Known to many as the Evergreen State, Washington State is nestled in the heart of the Pacific Northwest. With over seven million residents, the state is the thirteenth largest state in American by population and the 18th largest state by land mass. Washington State is distinguished from Washington DC by using the word state to distinguish the two entities. The State of Washington is home to over 130 colleges, universities, and technical institutes. Private colleges in the state can be found in metro and suburban settings from Seattle to Walla Walla and from Toppenish to Redmond. Top ranked private colleges in Washington State include Gonzaga University, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle University, DigiPen Institute of Technology, Saint Martins College, and Whitman College.
2024 Best Private Colleges in Washington
Top Ranked Degrees at Washington State Private Colleges
The State of Washington offers a vast array of employment opportunities ranging from high tech and consulting to manufacturing and service industries across the state. To support this diversity, private colleges and universities offer students hundreds of majors to choose from. Popular majors include traditional field such as nursing, engineering, biology, business, teaching, and math to emerging areas of study. Cutting-edge degree programs offered by top-rated private colleges include sustainability studies, robotics, immunology, data modeling, toxicology, healthcare administration, computer engineering, hydrology, gerontology, and cytotechnology. In either case, a popular or niche degree can be used to step into a graduate degree program that suits your unique interests. As an example, a student earning an undergraduate degree in criminal justice may be interested in a masters degree in forensic science or counterterrorism while a bachelor of science in math can lead you to a graduate degree in industrial engineering, computer science, or law.
Finding Your College Match at Private Colleges in Washington State
Get your college search underway by investing energy into a personal analysis. This process will help uncover your unique priorities, skills, strengths, and attributes. The result will be a profile you can use to winnow down the list of colleges in your field of view and collect information from those schools using MatchCollege. The investment will pay dividends for years to come as you use higher education to advance your career and maintain a growth mindset year over year after graduation.
List of Large 4-Year Private Universities in Washington
There are 7 large private universities in our database for Washington. Follow the links below to get more details about each school.
- Highline Community College (Highline) in Toppenish, WA
- Olympic College in Kirkland, WA
- Peninsula College (PLU) in Tacoma, WA
- Seattle University (Seattle U) in Seattle, WA
- Shoreline Community College (Seattle U) in Seattle, WA
- Washington State University (Walla Walla College) in College Place, WA
- Yakima Valley Community College (YVCC) in Spokane, WA
Small to Medium Sized 4-Year Universities
The 4-year schools listed below have a small to medium sized student body and may offer a wide range of associate and bachelor’s degrees. Get more information about each school by clicking the links below.
- Grays Harbor College (GHC) in Spokane, WA
4-Year Colleges with a Special Focus on an Area of Study
The schools below are grouped by their special area of focus. To learn about admissions, tuition & fees, programs offered, and more click on the school names below.
Schools of Art, Music, and Design
Notes: Tuition & fee amounts are for both Washington in-state residents and out of state students, unless noted otherwise. The tuition information displayed is an estimate, which we calculated based on historical data and should be solely used for informational purposes only. Please contact the respective school for information about the current school year.
Source: IPEDS Survey 2012-2020: Data obtained from the US Dept. of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Data may vary depending on school and academic year.
Drawing on her experience as a middle and high school teacher, Margaret Lipman strives to provide valuable insights for students when writing about scholarships and college application strategies in her articles for Scholarship Institute.