Best Grad Schools in Colorado 2025

Badge for BEST IN COLORADO GRADUATE SCHOOLS

By Dr. James Barham
Reviewed By Jenn Finley

Updated: Oct 4, 2024

Key Takeaways

Nine schools in Colorado meet our criteria for the best grad schools in the state.
Earning a master’s or doctorate degree from one of the state’s best grad schools will qualify graduates to work in one of Colorado’s top industries.
It is important to choose a grad school in Colorado that offers opportunities for independent research, mentorships, and professional networking.

Table of Contents

Best Grad Schools in Colorado in 2025

University of Colorado Boulder
University of Denver
Colorado State University
Colorado School of Mines
University of Colorado Denver
University of Northern Colorado
Aspen University
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
+1
Adams State University
–1

2025 Ranking Update

Our Influence Ranking Engine™ leverages machine learning to track the real-world influence of colleges and universities over time. Below you’ll see which schools gained or lost ground for the 2025 school year.

The top 7 schools in our 2025 ranking of the best grad schools in Colorado remain unchanged from last year. The University of Colorado in Colorado Springs moves up 1 position in our 2025 ranking of the best grad schools in Colorado.

CU Boulder is a Tier 1 research university, placing it among the top 3% of educational institutions in the U.S. Its engineering programs, in particular, are in the top 25 nationally. The graduate school also fosters a diverse and inclusive student community, with a significant portion of its students being international.

Colleges and Universities in Colorado

Students looking to balance outdoor adventure with higher education can choose from over 40 colleges and universities offering master’s, and doctoral degrees for an average in-state tuition of $10,800.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

Tuition for Colorado’s public schools ranges from $5,000 to $19,000. Several of the public colleges in Colorado enroll a large number of online students, including Colorado State University

Colorado’s private institutions boast smaller class sizes and student populations. This category includes five religiously affiliated campuses. Private colleges in Colorado tend to be more expensive, ranging from $4,000 to $55,000 in tuition. There are several online colleges in Colorado that are categorized as private schools.

The University of Colorado, Boulder, a notable research institute, is ranked as the number one school in the state and has a student population of just over 32,000. Students can earn degrees in computer science and physics both through in-person courses and online learning. Influential Boulder alumni include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Academy Award-winning actor and director Robert Redford.

Top Industries in Colorado

Colorado’s best industries include:

Advanced Manufacturing
Aerospace
Bioscience
Defense and Homeland Security
Food and Agriculture
Technology
Transportation and Logistics

What are Colorado’s Colleges & Universities?

Colorado’s Best Overall

How do we determine Colorado's best grad schools?

Methodology

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.

Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.

There are 9 doctorate-granting graduate schools in Colorado. Our ranking of the best graduate schools in the Colorado is composed of both private and public schools. To be included, schools must be fully accredited non-profit institutions, and must offer doctoral degrees and a broad array of graduate degrees.