U.S. News and World Report ranks writing program among top 13 nationally; the program develops your writing skills regardless of your major. Washington State University is the only major public research university in the country to require an approved writing portfolio for graduation.
As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education,
WSU's faculty scholarship ranks fifth in the nation for botany and plant biology and tenth in the nation for zoology among large research universities.
Hospitality management ranked first in the nation for career services among accredited business colleges in 2003 by the Academy of International Business.
Broadcast news program ranks among the nation's top four (Radio and Television News Directors Association survey).
One of the best schools in the nation to study jazz, say both Down Beat and Jazz Times magazines. Both publications included the University’s School of Music and Theatre Arts in their 2002 guides to the best places for a jazz education.
Interior design program ranked eighth in the nation for 2005 by Design Intelligence, a magazine published by the Design Futures Council, a global network of professionals in the design community. According to the same publication, the University’s undergraduate architecture program ranks third among Western schools.
The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies program for undergraduates offered by the College of Business was ranked 18th in the nation in a 2008 survey conducted by Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review.
Advertising program ranks among the nation's top nine (survey of advertising professionals, August 2005).
Edward R. Murrow College of Communication ranks among the top 10 nationally in 13 areas of scholarship, according to the prestigious Communication Institute for Online Scholarship (CIOS). These standings include:
Second in research on advertising.
Third in research on substance abuse messaging.
Sixth in broadcasting, media for children, and organizational communication.
Fourth in television news and broadcast news education; student television productions have won national and regional Emmy awards.
International business program ranked eighteenth in the country by U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges" in 2004.
WSU's Ph.D. program in criminology ranked eighteenth in the nationin U.S. News & World Report’s 2006 “America’s Best Graduate Schools”.
Program excellence
The Department of Sociology received the prestigious 2004 DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association. The award honors the intellectual traditions and contributions of W.E.B. DuBois, Charles S. Johnson, and E. Franklin Frazier. It is given either to a sociologist for a lifetime of research, teaching, and service to the community, or to an academic institution for its work in assisting the development of scholarly efforts in that tradition. Several graduates of the department have received the reward as individuals in the past. This is the first time the award has recognized an entire academic department.
100 percent of students earning a BSN degree receive one or more job offers, many before graduation, with impressive salaries. In addition, the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing prepares more entry-level nurses than any other Washington state educational institution.
WSU’s Veterinary Medical Imaging section features the world’s most advanced array of medical imaging devices employed in veterinary medicine. These include computerized tomography (CT scan) for both large and small animals, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for both large and small animals, digital fluoroscopy, nuclear scintigraphy for both large and small animals, a linear accelerator for producing high energy x-ray radiation and focused electron beams for treatment of cancer, a full array of standard large and small animal x-ray capability on advanced gantry systems to minimize stress to animals, and complete digital image transmittal capability to send images instantaneously from the hospital to the classroom and around the world.
The WSU College of Veterinary Medicine is the only program in northwestern North America that is fully accredited and exceeds federal standards for animal care and use and veterinary medical education. It is accredited by four key national accrediting agencies: the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (AVMA-COE), the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC), the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD), and the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA).
All business and accounting programs in the College of Business and Economics are fully accredited by AACSB International (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), placing them among only a handful of business schools in the nation.
The passing rate for WSU civil engineering students is consistently above both national and Washington state passing rates for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam, which is required of all civil engineering undergraduates prior to graduation.
80 percent of neuroscience graduates were accepted to professional school (medical, dental, veterinary medicine, or optometry), of those who applied.
Murrow College of Communication faculty have won regional and national teaching awards in journalism, broadcasting, and public relations. Murrow College students have earned honors in the Bateman Case Study Competition, a national public relations problem-solving competition sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), for three consecutive years (2006, 2007, 2008).
