U.S. News Rankings Show WWU as Top Public Master’s-Granting School in Pacific Northwest

Western Washington University is the highest-ranking public, master’s-granting university in the Pacific Northwest, according to the 2017 U.S. News & World Report college rankings. 

Western also ranked second among top public master’s-granting universities in the West, a region stretching from Texas to the Pacific – for the fourth year in a row. 

“Western is increasingly well known throughout the region and across the country for providing an outstanding education, excellent value, and high impact learning experiences through research, service and leadership.  Western’s dedicated faculty and staff are the foundation of this excellence, committed to helping students not only succeed, but put their higher education to higher purposes as well.” said Western President Sabah Randhawa.

Western ranked 18th among the top schools in the West, which includes both public and private schools. 

U.S. News has separate categories for “national” (doctoral-granting or research) universities and liberal arts colleges and for specialties such as business and engineering.

The news magazine’s annual rankings are posted on its website, www.usnews.com/colleges. Rankings are based on a variety of criteria including academic reputation, student selectivity and retention, faculty resources, peer assessment and financial resources.  

Western also finished as the top-ranked public master’s granting university in the 2016 university rankings of both Money Magazine  and Washington Monthly magazine, and was named one of the Top 100 Values in Public Colleges and Universities by Kiplinger’s Magazine in 2016 as well. For more information on Western’s national rankings, go to http://www.wwu.edu/about/recognition or contact Western’s Office of Communications and Marketing at (360) 650-3350 or news@wwu.edu.