Public colleges and universities account for almost 75 percent of all undergraduate students in the U.S. The best public colleges in Utah provide broad access to reputable degree programs, affordable tuition, and sprawling educational communities.
Students hoping to earn their associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in Utah can choose from among 18 different colleges and universities. Ten of these schools are private, including a fully online school — Western Governors University — which serves almost 80,000 students. Brigham Young University in Provo, one of Utah’s two religiously affiliated schools, has some of the state’s top programs in religious studies, history, and business.
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While tuition at private schools can be costly, fees at these two schools fall below the national average, ranging between $6,000 and $7,000. Utah’s public universities are also on the cost-friendly side. Utah Valley University, the state’s largest public school, serves over 28,000 students and has a sticker price of about $6,000. The University of Utah, another affordable option, is close behind, with a student population of just under 28,000 students. Here, students can earn degrees in fields such as computer science, chemistry, engineering, and anthropology.
If you’re someone who lives life to the extreme, Utah may be just the place for you. Careening down the hills at its world-class ski resorts, braving the rapids on white-water rafting trips, hiking through national parks, and speeding across mountain bike trails are just some of the ways visitors and residents of The Beehive State can get their thrills. Another selling point for Utah? Average tuition for this state’s colleges and universities falls thousands of dollars below the national average.
Learn more about Utah’s higher education opportunities by checking out the state’s many affordable colleges and universities.
Public and private colleges and universities operate under different business models — one is a private company with private funding; the other is owned by the state and receives both state and federal funding to operate. If you’re weighing the pros and cons of private vs. public college, consider that many public colleges provide diverse course offerings, influential professors, and an excellent return on your investment.
Public colleges are schools that receive most of their funding from tax revenues. As a result, the cost of a four-year degree at a public university is often lower than the equivalent cost at a private college — especially for students attending a public school in their home state. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost (tuition, fees, room and board for full-time students) at a four-year public university was slightly over $20,000. In contrast, private universities cost, on average, nearly $43,000 annually.
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.
This list is composed entirely of public colleges and universities that offer four-year undergraduate degrees. We’ve identified 7 public universities in Utah, 5 of which satisfy our criteria. The list below of the best public universities in the state satisfies the following four conditions:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
67%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1261/25
University of Utah’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
50%
Student body
23K
Median SAT/ACT
1180/24
Utah State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
36%
Student body
19K
Weber State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
46%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/23
Southern Utah University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
32%
Student body
29K
Utah Valley University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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