Less than half of the schools in Oklahoma are private schools. However, students who attend one these schools can expect a more intimate college experience, as each has a student population smaller than 4,000 students. The largest private school, the University of Tulsa, offers degrees in fields like education, criminal justice, and literature, with tuition fees around $41,000. The public schools tend to be more cost-friendly, with tuition ranging from $4,000 to $9,000 per year.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

The University of Oklahoma, the state’s largest public school, costs about $9,000 and serves over 24,000 students. Here, students can partake in competitive on-campus programs in fields like communications and social work, or pursue one of the 30 graduate degrees and certificates online. Oklahoma is also home to several religiously affiliated schools, like Oral Roberts University and Bacone College. Students hoping to pursue a career as a physician, physician’s assistant, or dentist may also want to consider earning their degree here as the state offers several loan forgiveness programs to those who qualify.

The state of Oklahoma is serious about its food - so serious they even declared an official state meal, which consists of fried okra, cornbread, barbecue pork, squash, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, strawberries, chicken fried steak, black-eyed peas, and pecan pie. Those hoping to feed both their bellies and their minds can attend one of Oklahoma’s more than 40 colleges and universities.

To learn more about earning your degree in Oklahoma, check out some of the state’s top programs.

What are Oklahoma’s Colleges & Universities?

Oklahoma’s Best Overall

How do we determine Oklahoma's best colleges and universities?

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.

We’ve identified 26 colleges and universities in Oklahoma that meet our criteria. This list of the top colleges in Oklahoma below focuses on schools that offer bachelor’s degrees. The ranking features fully accredited public and private colleges and universities in Oklahoma.

Best Colleges in Oklahoma 2023

Build your own college ranking

Oklahoma’s Best Colleges in Your Area of Interest

2021 Ranking Archive

Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utilized 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.

Ask A Question

Are you a student who has questions about this topic? Submit your question below to have one of our expert team members answer it for you! (Questions will be posted with their answers directly to this article, and we'll notify you when yours is answered!)

Best Colleges in Oklahoma 2024

10 Best Colleges in Oklahoma

Colleges and Universities in Oklahoma

What are Oklahoma’s Colleges & Universities?

Best Colleges in Oklahoma 2023

Most Influential Alumni

Most Influential Alumni

Most Influential Alumni

Oklahoma State University–Stillwater’s Online Degrees

Most Influential Alumni

Most Influential Alumni

University of Central Oklahoma’s Online Degrees

Most Influential Alumni

Oral Roberts University’s Online Degrees

Degree Concentrations

Degree Concentrations

Most Influential Alumni

Oklahoma Christian University’s Online Degrees

Most Influential Alumni

Most Influential Alumni

Southwestern Oklahoma State University’s Online Degrees

Most Influential Alumni

Most Influential Alumni

East Central University’s Online Degrees

Degree Concentrations

Most Influential Alumni

Southeastern Oklahoma State University’s Online Degrees

Most Influential Alumni

Most Influential Alumni

Bacone College’s Online Degrees

Most Influential Alumni

Cameron University’s Online Degrees

Degree Concentrations

Most Influential Alumni

Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s Online Degrees

Oklahoma Wesleyan University’s Online Degrees

Degree Concentrations

Most Influential Alumni

Southern Nazarene University’s Online Degrees

Most Influential Alumni

Rogers State University’s Online Degrees

Degree Concentrations

Degree Concentrations

Degree Concentrations

Degree Concentrations

Most Influential Alumni

Oklahoma Panhandle State University’s Online Degrees

Degree Concentrations

Most Influential Alumni

Southwestern Christian University’s Online Degrees

Mid-America Christian University’s Online Degrees

Degree Concentrations

Oklahoma’s Best Colleges in Your Area of Interest

Ask A Question