Washington State University - Pullman

Washington State University International Student Insurance

Washington State University (WSU), located in Pullman, Washington, was established in 1890. It was founded as Washington Agricultural College, one of the oldest land-grant universities in the American West. The school was co-educational from the beginning. Its name changed to the State College of Washington in 1917, and it gained university status and its present name in 1959. In 1989, it founded three branch campuses across the state: WSU Spokane, WSU Tri-Cities, and WSU Vancouver. The online-education Global Campus launched in 2012, and WSU Everett opened in 2015. WSU offers almost 100 undergraduate majors and almost 90 undergraduate minors, as well as master’s, doctoral, and professional programs across 11 colleges. 

Between all six of these campuses, WSU has a total enrollment of more than 30,000 students and counting per year. The school colors are crimson and gray, and its athletic nickname is the cougars.

Research Opportunities

Noteworthy research initiatives at WSU include the nation’s largest university organic farm; an on-campus orchard; the Institute for Shock Physics (in collaboration with Princeton, Caltech, and Stanford); the Murrow Center for Media and Health Promotion research, which helps health professionals and individuals use and interpret the media to make good physical health decisions; the Pacific Northwest Center for Mestizo and Indigenous Research and Engagement; and the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab.

On Campus

There are also a number of interesting museums on campus. The WSU Schnitzer Art Museum’s permanent collections include the Andy Warhol Collection of Photographs and Prints, the Collection of African Art, and the Holland and Orton Collections of Early 20th Century American Painting. The Charles R. Conner Museum of Natural History includes more than 700 mounts of birds and mammals, while its scientific collection has more than 65,000 specimens. The WSU Museum of Anthropology, while appointment-only, contains archaeological and ethnographic collections about regional Native American cultures.

Notable Alumni

Notable WSU alumni include author Sherman Alexie; journalist and so-called “father of television news broadcasting” Edward R. Murrow; newspaper cartoonist Gary Larson; Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen; former Washington Governor Mike Lowry; and Laurence Peter, inventor of the social theory “The Peter Principle.”

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