U.S. News Honors Two Spokane Universities

SPOKANE – Two of Spokane’s universities have earned a top spot in U.S. News’ annual college rankings report.

Whitworth University is ranked 6th overall for the best universities in the west. The college competed with 116 other schools in 17 states on the west coast.   

The college was also honored with 5th place on U.S. News’ ‘best-values’ rankings, which is Whitworth’s third year in a row placing in the top five on the ‘best-values’ list.

Whitworth’s president, Bill Robinson, welcomes the honor, but warns against the emphasis on college rankings:

“It’s great to be recognized so favorably, but it isn’t healthy for Whitworth or its prospective students to think some schools are ‘better’ than others in absolute terms,” Richardson says. “Our satisfaction comes from serving students and being faithful to our mission. All other recognitions beyond that are a bonus.”

Third place in the best overall category went to Gonzaga University, which is the 3rd year in a row the college has been in the number three spot; Gonzaga was 4th for four years before moving up a spot.

Gonzaga also took 3rd place in the ‘best-values’ rankings and its engineering program rose four spots to number 21.

Two other colleges in Washington State made the list of best universities: Pacific Lutheran University placed 8th and Seattle Pacific University placed 6th.

U.S. News has been ranking colleges since 1983 and bases its lists on academic reputation, faculty resources, student selectivity, freshmen retention, graduation rate, financial resources and alumni giving.

The full U.S. News college rankings report will be available on newsstands on August 25th.