Here are the best colleges and universities in Maine. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you.
At $9,970, Maine is right on target with the national average, making the state an affordable choice for those looking to receive an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree. The 16 public colleges and universities range in tuition from $4,000 to $14,000. The 10 private schools tend to cost more, ranging from $27,000 to $55,000, though the class sizes are often much smaller. The largest private university is the University of New England, with just under 6,000 students, and a tuition of $38,000.
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The University of Maine (UMaine), with just under 10,000 students, is the largest public school, with a tuition rate of $11,000. Based in Orono, the public research university offers degrees in fields like literature, earth sciences, and physics. Stephen King and Bernard Lown are among the influential alumni who attended this school. The cost for higher education in Maine varies, but the state offers loan forgiveness programs for many professions, including dentists, lawyers, educators, health professionals, and veterinarians. The Alfond Leaders program forgives up to $60,000 for residents working in eligible science, technology, engineering, and mathematics occupations.
The northernmost state in New England, Maine is known for its fishing, quaint coastal towns, and of course, lobster. Maine is also home to over 60 lighthouses. Students looking to earn their degree while living in a state that has both ocean beaches and lush forests can choose from 26 private and public higher education institutions.
Come see why Maine is an excellent option for earning your higher education degree and starting a career.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
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.
We’ve identified 16 colleges and universities in Maine that meet our criteria. This list of the top colleges in Maine below focuses on schools that offer bachelor’s degrees. The ranking features fully accredited public and private colleges and universities in Maine.
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
95%
Student body
2K
Bowdoin College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
56%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
University of Maine’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
14%
Graduation
92%
Student body
<1K
Bates College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
10%
Graduation
90%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1450/32
Colby College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
36%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1055/22
University of Southern Maine’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$44K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
66%
Student body
<1K
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
61%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/24
University of New England ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
47%
Student body
<1K
Unity College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
19%
Student body
3K
University of Maine at Augusta’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
50%
Student body
1K
Thomas College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
52%
Graduation
74%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/24
Maine Maritime Academy’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
59%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/21
Saint Joseph's College of Maine’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
95%
Graduation
60%
Student body
2K
University of Maine at Farmington’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
31%
Student body
<1K
University of Maine at Presque Isle’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
39%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
975/18
University of Maine at Fort Kent’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
34%
Student body
<1K
University of Maine at Machias’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.