According to College Navigator, Arizona has five public colleges, seven private non-profit colleges, and 18 private for-profit colleges.
The average student in Arizona paid this amount for attending an in-state public college for the 2021-22 academic year, according to College Board.
A typical full-time U.S. college student pursuing a bachelor’s degree received this amount in financial aid for the 2020-21 school year.
This list features some of the best brick-and-mortar schools in Arizona. 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 either the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) or Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). These reputable organizations examine the objectives, quality, and overall effectiveness of post-secondary education programs.
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 deciding on a degree program or educational field, it’s important to consider the career potential and employability in your state. The top industries in Arizona that saw the most significant changes in employment percentages were leisure and hospitality; information; transportation and warehousing; trade, transportation, and utilities; and retail trade.
The five fastest-growing fields in Arizona for those with bachelor’s degrees are medical and health services managers; substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors; information security analysts; data scientists; and interpreters and translators.
Of those that appear on the list of the top 150 largest employers in Arizona, some notable employers are the University of Arizona, Raytheon Missile Systems, Honorhealth Scottsdale Shea MD, Honeywell Aerospace, and American Express Trc-N.
Financial aid is an important aspect of researching colleges in Arizona. Below we have listed some resources for both federal and state aid that includes information about grants and scholarships as well as other types of financial assistance.