Viterbo University
Viterbo University is located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It is a private not-for-profit, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: Viterbo University is a private Catholic university in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Founded in 1890 by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Viterbo is home to three colleges with nine schools offering 48 academic programs at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Viterbo is one of 23 Franciscan universities in the United States, with 2,521 undergraduate and graduate students and over 23,000 alumni. As of 2020, Viterbo’s endowment was a record $55.7 million. Viterbo is a member of the NAIA and the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference; its athletic teams are known as the V-Hawks.
Notes
These are items that bear looking into more closely.
This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 60.8%, so approximately 2/5 of undergrads who enroll do not earn a bachelors degree from here.
This institution’s full-time undergraduate enrollment has tended to decrease over time.
Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.
Institution kind: Master’s Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs
Undergrad program: Professions focus, some graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Postbaccalaureate: Education-dominant, with other professional programs
Enrollment profile: Majority undergraduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $23,257 (1.2 times the equivalent cost of Harvard).
Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.
Size and setting: Four-year, small, highly residential
In state percentage: 57% of first year students come from Wisconsin
In US percentage: 98% of first year students come from the US
This institution has a religious affiliation of Roman Catholic
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 60.8% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 46.9%
Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 41.4%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 14.7 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 12.0 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Certificate of less than 1 year, Certificate of at least 12 weeks but less than 1 year, Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 753 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 13.23 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.
Map
Comparisons
The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. In fields where there is a common view that higher (or lower) values are better, the best values are in blue, the worst values are in red. If there isn’t a sense of a particular value being better, values are shown in varying shades of green. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.
- Viterbo University lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Alvernia University, University of St Francis, Mount St. Joseph University, Walsh University, Avila University, University of Saint Francis-Fort Wayne, Edgewood College, Fontbonne University, Clarke University, Lakeland University
- Viterbo University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Franciscan University of Steubenville, Union University, Walla Walla University, California Baptist University, Point Loma Nazarene University, Spring Arbor University, Molloy College, Gwynedd Mercy University, Newman University, Southern Wesleyan University, DeSales University, Maryville University of Saint Louis, Seton Hill University, Carroll College, Augsburg University, Capital University, California Lutheran University, Saint Norbert College, McKendree University, Beloit College, George Fox University, Canisius University, Southern Nazarene University, Ohio Dominican University, Misericordia University, Concordia University-Saint Paul, Carthage College, Friends University, Marian University, Marymount University, Union College, Bellarmine University, MidAmerica Nazarene University, The College of Saint Scholastica, University of Saint Joseph, Point Park University, Waynesburg University, Mount Mary University, Daemen University, Cornerstone University, Loras College, The College of Saint Rose, Mount Mercy University, University of Sioux Falls, D’Youville University, Endicott College, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, Georgian Court University, Marian University, Dominican University, Briar Cliff University, Roberts Wesleyan University, Northland College, Aquinas College, Benedictine University, St. Thomas University, University of Mary, La Sierra University, Northwest Nazarene University, Malone University, Ripon College, Alverno College, Concordia University-Wisconsin, Eastern Mennonite University, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Greenville University, Wilmington College, Dordt University, Grand View University, Wheeling University, University of Northwestern-St Paul, Concordia University-Irvine, Chestnut Hill College, Concordia University Texas, Concordia University-Chicago, Spalding University, Columbia College, Trine University, Bluffton University, Wisconsin Lutheran College, Wingate University, Pfeiffer University, Brenau University
- These institutions compare themselves to Viterbo University, but not vice versa: Principia College, Marywood University, William Woods University, Quincy University, Benedictine College, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, Waldorf University
Enrollment
General
Teaching
Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.
Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.
Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.
Geography
This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated.
Financial Aid
Graduation
Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).
Library
Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.
Diversity
The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.
Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).
These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.
Overall diversity
Freshman profile
Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Freshman geography
Test scores
SAT scores
ACT scores
Majors
This presents information on the number of majors and the median earnings one and five years after graduation for people who got a degree from this institution in that field. The earnings are for those who are working and not enrolled in further education. The earnings data (from the federal college scorecard) also has information on earnings for those categorized as ‘MALE’ and ‘NOMALE’ – for readability, these are recategorized here as “Men” and “Women”, respectively, which adopts the gender binary used in other federal data. “W/M earnings ratio” is the median earnings of women divided by men, as a percentage.