply/

Admission Requirements for St. Olaf

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into St. Olaf?

The acceptance rate at St. Olaf is 51%, which is a sign that the school is fairly selective. While it may not be as hard to get into as other colleges, you should not take admission for granted.

Approximately 43% of accepted students are men and 57% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 48%, and the acceptance rate for women is 53%.

Average Test Scores

About 39% of students accepted to St. Olaf submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 580 and 690. Math scores were between 570 and 700.

St. Olaf received ACT scores from 72% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 24 and 33. Math scores were between 24 and 30. Composite scores were between 25 and 32.

Can I Afford St Olaf College?

The overall average net price of St. Olaf is $34,372. 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 St. Olaf, approximately 53% of students took out student loans averaging $6,638 a year. That adds up to $26,552 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at St. Olaf is 0.8%. 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.

St Olaf College Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 2,953 undergraduate students at St. Olaf, with 2,916 being full-time and 37 being part-time.

Gender Diversity

Of the 2,916 full-time undergraduates at St. Olaf, 41% are male and 59% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of St Olaf College students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	199
Black or African American	95
Hispanic or Latino	220
White	1,967
International Students	289
Other Races/Ethnicities	146

Geographic Diversity

Minnesota students aren't the only ones who study at St Olaf College. At this time, 42 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 94 countries are represented at St. Olaf. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Vietnam, and India.

Online Learning at St Olaf College

In 2019-2020, 2,713 students took at least one online class at the school.

St Olaf College Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	TOTAL
General Biology	95	95
Economics	90	90
Child Development & Psychology	74	74
Mathematics	68	68
Music	53	53
Political Science & Government	49	49
General English Literature	44	44
Fine & Studio Arts	35	35
Natural Resources Conservation	33	33
Chemistry	33	33
History	30	30
Area Studies	28	28
Romance Languages	28	28
Ethnic Studies	27	27
Computer Science	25	25
East Asian Languages	24	24
Nursing	24	24
Health & Physical Education	23	23
Religious Studies	23	23
Sociology & Anthropology	23	23
Teacher Education Subject Specific	20	20
Drama & Theater Arts	15	15
Physics	14	14
Philosophy	13	13
Social Work	11	11
Liberal Arts General Studies	9	9
Germanic Languages	8	8
Classical Languages & Literature	6	6
Dance	4	4
Classical & Ancient Studies	3	3
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	3	3
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	2	2
Medieval Studies	1	1
Sacred Music	0	0
TOTAL	938	938

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
• Image Credit: By Daniel Edwins a.k.a. Webmoof of English Wikipedia under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.