Alaska has six colleges that offer four-year bachelor’s degrees. These public non-profit, private non-profit, and private for-profit schools offer many degree programs.
This is the average tuition and fees for public colleges in Alaska according to College Board for the 2021-2022 school year.
The average financial aid package was $14,800 during the 2020-2021 school year for full-time students in the U.S.
This list features some of the best brick-and-mortar schools in Alaska. Each school featured is a nonprofit, accredited institution — either public or private — with a high standard of academic quality for post-secondary institutions. We included liberal arts colleges and research universities as well as small, midsize, and large institutions. Next, we compared this comprehensive list to a list of aggregated college rankings from reputable publications like the U.S. News & World Report among others to simplify a student’s college search. We pored through these rankings so students don’t have to.
The colleges on our list are accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), a reputable organization that examines the objectives, quality, and overall effectiveness of education programs in the northern United States.
We evaluated each school on tuition costs, admission, retention and graduation rates, faculty, and reputation as well as the student resources provided for on-campus students. Then we calculated the Intelligent Score on a scale of 0 to 100. Read more about our ranking methodology.
When selecting a college in Alaska, you should consider how the school’s degree program will prepare you for a future career in the state. As of October 2021, the five largest industries for employment in Alaska were government; trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; goods-producing; and retail trade.
For workers who hold a bachelor’s degree, the five fastest-growing careers in Alaska are aerospace engineers, fundraisers, airline pilots and flight engineers, computer hardware engineers, and computer network architects. Selecting a degree that’s relevant to one of these fields could make you competitive in a quickly expanding job market.
Many of Alaska’s major employers are in the above-mentioned industries and need workers qualified for those career paths. A few of the state’s top 150 employers are Elmendorf Hospital, Alaska Native Medical Center, Corrections Department, and Alyeska Resort.
As you research the best colleges in Alaska, take into account how you’ll pay for a degree. There are many financial aid opportunities that you may qualify for. Here are a few state and federal resources to help with your search for grants, scholarships, and other forms of financial aid: