Here are the most affordable colleges and universities in West Virginia. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you, at a price you can afford.
West Virginia has 20 public higher education institutions, all at a sticker price of $9,000 or less, making it one of the more affordable states to earn a degree. With over 25,000 students in attendance, West Virginia University is the largest and charges $9,000 in tuition. Aside from the community and state colleges, six other public universities have populations ranging from about 2,100 to just over 10,000, and all schools have a tuition rate of about $8,000.
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The state is also home to 12 private schools, eight of which are religiously affiliated. The University of Charleston is the largest private university, but its student population is still small. About 2,000 students take classes in fields such as chemistry, political science, and history, and the tuition totals $21,000. At $32,000 in tuition and fees, West Virginia Wesleyan College is the most expensive, but its student population is only slightly above 1,300.
As the only state contained entirely within the Appalachian range, West Virginia is rightfully nicknamed The Mountain State. Those who love the outdoors will feel at home hiking through the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve or skiing at Canaan Valley Ski Resort. History buffs can visit Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, where they can take a walk through life in the 1800s. In addition, the state offers over 30 private and public colleges and universities to those looking to earn an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree.
Check out the state’s top programs and see why West Virginia could be a good fit for your educational goals and budget.
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.
There are 14 colleges and universities in West Virginia with stated tuitions and fees under $20,000/year. The following list of the most affordable colleges and universities in West Virginia is composed entirely of schools offering bachelor’s degree programs, have stated tuition and fees near or under the national average of $16,000/year, and are fully accredited colleges.
These schools are ranked by academic excellence, and all under $20,000/year.
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
62%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/24
West Virginia University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
89%
Graduation
50%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/22
Marshall University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
89%
Graduation
30%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
965/19
West Virginia State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Graduation
48%
Student body
35K
American Public University System’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
53%
Student body
2K
West Liberty University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
35%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1010/20
Fairmont State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
46%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/22
Shepherd University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
90%
Graduation
32%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
880/18
Bluefield State College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
24%
Student body
1K
Potomac State College of West Virginia University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
38%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1000/20
Concord University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
55%
Graduation
28%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/21
West Virginia University Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
35%
Student body
2K
West Virginia University at Parkersburg’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Graduation
32%
Student body
<1K
Salem University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
32%
Student body
1K
Glenville State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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