Private colleges, unlike large public institutions, can be a great option for students wanting a more intimate campus experience, more personal attention from excellent professors, and more immediate access to support services. Here is our list of the best private colleges in Washington.
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.
Public and private colleges and universities operate under different business models. Public colleges and universities are owned by the state and receive both state and federal funding to operate. Private colleges and universities are private companies with private funding. If you’re looking at the pros and cons of private vs. public colleges, 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 bachelor’s 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. Attending a college in-state is usually the cheapest option. Private universities and colleges can be very competitive with their funding opportunities, so do not simply believe that private colleges are always going to be more expensive. According to National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost (tuition, fees, room and board for full-time students) at a public university was slightly over $20,000. In contrast, private universities cost, on average, nearly $43,000 annually. But in the end, the cost of college comes down to each student’s academic and financial situation.
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.
This list is composed entirely of private colleges and universities that offer bachelor’s degrees. We’ve identified 15 private universities in Washington. To be included in the list below of the best private universities in Washington, schools must be fully accredited, private, non-profit institution, and must offer a broad range of bachelor’s degrees.
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
73%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1235/27
Seattle University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
88%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1280/27
Gonzaga University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
54%
Graduation
86%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1345/30
Whitman College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
77%
Student body
3K
University of Puget Sound’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
65%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/22
Seattle Pacific University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
71%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/26
Pacific Lutheran University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
38%
Graduation
53%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1264/27
DigiPen Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Student body
1K
City University of Seattle’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Graduation
59%
Student body
2K
Walla Walla University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
77%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/25
Whitworth University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$41K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
61%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/20
Saint Martin's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$22K
Student body
<1K
Antioch University Seattle’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
58%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/23
Northwest University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Graduation
52%
Student body
7K
Charter College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$19K
Graduation
41%
Student body
<1K
Heritage University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized 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.
Get the latest Academic Influence news, information, and rankings with our upcoming newsletter.
Stay informed!