Western Washington University is a primarily undergraduate university, with over 16,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school. Western is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students, and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, on the ancestral homelands of the Coast Salish Peoples, specifically, the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe. Bellingham is a scenic coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range.

The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western is the highest-ranking public, master’s-granting university in the Pacific Northwest, according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Report rankings and was listed as one of the best colleges in the nation to work for by the Chronicle of Higher Education.