Willamette University will appear in U.S. News & World Report's fall 2026 rankings as a National University for the first time in the school's 184-year history, a jump that makes it the only institution in the country promoted from the National Liberal Arts College category this cycle.

The university announced Thursday, Aug. 20, that U.S. News reclassified Salem's oldest private university after 40 years in the liberal arts college tier. Willamette first appeared in the rankings in 1983, the publication's inaugural year, as the top-ranked regional university in the West.

"We are earning national attention for the innovative ways we are connecting our undergraduate students in our liberal arts college and our art and design school with access to a broad range of graduate and professional programs," President Steve Thorsett said.

The promotion reflects a deliberate expansion under Thorsett, who has led Willamette since 2011. The university now encompasses five colleges and schools: Willamette College, the residential liberal arts campus in Salem; the School of Law, Oregon's first; the Atkinson Graduate School of Management; Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, which joined in 2021; and the School of Computing and Information Sciences.

That growth has come with enrollment gains. Willamette reported a 28% increase in undergraduate enrollment over the three years preceding January 2025, bucking national declines. The university also completed a $160 million fundraising campaign, its largest ever, focused on student access and scholarships.

Thorsett, an astrophysicist who grew up on Willamette's Salem campus as the son of a biology professor who taught there for 41 years, said the liberal arts remain central. The school still promises small class sizes and close faculty-student relationships, he said, adding that Willamette has "simply outgrown a classification that no longer describes our breadth or our ambitions."