This private university in rural southern Washington says it’s dedicated to making a college degree accessible to anyone with the talent and desire to pursue one. Heritage University’s main campus is on the Yakima Indian Reservation, and the university is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for its multi-cultural campus: More than 70% of undergrads identify as Hispanic and about 10% are Native American. The school also says 85% of students are the first in their family to attend college.
The student body is very small, with roughly 800 undergraduates and a roughly 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio. In other words, it’s a close-knit community where students say it’s easy to get support and one-on-one help from professors. The university offers 18 bachelor’s degree programs with elementary education, nursing and social work attracting the largest number of students.
In Money’s analysis, Heritage stands out on two measures tied to socioeconomic mobility: The university serves a comparatively large share of Pell Grant recipients (which primarily go to lower-income students) and it also scores in the top 15% of think tank Third Way’s Economic Mobility Index.
