Nevada’s Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship

Nevada’s Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship

What are the best colleges and universities in Nevada 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 Nevada 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.

Nevada’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 Nevada’s Colleges and Universities

Nevada'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 Nevada’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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Nevada’s Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship

  1. Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $9K

    Acceptance

    86%

    Graduation

    62%

    Student body

    23K

    Career Outlook for degree at University of Nevada, Reno

    Cost of Degree: $8,797
    Expenses: $19,888
    Starting Salary: $56,300
    Cost Recoup Time: 10 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary

    University of Nevada, Reno’s Online Degrees

    BSN in Nursing Rn To Bsn
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
  2. Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $9K

    Acceptance

    85%

    Graduation

    47%

    Student body

    35K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1110/21

    Career Outlook for degree at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

    Cost of Degree: $8,947
    Expenses: $16,802
    Starting Salary: $49,600
    Cost Recoup Time: 11 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary

    University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s Online Degrees

    BA in Anthropology
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BA in Multidisciplinary Studies
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BS in Urban Studies
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
  3. Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $4K

    Graduation

    17%

    Student body

    40K

    Career Outlook for degree at College of Southern Nevada

    Cost of Degree: $3,968
    Starting Salary: $37,400
    What is College of Southern Nevada known for?

    College of Southern Nevada’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

    Most Influential Alumni

    College of Southern Nevada’s Online Degrees

    BAS in Project Management
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BAS in Fire And Emergency Services Administration
    • Required Credits: 121
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
  4. #5

    Western Nevada College

    Carson City , NV
    Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $4K

    Graduation

    34%

    Student body

    5K

    Career Outlook for degree at Western Nevada College

    Cost of Degree: $3,838
    Starting Salary: $35,800
    What is Western Nevada College known for?

    Western Nevada College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

    Western Nevada College’s Online Degrees

    BAS in Construction Management
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: None Reported
    BAS in Organization And Project Management
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BAS in Construction
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: None Reported
  5. Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $4K

    Graduation

    48%

    Student body

    4K

    Career Outlook for degree at Great Basin College

    Cost of Degree: $3,772
    Expenses: $11,570
    Starting Salary: $37,300
    Cost Recoup Time: 9 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary
    What is Great Basin College known for?

    Great Basin College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:

    Great Basin College’s Online Degrees

    BAS in Management And Supervision
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BAS in Digital Information Technology
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BA in English
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BAS in Human Services
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BAS in Land Surveying/Geomatics
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BA in Social Science
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion Time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
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Nevada’s Best Colleges in Your Area of Interest

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Colleges and Universities in Nevada

From bigger universities, like the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to smaller schools, like Western Nevada College, students have plenty of options. While the University of Nevada, Las Vegas serves 25,000 students, making it Nevada’s largest higher education institute, their friendly rival university in the north, the University of Nevada, Reno, comes in at a close second, with just over 19,000 students.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

Though Western Nevada College is much smaller in student population, this school offers three campuses and seven other instructional sites across the state. With yearly tuition at the three major universities being under $10,000 and tuition at several smaller colleges coming in at $5,000 or less, students are sure to find an affordable degree. Additionally, those hoping to pursue a career in healthcare or a related field may want to consider attending one of Nevada’s three private colleges or the two biggest universities, all of which offer unique degrees in areas spanning radiology, pediatrics, and nursing. Nevada is also home to one Judaic college, Touro University Nevada, located in Henderson, a city just outside of Las Vegas.

Though most know Nevada for the glitzy casinos and attractions in Las Vegas, it is also home to beautiful Lake Tahoe, a favorite of skiers, hikers, beachgoers, locals, and vacationers. In Nevada, students can bet big and enjoy the outdoors, all while earning their degree at one of The Silver State’s exemplary colleges and universities.

Check out the top degree programs and future career opportunities offered in Nevada.


What are Nevada’s Colleges & Universities?

Nevada’s Best Overall

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