What are the best colleges and universities in North Dakota 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 North Dakota 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.
North Dakota’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 North Dakota’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
$23K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
55%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1035/22
University of Jamestown’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
55%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/20
Minot State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
62%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1152/23
North Dakota State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
61%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/23
University of North Dakota’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
48%
Student body
3K
Bismarck State College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
31%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/20
Mayville State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
45%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1019/21
Valley City State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$20K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
59%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1164/23
University of Mary’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
36%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/20
Dickinson State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
The majority of the higher learning institutes in North Dakota are public schools and almost all of the schools could be considered small schools, serving less than 5,000 students. The state’s two largest schools, however, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and North Dakota State University in Fargo, each have a student population around 12,000 students. Tuition at both of these schools comes in just below the national average at $9,000.
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At UND and NDSU, students can study fields such as engineering, chemistry, law, and education. Additionally, students can attend one of the state’s five private schools, three of which have religious affiliations. Students who attend these schools can pursue degrees in fields like nursing, religious studies, education, and earth sciences. North Dakota also offers a private tribal college, United Tribes Technical College, located in the state’s capital, Bismarck, where students can expect to pay around $4,000 in tuition fees.
As the country’s number one producer of honey and sunflowers, and home to part of the international Peace Garden, North Dakota’s landscape is a thing of natural beauty. This magnificent state also has its fair share of one-of-a-kind attractions, including the Badlands Dinosaur Museum, which features world-class minerals and fossils, and the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Heritage Center, which gives an inside look at this Native American tribe’s unique culture and traditions. The state also boasts 19 colleges and universities for students hoping to earn a higher education degree.
Discover more about earning your degree in North Dakota by exploring some of the state’s top programs.