College Viability Inspection Report

Whitman College

Washington · Private, not-for-profit

Whitman College is a private, nonprofit institution in Washington, enrolling 1,512 students as of 2024. It graduates 83% of students in four years, returns 87% of freshmen for a second year, and costs an average of $37,633 a year after grants and scholarships. Of the 8 inspection checks that could be evaluated, 1 is flagged: Enrollment. This report benchmarks Whitman College's most recent reported year (2024) against 2,000+ U.S. colleges across three dimensions: student outcomes, financial health, and value for money. All figures are drawn from federal IPEDS filings and are reported without editorial judgment.

Data note: The U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS database did not include every reported figure for Whitman College between 2020 and 2024. 1 inspection flag could not be evaluated for lack of data — affected indicators are tagged below; missing years are shown as gaps in trend charts rather than estimated.

Whitman College Inspection Flags

Student Outcomes
Financial Health
Value for Your Money

Inspection flags are nine independent checks across student outcomes, financial health, and cost-to-value that surface areas of a college's reported numbers worth a closer look. A triggered flag means the college's data met a specific threshold that students and families may want to ask about — for example, graduation rates slipping below a level, or tuition rising while outcomes decline. A clear flag means the threshold was not met. Flags are signals for further conversation, not verdicts.

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College Viability
Data Summary

Whitman College — All Reported Indicators

Plain-text reference table of every metric and inspection flag for Whitman College. Values reflect IPEDS-reported figures; percent changes reflect endpoint-to-endpoint 2020 → 2024 comparison; percentiles reflect 2024 national rank against four-year public and private nonprofit institutions. Cells marked "not reported" indicate the indicator was not present in IPEDS for this institution.

Student Outcomes

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Four-Year Graduation Rate83.0%+2.5%96th
Six-Year Graduation Rate90.0%+3.5%95th
Full-Time Retention Rate87.0%+20.8%80th
Pell Grant Six-Year Graduation Rate75.6%-5.6%89th
Pell-to-Non-Pell Graduation Gap5.5pp-13.4%36th
Pell Share of Cohort10.6%+3.8%5th

Financial Health

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Revenue-to-Expense Ratio1.73×+36.6%96th
Total FTE Enrollment1,512-5.2%48th
Endowment Value$786.0M+34.0%91st
Net Assets (End of Year)$896.4M+26.1%89th

Value for Money

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Instructional Spending %33.2%-7.8%49th
Student Support Spending %21.7%+29.1%82nd
Administrative Spending %16.7%+1.5%44th
Instruction+Support to Admin Ratio3.29×+2.4%63rd
Average Net Price$37,633-3.5%94th
Net Price: $0-30K Income$13,567-16.3%49th
Net Price: $30K-48K Income$11,596-36.9%35th
Net Price: $48-75K Income$21,915-22.1%76th
Net Price: $75K-110K Income$27,237-7.5%81st
Net Price: $110K+ Income$47,679+0.9%94th

Inspection Flags

FlagSectionStatus
Retention Below 80%
Whitman College's retention rate fell below 80% in 1 of 5 reported years — below the 3-of-5 trigger threshold.
Student OutcomesCleared
Four-Year Graduation Rate Below 50%
Whitman College's 4-year graduation rate stayed at or above 78% in all 5 reported years — above the 50% threshold.
Student OutcomesCleared
Pell Gap Exceeds 10 Points
Not enough reported data for this flag — only 0 of 5 years had a Pell cohort of 50+ students.
Student OutcomesNot Evaluated
Revenue-to-Expense Below 1.0
Whitman College's ratio fell below 1.0 in 1 of 5 reported years — below the 3-of-5 trigger threshold.
Financial HealthCleared
Enrollment Declined 5% or More
Whitman College's total enrollment fell from 1,595 to 1,512 students between 2020 and 2024 (-5.2%) — a decline of 5% or more.
Financial HealthTriggered
Endowment Under $50M or Growth Under 15%
Whitman College's endowment is $786.0M and grew +34.0% between 2020 and 2024 — clearing both the $50 million size threshold and the 15% growth threshold.
Financial HealthCleared
High Cost, Low Completion
Whitman College costs more than the national median but also graduates students at above-median rates — only one of two conditions is met.
Value for MoneyCleared
Spending on Students Below the National Median
Whitman College's ratio fell below the national median of $2.75 in 1 of 5 reported years — below the 3-of-5 trigger threshold.
Value for MoneyCleared
Rising Price, Falling Outcomes
Either net price did not rise or the graduation rate did not decline between 2020 and 2024 — flag not triggered.
Value for MoneyCleared