What are the best colleges and universities in Arizona if you reward schools for making the best use of their limited resources? Academic Stewardship asks how effectively schools manage their financial and human resources to gain the influence that makes them academically excellent. Schools that are exemplary in Academic Stewardship are doing everything in their power to help students and faculty achieve their full potential.
Colleges and universities in Arizona deserve to be recognized when they do more with less. It’s impressive when a large wealthy school can spend money lavishly on expensive buildings and programs. But it’s even more impressive when a small school with limited means is able to train and inspire students that the larger wealthier schools tend to ignore.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities reported in late 2021 that almost 75 percent of higher-education professionals at US colleges and universities felt financial constraints prevented their schools from effectively attracting students. Distracted by the size and amenities of larger schools, prospective students tended especially to be overawed by the big research universities.
Arizona’s smaller colleges, especially its liberal arts colleges, need effective ways of communicating their value to a world that celebrates “bigger is better” and “you need the best.” Unfortunately, most college ranking companies, such as U.S. News & World Report, define “best” in a way that devalues schools with smaller budgets and fewer students even when these schools do remarkable work in advancing their students’ education. By and large, college rankings penalize schools that serve underserved populations.
Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell, who for years now has criticized conventional college rankings for misrepresenting what’s good and valuable in education, we decided to construct a new ranking metric that highlights those schools that do more with less. That metric—called the Academic Stewardship metric—takes away both the size and the wealth advantage of schools, and focuses instead on how well schools use the resources available to them to advance the education of their students.
As a metric, Academic Stewardship is defined by a precise mathematical formula, which can be found in our Academic Stewardship white paper. Measuring the Academic Stewardship of Arizona’s colleges requires measuring two forms of stewardship: 1) Stewardship of financial resources (using the money they have responsibility without waste) and 2) Stewardship of human resources (doing their best to help students, faculty, and administration to flourish). Together, these two types of stewardship form what we call Academic Stewardship. If you want to learn more about the factors involved in Academic Stewardship, click the more button below.
Academic Stewardship as so defined is connected to keeping tuition and other costs down, but it should not be confused with affordability or frugality. The schools that this metric ranks as exemplary academic stewards tend to be all over the map when it comes to tuition and other costs. At issue is the influence of schools given the financial and human resources they have on hand. If a school is going to charge more for tuition, then that needs to be reflected in the school having proportionately greater influence.
The benefits of attending a school with strong academic stewardship include:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
65%
Student body
39K
Median SAT/ACT
1235/25
University of Arizona’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
57%
Student body
27K
Northern Arizona University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
66%
Student body
74K
Median SAT/ACT
1240/25
Arizona State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
20%
Student body
<1K
Diné College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
49%
Student body
<1K
Prescott College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
59%
Student body
3K
Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$18K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
47%
Student body
88K
Grand Canyon University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
36%
Student body
<1K
National Paralegal College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Graduation
64%
Student body
<1K
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
44%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
985/18
Arizona Christian University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Graduation
58%
Student body
<1K
Tuition + fees
$19K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
40%
Student body
<1K
University of Advancing Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Students hoping to attend college in Arizona can choose from associate to doctoral degree programs spanning across the state. The state’s largest university, the University of Arizona located in Tucson, offers a competitive tuition rate, at $12,000, for its 39,000 students. However, Arizona’s most affordable schools, such as the tribally-owned Diné College, offer tuition as low as $1,000. Private schools make up about one third of the higher education institutes in Arizona; and offer a comprehensive range of degrees from fine arts to naturopathic medicine. Arizona’s public universities and colleges, such as Northern Arizona University located in Flagstaff, offer students a variety of study concentrations, including mathematics, education, political science, and psychology.If flexibility is what you need, Arizona has 14 colleges and universities offering online degrees.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Additionally, Arizona is home to three religiously affiliated schools: Arizona Christian University, Phoenix Seminary, and International Baptist College. While tuition varies greatly among these three schools, each school provides unique degree programs, such as music ministry at International Baptist College, for students interested in combining their faith and education.
Year-round sunshine, the Grand Canyon, award-winning restaurants, and several professional sports teams — what more could a student ask for? With more than 30 colleges and universities to choose from, Arizona allows students to get their degrees while cashing in on some of life’s greatest pleasures.
Whether students are interested in obtaining an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree, Arizona offers plenty of colleges and universities for students to choose from.