What are the best colleges and universities in Montana 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 Montana 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.
Montana’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 Montana’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
$7K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
44%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1150/23
University of Montana’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
60%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1200/24
Montana State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
57%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/23
Montana Technological University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
28%
Student body
3K
Montana State University Billings’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
67%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1180/23
Carroll College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
53%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1052/21
Rocky Mountain College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Acceptance
52%
Graduation
47%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1005/19
University of Montana Western’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
35%
Student body
<1K
Montana State University–Northern’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$27K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
38%
Student body
<1K
University of Providence’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Montana has 21 higher learning institutions, including 16 public universities and colleges. The largest is Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman. With an affordable tuition of $7,000, MSU enrolls just over 16,000 students. Students can earn their degree in fields like forestry, wildlife biology, theatre, and creative writing. The state is also home to five private schools, three of which are religiously affiliated.
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Carroll College is a Roman Catholic liberal arts college with just over 1,000 students in attendance. The tuition runs about $35,000, the most expensive in the state, and it is located on a hilltop in Helena. Students can choose from 18 schools in Montana with tuitions of $7,000 or less, making Montana an affordable state to earn an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree. The state also offers loan repayment programs, including the Montana NHSC Student Loan Repayment Program, which grants up to $15,000 per year for two years for those in health-related fields.
Hiking through Glacier National Park, exploring the Northern Great Plains, and fishing from one of its many lakes and rivers are just some of the ways to enjoy the natural bounty that Montana has to offer. Visitors and locals can also drive Going-to-the-Sun-Road, a 52-mile highway that ventures through the National Park and crosses into Canada. No matter the outdoor hobby, prospective students are sure to love the scenic backdrop of The Treasure State as they earn their degree.
Check out the best programs Montana has to offer while enjoying the wide-open spaces of Big Sky Country.