What are the best colleges and universities in Minnesota 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 Minnesota 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.
Minnesota’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 Minnesota’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
$61K
Acceptance
39%
Graduation
93%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1415/31
Macalester College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
21%
Graduation
94%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1450/32
Carleton College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
78%
Student body
2K
Gustavus Adolphus College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
65%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/22
Hamline University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
85%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1147/25
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
55%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/21
Minnesota State University Moorhead’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
85%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1310/29
St. Olaf College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$41K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
59%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1180/20
Augsburg University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
64%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1175/24
St. Catherine University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
61%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1235/23
University of Minnesota Duluth’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
45%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1064/21
St. Cloud State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
80%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1255/26
University of St. Thomas ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
51%
Student body
13K
Minnesota State University, Mankato’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
84%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1370/28
University of Minnesota’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$24K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
49%
Student body
1K
Dunwoody College of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
One of largest public higher education institutes in the country, the University of Minnesota has main campuses in both of the Twin Cities, Saint Paul and Minneapolis. This school costs about $15,000 in tuition, and provides its students with competitive programs in fields like nursing, education, economics, and psychology. And the options don’t stop there. There are more than 20 schools in the state with religious affiliations, including larger schools like the University of St. Thomas, which campuses in both Twin Cities, and smaller schools like Oak Hills Christian College in Bemidji.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
For students striving to keep costs low in a smaller school environment, Southwest Minnesota State University offers tuition below the national average and serves about 3,500 students. Additionally, those on track to become a teacher or health care provider may be eligible for one of Minnesota’s loan forgiveness programs after graduation. Minnesota also boasts a large network of private colleges, two of which, Walden University and Capella University, primarily cater to online students.
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