What are the best colleges and universities in Mississippi 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 Mississippi 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.
Mississippi’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 Mississippi’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
$11K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
40%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
865/18
Tougaloo College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
29%
Graduation
20%
Student body
<1K
Rust College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
68%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/23
Millsaps College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
39%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1115/21
Delta State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
46%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1080/21
Mississippi University for Women’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
38%
Graduation
45%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
885/20
Alcorn State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$20K
Acceptance
29%
Graduation
65%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/25
Mississippi College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
90%
Graduation
44%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
981/19
Jackson State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
50%
Student body
13K
University of Southern Mississippi’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
64%
Student body
20K
Median SAT/ACT
1175/26
Mississippi State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
67%
Student body
20K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/25
University of Mississippi’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
55%
Graduation
53%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/24
William Carey University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Acceptance
50%
Graduation
47%
Student body
4K
Belhaven University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
27%
Student body
2K
Mississippi Valley State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
51%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/20
Blue Mountain College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
The majority of the learning institutes in Mississippi are public schools, with the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, being the largest. This university, located in Oxford, boasts alumni like William Faulkner, John Grisham, and James Meredith. Tuition at Ole Miss runs about $9,000, just below the national average. The eight private colleges, all of which have religious affiliations, range in tuition costs from $10,000 at Rust College to $40,000 at Millsaps College.
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Students who attend these schools have the option to pursue degrees in fields like nursing, business, dentistry, Christian ministry, education, and literature. Additionally, all of these private schools are considered small schools, serving under 5,000 students. Mississippi also offers up to $12,000 of undergraduate loan forgiveness, over the course of four years, for teachers who work in designated shortage areas or who teach in critical shortage subjects, like special education or mathematics.
From Mississippi mud pie to fried chicken, Mississippi brings a whole new meaning to the term comfort food.
The Magnolia State is easy on the eyes too. With nearly endless forests spilling over with hickory, pine, and oak trees, the intricate river system, and the Gulf Island National Seashore, Mississippi is a true destination for lovers of outdoor adventure. And students who plan on earning their associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in Mississippi have 31 colleges and universities to choose from.
Explore some of the top schools and career paths Mississippi has to offer.