Here are the best colleges and universities in Idaho. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you.
Just over half of the 13 colleges and universities in Idaho are public schools. Boise State University, Idaho’s largest public university, serves roughly 17,000 students. Here, students can pursue degrees in fields like communications, earth sciences, and engineering. Idaho is also home to five private schools, including the state’s largest school, Brigham Young University Idaho, which has a student population of nearly 49,000 students.
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While students at BYU school can expect to pay around $4,000 in tuition, well below the national average, the other private school tuition costs range between $13,000 to $30,000. The majority of Idaho’s colleges and universities can be considered small schools, serving student populations of 4,000 or less. However, the state’s largest schools offer the most affordable tuition fees, ranging from as little as $4,000 to $8,000. Students who pursue their degrees in Idaho can study fields like chemistry, law, and anthropology at the University of Idaho or religious studies, psychology, and literature at New Saint Andrews College. Additionally, Idaho offers a loan forgiveness program of up to $100,000 to physicians who work in the state’s rural areas.
French fries, mashed potatoes, tater tots, and even potato-inspired ice cream — Idaho is, as per its reputation, a potato lover’s dream. But it’s not all spuds in this state. Along with countless hiking trails, rivers perfect for rafting trips, and 72 types of gemstones, this state offers higher education institutes with competitive tuition fees and programs.
For more information, explore some of Idaho’s top programs and future career possibilities.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
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.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Every fall, more than 2 million high-school graduates will enroll in colleges and universities across the United States. Finding the best college for your educational, personal, and professional goals may be challenging. The purpose of this ranking is to help you manage this challenge with an accurate, objective, and up-to-date ranking of the best colleges and universities in Idaho for earning a bachelor’s degree.
We’ve identified a total of 8 colleges and universities in Idaho, 6 satisfy our criteria. The list below of the best schools in the state focuses on those that offer four-year undergraduate degrees, includes both public and private colleges and universities, and also meet the following two conditions:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
59%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/23
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University of Idaho’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
48%
Graduation
66%
Student body
1K
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College of Idaho’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
69%
Student body
<1K
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New Saint Andrews College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
55%
Student body
18K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/23
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Boise State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
62%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1090/23
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Northwest Nazarene University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
56%
Student body
43K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/22
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Brigham Young University–Idaho’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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