Willamette University ranked No. 1 in the Northwest for Best Value in U.S. News & World Report's 2027 national university rankings, released Tuesday, Sept. 22.

The Salem school also placed No. 86 nationally for Best Value, No. 99 among private national universities and No. 208 overall. The list includes every Ivy League institution and the country's largest public research universities.

It is a first for Willamette.

"It's remarkable that in our very first year competing against the largest and most resourced universities in America, we're in the top 100 for value," Willamette President Steve Thorsett said. "That says something about what a Willamette education delivers."

Willamette is the only institution in the country to move from the National Liberal Arts College list to the National University list this ranking cycle. The shift followed U.S. News's adoption of the American Council on Education's (ACE) 2025 Carnegie Classification framework, which recognized the university's expansion beyond its liberal arts core.

The Best Value ranking weighs academic quality against the net cost students actually pay after grants and scholarships.

That metric got a boost from the university's Oregon Access Scholarship, announced Sept. 2, which covers tuition for Oregon students from families earning $80,000 or less a year. Willamette estimates roughly half of all Oregon families would qualify.

The scholarship applies to Willamette College in Salem and the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland. It is open to first-year and transfer students applying in fall 2026 for fall 2027 enrollment and is renewable for eight semesters.

William Mullen, Willamette's vice president for enrollment management, said when the scholarship was announced that too many families rule out a private university based on the sticker price alone. Once aid is applied, he said, a Willamette education often costs a family the same or less than a state university.

According to the Statesman Journal, the total annual cost to attend Willamette's undergraduate programs in the 2026-27 school year is estimated at nearly $75,000, with tuition alone at a little more than $28,000.

The university spent four decades on the National Liberal Arts College list after debuting in the first U.S. News rankings in 1983 as the top-ranked regional university in the West. Under Thorsett, a Salem native, undergraduate enrollment has grown 28% over three years, according to a January 2025 contract-renewal announcement.

Willamette now sits in a category alongside mid-sized peers such as the University of Rochester, William & Mary and Wake Forest University. Northwest schools in the same category include Gonzaga University and Seattle University. Willamette is also working with Pacific University to create what they describe as the largest independent university in Oregon.