Here are the best colleges and universities in Oregon. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you.
Oregon is home to over 40 higher education institutions, including Oregon State University, the largest in the state. More than 30,000 students are enrolled at this public research institution in Corvallis, and with a tuition of $11,000, the school comes in slightly above the national average. Students attending the next largest, the University of Oregon, will join in on a friendly intrastate rivalry against Oregon State. Though the tuition is higher at $12,000, the school boasts a student–faculty ratio of 16:1.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Of the 21 private institutions, 10 are religiously based. Concordia University has the largest student population at just under 5,000 and a tuition of $31,000. Students who attend this private Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod university can study fields such as chemistry, psychology, and history. Oregon’s community colleges range in tuition from $4,000 to $6,000. The least expensive four-year institution in the state, Portland State University (PSU), comes in at $8,000. Students attending PSU can study a range of fields, including environmental engineering, film, and international business, right in the heart of the city.
Gaze at the Pacific Ocean from the Oregon Coast Highway, which travels along the entire coastal edge of the state. Taste Pacific Northwest wines from the Willamette Valley, or take a bike ride through the streets of Portland. Students looking to earn their associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in The Beaver State can enjoy a great higher education experience set against a stunning natural backdrop.
Discover what Oregon has to offer, and find a college that fits your career interests as well as your budget.
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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 “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.
Find out more about our ranking methodology here.
Less 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 Oregon for earning a bachelor’s degree.
We’ve identified a total of 18 colleges and universities in Oregon, 14 of which 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
$58K
Acceptance
42%
Graduation
77%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1422/32
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Reed College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
74%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1310/29
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Lewis & Clark College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
74%
Student body
22K
Median SAT/ACT
1205/25
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University of Oregon’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
74%
Student body
2K
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Willamette University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
69%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1200/24
View profile
Oregon State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
Acceptance
89%
Graduation
64%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1160/23
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Pacific University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$44K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
75%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/23
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Linfield University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
84%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1250/26
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University of Portland’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
95%
Graduation
49%
Student body
20K
Median SAT/ACT
1110/21
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Portland State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
95%
Graduation
51%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1100/23
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Oregon Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
66%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1150/23
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George Fox University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$19K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
38%
Student body
<1K
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Warner Pacific University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
48%
Graduation
50%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/22
View profile
Corban University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
51%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1081/19
View profile
Bushnell University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
What are Custom College Rankings?
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