Washington Monthly places The W at the top of Mississippi
Mississippi University for Women is ranked No. 14 in the south and No. 185 nationally, according to Washington Monthly’s 2026 Best Colleges for Your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars. Released Monday, Aug. 31, the ranking placed The W as the highest-ranked public or private university in Mississippi.
“Washington Monthly’s ranking joins Money and Time in recognizing The W as the top public or private university in Mississippi. The regularity with which we earn these distinctions from major publications validates what we see every day: a tuition or tax dollar spent at The W is the best higher education investment in Mississippi.” said Scott Tollison, interim university president.
The ranking has four equally weighted portions: access, affordability, outcomes and community and national service. The top-ranked colleges needed to be excellent across the full spectrum of measures, rather than excelling in just one measure, according to Washington Monthly.
“To do well on our ranking, colleges must recruit students of modest means without overcharging them on tuition or loading them with too much debt, then help them graduate with degrees that bring in decent incomes,” Washington Monthly said on its website.
Outcomes were assessed using four measures, one of which was a graduation performance measure that considered the percentage of Pell and student loan recipients, admit rate, makeup of the student body, number of students, and whether a college is primarily residential. In this performance metric, The W ranked No. 3 in the south and No. 25 nationally.
To establish the set of colleges included in the 2026 Best Colleges for Your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars rankings, Washington Monthly evaluated colleges across the country. The publication started with 1,950 colleges in the 50 states and Washington, D.C., listed in the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) that awarded more bachelor’s degrees than associate’s degrees, participated in federal financial aid programs, offered classes and had not announced an impending closure or suspension as of June 30, 2026.
Please visit washingtonmonthly.com for the ranking in its entirety.