Liberal arts colleges are a great option for students seeking a well-rounded education in an intimate campus setting. The best liberal arts colleges in Washington offer a diverse selection of degree programs with opportunities for a highly individualized educational experience.
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.
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 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.
A liberal arts college is a school that puts a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. We’ve identified a total of 41 liberal arts colleges and universities in Washington, 14 of which satisfy our criteria. The list below of the best liberal arts schools in the state satisfies the following four conditions:
Tuition + fees
$50K
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
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Evergreen State College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
77%
Student body
3K
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University of Puget Sound’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
61%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/20
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Saint Martin's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
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
$34K
Acceptance
38%
Graduation
53%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1264/27
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DigiPen Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
68%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/25
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Western Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
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
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University of Washington Tacoma’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$30K
Graduation
59%
Student body
2K
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Walla Walla University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
77%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/25
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Whitworth University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
53%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/20
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Eastern Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
58%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/23
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Northwest University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
58%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/20
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Central Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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