PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University ranks 39th among the nation’s “Top 100 Values in State Universities,” according to the September 1998 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine.
According to the consumer magazine, public universities and colleges provide the “best of both worlds: high quality and low costs (which) add up to value …”
In an article, “State Universities to Cheer About,” the author explains the magazine’s formula for choosing the best U.S. higher education values. The formula gave “greater weight (60 percent) to quality than to financial factors (40 percent) because we were seeking value, not just economy. Our goal is not an inexpensive education but a high-caliber education at the lowest possible cost,” the author stated.
“This ranking recognizes Washington State University’s continuing effort to assure affordable quality education which prepares our graduates to go anyplace they want to go and be successful and leaders in their chosen professions,” WSU President Samuel Smith said.
“It also signals the growing recognition among prospective students of the quality of WSU’s academic programs, faculty and campus facilities,” Smith noted. The magazine used both selectivity and quality of entering students as important measurements in its ranking.
Quality factors used in selecting and ranking the top 100 included graduation rates; rates of freshman retention to the sophomore year; SAT scores and admission rates; computer and library resources; and costs, affordability measures and the percentage of financial need a university is able to provide from all sources.
The Kiplinger ranking for quality and affordability is another in a string of national recognitions WSU has received recently.
In May, WSU again made the listing of 100 Most Wired Universities published by Yahoo! Internet Life magazine. As a result of a more rigorous survey process, WSU jumped to No. 44 this year from No. 83 last year, according to the magazine. The ranking measures student access to the Internet and the university’s use of computing resources and the Internet.
In the six-state region of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Utah and Washington, just four schools made the list of American’s 100 Most Wired Colleges: the University of Oregon, ninth; WSU, 44th; University of Washington, 85th; and Whitman College, 88th.
Last November, WSU’s interior design program was selected as one of the of the top 10 in North America in a poll taken at the Large Design Firm Roundtable hosted by the International Interior Design Association.
WSU’s Honors College ranks among the top eight in the country, while the broadcast studies program in the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication ranks fourth.
In the Kiplinger value ranking, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was first in the country. Ranked Pacific Northwest universities include Washington, 19th; WSU, 39th; Idaho, 63rd; and Oregon, 82nd.
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