Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
Higher education in Alaska operates at a scale unlike anywhere else in the country. The University of Alaska system spans three main campuses and dozens of extended sites across some of the most remote terrain in North America.
Programs in fisheries science, arctic engineering, and Indigenous studies aren't electives here; they reflect the real demands of life and work in the far north, and the research being done at UAF on permafrost, climate, and wildlife has genuine global importance.
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See how Alaska's colleges compare to the national average on the four measures most students and families weigh when deciding where to go: cost, acceptance rates, graduate earnings, and graduation rates.
The colleges in Alaska that rank highest by UCD Score, and those that deliver above-national graduate earnings at a below-average net price, two of the strongest signals when choosing a school.
Not every student is looking for the same thing. These six panels rank Alaska's colleges by the data that matters most for each path.
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by net price
Ranked by enrollment
Ranked by grad earnings
Which colleges give you the most for what you spend? These eight schools rank highest in Alaska by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ilisagvik College Barrow | $6,743 | $39,541 | 5.9× | Excellent |
| 2 | University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks | $10,892 | $48,866 | 4.5× | Excellent |
| 3 | University of Alaska Southeast Juneau | $12,357 | $48,475 | 3.9× | Strong |
| 4 | Alaska Christian College Soldotna | $7,063 | $25,787 | 3.7× | Strong |
| 5 | University of Alaska Anchorage Anchorage | $15,301 | $51,871 | 3.4× | Strong |
| 6 | Alaska Pacific University Anchorage | $21,616 | $54,271 | 2.5× | Good |
| 7 | Alaska Career College Anchorage | $20,150 | $34,468 | 1.7× | Average |
| 8 | Charter College Anchorage | $34,860 | $35,504 | 1.0× | Average |
ROI Ratio = median earnings 10 years after enrollment ÷ annual net price. Higher is better.
The six fields of study with the most annual graduates across all colleges in Alaska, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across Alaska's colleges. A more granular view than the Popular Majors above, useful when you already know roughly what you want to study and want to see where the volume is.
Careers with a strong employment footprint in Alaska. What graduates from local colleges actually go on to do. State-level employment is shown where the BLS publishes it; national wage + growth shown alongside.
The cities in Alaska with the most colleges, ranked by number of institutions.
Utah crowds 14,137 students into each of its colleges, four times the national norm. These are the states where college options are scarcest per student.
There are 170 colleges that operate a medical school, and they cluster hard. Texas leads with 14, three states hold a fifth of them, and four states have none.
Northeast college graduates earn about $12,700 more a decade out than Southern ones, but they also pay thousands more to get there. The regional split, by the numbers.
Browse our full directory: every college, major, program, and career we track, all built from verified government data.
Scout uses AI and can make mistakes. Verify important numbers on the page.
