Spotlight on Ripon College

This liberal arts college is one of my favorites. Few colleges do so well with students who have fairly average grades and test scores. I first ran a spotlight on Ripon College back in 2008, and I feel it's time to put the school back in the spotlight.

Ripon College
Photo courtesy of Ripon College

Ripon College sits on an attracitve 250-acre campus about 80 miles northwest of Milwaukee. The school's hometown of Ripon, Wisconsin (population 7,500), is a friendly and safe place -- a fitting location for this intimate liberal arts college.

The college has a strong liberal arts curriculum that has earned it a chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. Central to the curriculum is Ripon's "Communicating Plus" program which emphasizes written and oral communication, critical thinking and problem solving. To support the program, Ripon employs a small army of trained student tutors to staff the Collaborative Learning Center. The results of these efforts are impressive--Ripon has a retention and graduation rate that is significantly higher than most colleges with similar locations and student profiles (students don't need straight "A"s to get admitted to Ripon).

Ripon is also a good value. Nearly all students receive financial aid, and in 2009-10 the average grant aid was $17,199. The $28,414 tuition (2011-12) may not seem cheap, but it's not bad when compared to private liberal arts colleges of similar quality. With a 15 to 1 student / faculty ratio and an average class size of 20, Ripon students will get a lot of personal attention.

It's no surprise that Ripon made my list of the Top Wisconsin Colleges.

If you'd like to learn more about Ripon College, check out the Ripon profile and visit the official Ripon website. If you're familiar with Ripon, please share your impressions in the comment area below.

I frequently spotlight great colleges that might be off the radar of college applicants. If you'd like to recommend a school for a future spotlight, please do so in the College Admissions Forum.