Here are the best colleges and universities in Washington. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you.
Of the 40 public options, the University of Washington in Seattle is the largest. Roughly 40,000 students attend classes in fields like nursing, education, biology, and computer science. This public research institution is also affordable, charging about $11,000 for tuition. In fact, none of the public schools in Washington exceed $12,000 in price. This includes community colleges, technical colleges, and four-year universities, making Washington a uniquely affordable place to earn your associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Washington also has 24 private institutions. Of those, nine are religious. The most widely known of these, Catholic university Gonzaga enrolls roughly 7,000 students, at a cost of $40,000, in areas such as religious studies, engineering, and law. Central Washington University (CWU) is a smaller public school, serving just over 12,000 students, and has a tuition of $8,000. With 15% of its population being Hispanic, CWU is now recognized as an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution. Washington health professions also have the opportunity to receive funding for loan repayment through Washington’s Health Professional Loan Repayment Program.
Set in the Pacific Northwest, Washington offers ocean beaches and lush forests. In fact, over half the state is covered in forests, earning Washington its nickname as The Evergreen State. Viewers atop the Space Needle in Seattle can take in the sights of Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, and both the Cascades and Olympic mountain ranges. In addition, prospective students can choose from over 60 higher education institutions in the state.
Check out the top higher education programs and find an affordable degree in Washington.
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Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
The best colleges pound for pound!
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.
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 Washington for earning a bachelor’s degree.
We’ve identified a total of 46 colleges and universities in Washington, 17 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
$11K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
82%
Student body
47K
Median SAT/ACT
1345/30
View profile
University of Washington’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
54%
Graduation
86%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1345/30
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Whitman College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
45%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1084/22
View profile
Evergreen State College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
77%
Student body
2K
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University of Puget Sound’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
73%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1235/27
View profile
Seattle University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
61%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/20
View profile
Saint Martin's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
59%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/23
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Washington State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$44K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
71%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/26
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Pacific Lutheran University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$45K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
65%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/22
View profile
Seattle Pacific University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
68%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/25
View profile
Western Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
63%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1140/23
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University of Washington Bothell’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
60%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1085/20
View profile
University of Washington Tacoma’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Graduation
59%
Student body
2K
View profile
Walla Walla University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$45K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
88%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1280/27
View profile
Gonzaga University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$45K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
77%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/25
View profile
Whitworth University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
58%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/23
View profile
Northwest University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
58%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/20
View profile
Central Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
What are Custom College Rankings?
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