What are the best colleges and universities in Washington 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 Washington 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.
Washington’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 Washington’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
$8K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
45%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1084/22
Evergreen State College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
54%
Graduation
86%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1345/30
Whitman College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Graduation
59%
Student body
2K
Walla Walla University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
77%
Student body
3K
University of Puget Sound’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
71%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/26
Pacific Lutheran University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
65%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/22
Seattle Pacific University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
73%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1235/27
Seattle University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
88%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1280/27
Gonzaga University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
53%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/20
Eastern Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
68%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/25
Western Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
58%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/20
Central Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
59%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/23
Washington State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
82%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1345/30
University of Washington’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
30%
Student body
5K
Olympic College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
30%
Student body
6K
Spokane Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
26%
Student body
4K
Spokane Falls Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
38%
Student body
8K
Green River College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
34%
Student body
3K
Wenatchee Valley College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Student body
1K
City University of Seattle’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
42%
Student body
2K
Centralia College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
39%
Student body
3K
Lake Washington Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
60%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1085/20
University of Washington Tacoma’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
42%
Student body
3K
Whatcom Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
52%
Student body
2K
Bellingham Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Graduation
52%
Student body
7K
Charter College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Of the 40 public options, the University of Washington in Seattle is the largest. Roughly 40,000 students attend classes in fields like nursing, education, biology, and computer science. This public research institution is also affordable, charging about $11,000 for tuition. In fact, none of the public schools in Washington exceed $12,000 in price. This includes community colleges, technical colleges, and four-year universities, making Washington a uniquely affordable place to earn your associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Washington also has 24 private institutions. Of those, nine are religious. The most widely known of these, Catholic university Gonzaga enrolls roughly 7,000 students, at a cost of $40,000, in areas such as religious studies, engineering, and law. Central Washington University (CWU) is a smaller public school, serving just over 12,000 students, and has a tuition of $8,000. With 15% of its population being Hispanic, CWU is now recognized as an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution. Washington health professions also have the opportunity to receive funding for loan repayment through Washington’s Health Professional Loan Repayment Program.
Set in the Pacific Northwest, Washington offers ocean beaches and lush forests. In fact, over half the state is covered in forests, earning Washington its nickname as The Evergreen State. Viewers atop the Space Needle in Seattle can take in the sights of Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, and both the Cascades and Olympic mountain ranges. In addition, prospective students can choose from over 60 higher education institutions in the state.
Check out the top higher education programs and find an affordable degree in Washington.