Here are the best colleges and universities in Montana. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you.
Montana has 21 higher learning institutions, including 16 public universities and colleges. The largest is Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman. With an affordable tuition of $7,000, MSU enrolls just over 16,000 students. Students can earn their degree in fields like forestry, wildlife biology, theatre, and creative writing. The state is also home to five private schools, three of which are religiously affiliated.
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Carroll College is a Roman Catholic liberal arts college with just over 1,000 students in attendance. The tuition runs about $35,000, the most expensive in the state, and it is located on a hilltop in Helena. Students can choose from 18 schools in Montana with tuitions of $7,000 or less, making Montana an affordable state to earn an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree. The state also offers loan repayment programs, including the Montana NHSC Student Loan Repayment Program, which grants up to $15,000 per year for two years for those in health-related fields.
Hiking through Glacier National Park, exploring the Northern Great Plains, and fishing from one of its many lakes and rivers are just some of the ways to enjoy the natural bounty that Montana has to offer. Visitors and locals can also drive Going-to-the-Sun-Road, a 52-mile highway that ventures through the National Park and crosses into Canada. No matter the outdoor hobby, prospective students are sure to love the scenic backdrop of The Treasure State as they earn their degree.
Check out the best programs Montana has to offer while enjoying the wide-open spaces of Big Sky Country.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
We’ve identified 9 colleges and universities in Montana that meet our criteria. This list of the top colleges in Montana below focuses on schools that offer bachelor’s degrees. The ranking features fully accredited public and private colleges and universities in Montana.
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
44%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1150/23
University of Montana’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
60%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1200/24
Montana State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Acceptance
52%
Graduation
47%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1005/19
University of Montana Western’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
53%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1052/21
Rocky Mountain College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
28%
Student body
3K
Montana State University Billings’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
67%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1180/23
Carroll College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
57%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/23
Montana Technological University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$27K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
38%
Student body
<1K
University of Providence’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
35%
Student body
<1K
Montana State University–Northern’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.