Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
The University of Washington's proximity to Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing has made its computer science, information science, and aeronautical engineering programs among the most practically connected in the country. The line between campus research and industry application is genuinely short.
Washington State in Pullman carries the land-grant tradition with strong programs in agriculture, veterinary medicine, and engineering, and the state's network of community and technical colleges has been central to workforce development in a regional economy that has changed faster than most.
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See how Washington'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 Washington 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 Washington'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 Washington by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northwest Indian College Bellingham | $3,136 | $35,447 | 11.3× | Excellent |
| 2 | Grays Harbor College Aberdeen | $4,783 | $40,865 | 8.5× | Excellent |
| 3 | Bellingham Technical College Bellingham | $5,997 | $49,748 | 8.3× | Excellent |
| 4 | Bates Technical College Tacoma | $6,292 | $50,051 | 8.0× | Excellent |
| 5 | University of Washington-Tacoma Campus Tacoma | $10,163 | $78,466 | 7.7× | Excellent |
| 6 | Spokane Community College Spokane | $5,473 | $41,984 | 7.7× | Excellent |
| 7 | Lake Washington Institute of Technology Kirkland | $6,817 | $50,669 | 7.4× | Excellent |
| 8 | South Seattle College Seattle | $6,004 | $44,486 | 7.4× | Excellent |
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 Washington, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across Washington'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 Washington. 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 Washington 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.
