California’s Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship

California’s Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship

What are the best colleges and universities in California 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 California 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.

California’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.

How We Measure the Academic Stewardship of California’s Colleges and Universities

California's Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship
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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 California’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.

  1. Stewardship of financial resources: To determine a school’s stewardship of financial resources, we factored in its undergraduate size, budget, endowments and reserves, as well as tuition and fees. All these data are available from the National Center for Educational Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. In addition, we factored in a school’s financial responsibility as gauged by the Federal Student Aid Office at the US Department of Education through its financial responsibility composite scores.
  2. Stewardship of human resources: To determine a school’s stewardship of human resources, we used our InfluenceRanking engine to track the influence of the school’s faculty and alumni but also to control for size of the undergraduate student body. We’ve found that measuring a school’s influence based on the contributions of faculty and alumni make in their fields of study but then also controlling for size of the undergraduate population is the single best indicator of academic excellence. We call this Concentrated Influence. Schools that rank highly in Concentrated Influence are schools that, given their available human resources, invest heavily in their students and faculty, and the results are demonstrable.
    • We measure the influence of colleges and universities based on the publications and citations of the schools’ faculty and alumni who are teaching in and working in areas related to their degrees. To do this, we take publicly available databases, such as Semantic Scholar, Crossref, and Wikipedia and use these to measure the influence of academics in their disciplines. Having measured the influence of persons, we then identify the schools that they’re affiliated with, adding up the influence scores of the faculty and alumni to measure the influence of the schools and their disciplinary programs. Finally, we control these influence scores by size of undergraduate student body so that schools do not score high in influence simply because of a size advantage. We lay out these methodological considerations on our methodology page.
  3. Academic Stewardship: Having measured a school’s stewardship of financial and human resources in the two previous points, we now divide the second measure by the first to define the Academic Stewardship metric. This metric spotlights smaller schools, with fewer financial resources and people, that invest wisely and do proportionately better in building influence than large wealthy schools. Many of these smaller, less wealthy schools are incentivized to make better use of their resources but would never get recognized in conventional school rankings, which directly or indirectly put a premium on the wealth of schools.

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.

Why Academic Stewardship Matters to Students and Their Families

The benefits of attending a school with strong academic stewardship include:

  • A clear reason for why students are at the school in the first place. Without the distraction of amenities and luxuries, these schools are at once unpretentious but also passionately committed to their educational mission. The schools in this ranking are financially efficient and academically rigorous. By avoiding frills, these schools take the most direct path to accomplishing their mission of educating students.
  • Valuing character over prestige and self-indulgence. A school that’s a good steward of its resources doesn’t instill shame in its students over what they are missing (such as elite cuisine) but rather pride in what they have and making the most of it. These schools exhibit a culture of good stewardship, which tends to build good character in the students that attend these schools.
  • Avoiding the spoiled-student syndrome. It’s easy to think that offering students endless options and opportunities will enrich their time at school in every way. But spoiling people—whether in business, sports, or academics—has the opposite effect, causing people to take their advantages for granted and in the end achieving less than they might otherwise, a point well-documented in Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code. Schools exhibiting academic stewardship avoid this pitfall.
  • The best schools vs. the schools that help students to be their best. Students at schools demonstrating outstanding academic stewardship aren’t so much concerned about being at the “best” school, whatever that may mean, as about being at a school that helps them to be their best. These schools pay attention to their students, hoping that any glory goes to them rather than to the school. Small schools, and especially liberal arts colleges, help themselves by communicating this advantage to prospective students.
  • Emphasizing development over talent and achievement. Schools like Harvard and Stanford have their pick of academic talent, and their students have a long record of achievement even before they apply to such elite schools. But if a school doesn’t have the resources of a Harvard or Stanford, how does it build a great team of students? In that case, it must focus on student development. Colleges exemplifying academic stewardship emphasize student growth and development, ensuring that the schools are doing everything in their power to help students reach their full potential and thereby become their best selves.
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California’s Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship

  1. Tuition + fees

    $32K

    Acceptance

    58%

    Graduation

    40%

    Student body

    1K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1020/20

    Career Outlook for degree at Pacific Union College

    Cost of Degree: $33,678
    Expenses: $13,476
    Starting Salary: $61,700
    Cost Recoup Time: 14 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  2. Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $59K

    Acceptance

    4%

    Graduation

    93%

    Student body

    2K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1555/35

    Career Outlook for degree at California Institute of Technology

    Cost of Degree: $60,864
    Expenses: $22,734
    Starting Salary: $106,300
    Cost Recoup Time: 14 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  3. Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $58K

    Acceptance

    11%

    Graduation

    93%

    Student body

    1K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1415/32

    Career Outlook for degree at Claremont McKenna College

    Cost of Degree: $60,715
    Expenses: $21,412
    Starting Salary: $93,200
    Cost Recoup Time: 15 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  4. #5

    Scripps College

    Claremont , CA
    Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $58K

    Acceptance

    30%

    Graduation

    82%

    Student body

    1K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1400/31

    Career Outlook for degree at Scripps College

    Cost of Degree: $60,712
    Expenses: $22,618
    Starting Salary: $61,800
    Cost Recoup Time: 19 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  5. #7

    Woodbury University

    Burbank , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $43K

    Acceptance

    63%

    Graduation

    59%

    Student body

    1K

    Career Outlook for degree at Woodbury University

    Cost of Degree: $44,908
    Expenses: $18,341
    Starting Salary: $52,100
    Cost Recoup Time: 18 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
    What is Woodbury University known for?

    Woodbury University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

    Most Influential Alumni

  6. #8

    Westmont College

    Santa Barbara , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $49K

    Acceptance

    79%

    Graduation

    73%

    Student body

    1K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1240/27

    Career Outlook for degree at Westmont College

    Cost of Degree: $50,066
    Expenses: $18,760
    Starting Salary: $58,000
    Cost Recoup Time: 18 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  7. #9

    Whittier College

    Whittier , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $50K

    Acceptance

    82%

    Graduation

    64%

    Student body

    2K

    Career Outlook for degree at Whittier College

    Cost of Degree: $49,864
    Expenses: $17,623
    Starting Salary: $50,900
    Cost Recoup Time: 19 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  8. #10

    Occidental College

    Los Angeles , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $58K

    Acceptance

    38%

    Graduation

    83%

    Student body

    2K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1365/30

    Career Outlook for degree at Occidental College

    Cost of Degree: $60,566
    Expenses: $20,070
    Starting Salary: $59,400
    Cost Recoup Time: 19 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  9. Tuition + fees

    $48K

    Acceptance

    93%

    Graduation

    77%

    Student body

    2K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1160/23

    Career Outlook for degree at Dominican University of California

    Cost of Degree: $49,426
    Expenses: $19,763
    Starting Salary: $63,600
    Cost Recoup Time: 17 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
    What is Dominican University of California known for?

    Dominican University of California’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

  10. #12

    Pomona College

    Claremont , CA
    Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $57K

    Acceptance

    7%

    Graduation

    93%

    Student body

    2K

    Career Outlook for degree at Pomona College

    Cost of Degree: $59,238
    Expenses: $21,958
    Starting Salary: $77,300
    Cost Recoup Time: 17 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  11. #13

    La Sierra University

    Riverside , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $34K

    Acceptance

    66%

    Graduation

    45%

    Student body

    2K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1055/19

    Career Outlook for degree at La Sierra University

    Cost of Degree: $34,902
    Expenses: $17,561
    Starting Salary: $54,600
    Cost Recoup Time: 16 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
    What is La Sierra University known for?

    La Sierra University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

    Most Influential Alumni

  12. #14

    University of Redlands

    Redlands , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $54K

    Acceptance

    83%

    Graduation

    69%

    Student body

    5K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1140/22

    Career Outlook for degree at University of Redlands

    Cost of Degree: $55,678
    Expenses: $20,178
    Starting Salary: $57,700
    Cost Recoup Time: 19 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  13. Tuition + fees

    $52K

    Acceptance

    70%

    Graduation

    73%

    Student body

    4K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1161/24

    Career Outlook for degree at Saint Mary's College of California

    Cost of Degree: $53,572
    Expenses: $20,256
    Starting Salary: $63,600
    Cost Recoup Time: 18 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  14. #16

    Biola University

    La Mirada , CA
    Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $44K

    Acceptance

    61%

    Graduation

    70%

    Student body

    6K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1180/25

    Career Outlook for degree at Biola University

    Cost of Degree: $44,382
    Expenses: $15,514
    Starting Salary: $50,700
    Cost Recoup Time: 18 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary

    Biola University’s Online Degrees

    BS in Business Management
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BS in Public Relations
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BS in Biblical Ministries
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
  15. Tuition + fees

    $40K

    Acceptance

    84%

    Graduation

    73%

    Student body

    5K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1195/25

    Career Outlook for degree at Point Loma Nazarene University

    Cost of Degree: $41,100
    Expenses: $16,004
    Starting Salary: $54,400
    Cost Recoup Time: 17 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
    What is Point Loma Nazarene University known for?

    Point Loma Nazarene University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

    Most Influential Alumni

  16. #18

    Sonoma State University

    Rohnert Park , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $8K

    Acceptance

    94%

    Graduation

    60%

    Student body

    9K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1050/20

    Career Outlook for degree at Sonoma State University

    Cost of Degree: $8,060
    Expenses: $19,292
    Starting Salary: $53,200
    Cost Recoup Time: 10 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  17. Tuition + fees

    $8K

    Acceptance

    91%

    Graduation

    48%

    Student body

    7K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1080/21

    Career Outlook for degree at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt

    Cost of Degree: $7,864
    Expenses: $16,992
    Starting Salary: $40,100
    Cost Recoup Time: 12 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
    What is California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt known for?

    California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

    Most Influential Alumni

    California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt’s Online Degrees

    BA in Leadership Studies
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
  18. #21

    Santa Clara University

    Santa Clara , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $56K

    Acceptance

    54%

    Graduation

    91%

    Student body

    9K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1360/30

    Career Outlook for degree at Santa Clara University

    Cost of Degree: $57,534
    Expenses: $21,315
    Starting Salary: $85,300
    Cost Recoup Time: 15 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  19. Tuition + fees

    $52K

    Acceptance

    79%

    Graduation

    69%

    Student body

    7K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1210/26

    Career Outlook for degree at University of the Pacific

    Cost of Degree: $53,682
    Expenses: $18,623
    Starting Salary: $84,200
    Cost Recoup Time: 15 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
  20. #23

    University of La Verne

    La Verne , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $46K

    Acceptance

    72%

    Graduation

    69%

    Student body

    8K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1055/20

    Career Outlook for degree at University of La Verne

    Cost of Degree: $47,000
    Expenses: $19,454
    Starting Salary: $52,700
    Cost Recoup Time: 18 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
    What is University of La Verne known for?

    University of La Verne’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

    Most Influential Alumni

  21. #24

    Foothill College

    Los Altos Hills , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $2K

    Graduation

    58%

    Student body

    27K

    Career Outlook for degree at Foothill College

    Cost of Degree: $1,565
    Starting Salary: $58,300
  22. #25

    University of San Francisco

    San Francisco , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $53K

    Acceptance

    71%

    Graduation

    76%

    Student body

    12K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1235/27

    Career Outlook for degree at University of San Francisco

    Cost of Degree: $55,532
    Expenses: $22,322
    Starting Salary: $74,000
    Cost Recoup Time: 17 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
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California’s Best Colleges in Your Area of Interest

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Colleges and Universities in California

California’s higher education institutes span across the entire state, allowing students to study by the beach, in the forest, in small towns, and in large cities. There are over 30 high quality online programs that would allow you to earn a degree from literally anywhere in California, or the world.

The state’s largest university is the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA serves nearly 44,000 students and offers a tuition rate around $13,000. This isn’t the only school with a large student body though. California is home to 23 colleges and universities with student populations of over 20,000 students.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

However, more than half of the state’s schools serve smaller student populations, offering plenty of options for students who crave a more intimate campus experience. Additionally, California boasts 50 religiously affiliated schools. Many of these schools have high graduation rates. However, tuition costs can range greatly, from $8,000 at Bethesda University up to $54,000 at Pepperdine University.

Additionally, many of California’s colleges and universities boast influential faculty and alumni, including Neil Armstrong, Jerry Lewis, and Weird Al Yankovic. In addition to famous alumni and professors, California’s schools are also home to some of the country’s top degree programs, including nursing, business, religious studies, education, literature, and law. Many of these schools offer online courses and complete online programs in these same disciplines.

Though Hollywood has given us an inside look into California’s most popular landmarks and attractions, these one-of-a-kind places aren’t the only reason people flock to The Golden State. With hundreds of colleges and universities, as well as community and junior colleges, to choose from, students have countless opportunities to further their education in California.

Many of these opportunities are also accessible through online courses and online colleges. A growing number of online programs in California have received accreditation from the Western Association of Schools, which means online students have a higher level of quality assurance than ever before. It’s also worth noting that students who live in California can still get an in-state discount on their associate degree or bachelor’s degree even when completing online courses or online programs.

To learn more about earning your degree in California, check out some of the state’s top programs and career paths.


What are California’s Colleges & Universities?

California’s Best Overall

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