UI moves ahead of WSU in U.S. News & World Report’s Best National Universities ranking

The U.S. News & World Report college rankings were released for 2025, announcing the University of Idaho as the Best Value Public School in the West for the fifth consecutive year.  

This year, Washington State University dropped 11 spots to 189th in the Best National Universities category while UI moved up six spots to 179th. This puts UI ahead of WSU by 10 ranks.  

UI was also ranked 23rd in the category of Best Value Schools nationwide. The Best Value Rankings reflect an institution’s academic quality and the average cost of attendance for out-of-state students after receiving financial aid.  

According to the U.S. News & World Report’s introduction to the Best Value Schools category, “The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal. Only schools ranked in or near the top half of their categories are included because U.S. News considers the most significant values to be among colleges that are above average academically.”  

UI’s ranking as 23rd is significant as most universities ranked above them on the nationwide Best Value Schools list are private schools, with the only public school ranked higher than UI being the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. 

Other notable rankings UI was assigned are as follows:  

#97 in Top Public Schools 

#88 in Top Performers on Social Mobility  

#124 in Best Colleges for Veterans 

#156 in Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs 

#162 in Best Undergraduate Computer Science 

#147 in Best Undergraduate Business 

#214 in Economics 

According to Jodi Walker, Senior Director of Communications for UI, the rankings reflect the commitment UI has to the value of its students.  

The rankings are a great recruitment tool for attracting more students to UI, which grows the university, helps with diversity, and provides more money and a better educational experience for all students, Walker said.  

“The university is always looking for ways to increase assets and value to our students, so we continue to raise money for scholarships,” Walker said. “We continue to work with our industry leaders across the state and across the country to provide great jobs for them upon graduation and we’re definitely seeing that our students have one of the highest starting salaries of any institution in the area and the highest in the state. And we’re very proud of that.”  

Georgia Swanson can be reached at [email protected].