College ranking

Top colleges in Washington by 10-year ROI

College Scorecard + IPEDS Last updated: May 2026

Executive Summary

Bachelor’s-predominant institutions located in Washington with at least 200 students, sorted by the same 10-year ROI estimate used nationally. University of Washington-Tacoma Campus leads this list at $303,288 (10 Yr. ROI).

Leaders: top 3

University of Washington-Tacoma Campus

10 Yr. ROI $303,288

WA · Public

University of Washington-Bothell Campus

10 Yr. ROI $292,508

WA · Public

University of Washington-Seattle Campus

10 Yr. ROI $283,648

WA · Public

Top 22 Top colleges in Washington by 10-year ROI

Rank	Institution	State	Control	Enrollment	10 Yr. ROI	Also see
1	University of Washington-Tacoma Campus	WA	Public	4,185	$303,288	Grad 63.2% · Net $10,163
2	University of Washington-Bothell Campus	WA	Public	5,457	$292,508	Grad 65.3% · Net $12,319
3	University of Washington-Seattle Campus	WA	Public	31,942	$283,648	Grad 85.2% · Net $14,091
4	Washington State University	WA	Public	21,099	$232,562	Grad 60.5% · Net $14,971
5	Pacific Lutheran University	WA	Private nonprofit	2,401	$201,142	Grad 68.6% · Net $19,589
6	Gonzaga University	WA	Private nonprofit	5,198	$194,694	Grad 86.3% · Net $35,119
7	Eastern Washington University	WA	Public	6,222	$192,081	Grad 43.5% · Net $13,886
8	Central Washington University	WA	Public	7,833	$185,013	Grad 53.6% · Net $18,476
9	Seattle University	WA	Private nonprofit	4,062	$181,806	Grad 75.5% · Net $34,662
10	Heritage University	WA	Private nonprofit	812	$174,284	Grad 53.7% · Net $14,598
11	Walla Walla University	WA	Private nonprofit	1,252	$172,928	Grad 59.9% · Net $23,329
12	Seattle Pacific University	WA	Private nonprofit	1,762	$170,787	Grad 62.0% · Net $24,488
13	Western Washington University	WA	Public	13,544	$162,742	Grad 64.6% · Net $21,193
14	Saint Martin's University	WA	Private nonprofit	1,158	$160,524	Grad 51.9% · Net $28,119
15	Northwest University	WA	Private nonprofit	645	$153,784	Grad 70.8% · Net $22,288
16	Whitworth University	WA	Private nonprofit	1,858	$143,020	Grad 70.9% · Net $26,534
17	Faith International University	WA	Private nonprofit	276	$131,850	Grad 25.0% · Net $22,662
18	Whitman College	WA	Private nonprofit	1,531	$124,066	Grad 80.5% · Net $33,313
19	DigiPen Institute of Technology	WA	Private for-profit	995	$120,758	Grad 61.0% · Net $44,446
20	University of Puget Sound	WA	Private nonprofit	1,594	$93,758	Grad 68.0% · Net $38,394
21	Northwest University-Center for Online and Extended Education	WA	Private nonprofit	405	$86,868	Grad 50.0% · Net $35,671
22	The Evergreen State College	WA	Public	2,160	$79,210	Grad 40.7% · Net $24,319

Method notes

Underlying institution file: EDsmart Data processed College Scorecard extract merged to the IPEDS 2024 directory for HBCU and Carnegie fields.
Cohort applied on this page: enrollment floor of 200 undergraduates; sorted highest first on 10 Yr. ROI; all 22 qualifying campuses are shown.
Ties on the ranked metric are broken by enrollment, then institution name, so ranks stay stable between rebuilds.
ROI column matches the processed college_roi_rankings series in this site build; see College Scorecard ROI methodology.
How the 10-year ROI figure is built: median earnings reported 6, 8, and 10 years after entry (years 7 and 9 linearly interpolated) are summed across years 6–10, then average annual net price × typical years enrolled (five for bachelor’s-predominant campuses) is subtracted. It is a nominal-dollar gap—not discounted to present value, and it does not subtract earnings foregone while enrolled or compare against a no-college baseline. Campuses reporting only one of the three earnings years are excluded from these tables.
School profile links use generated slugs; not every campus has a published profile page yet—use the Scorecard site as fallback.

Download

Download CSV Download JSON