2024 Best Colleges in Alaska

There are lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our Top Alaska Colleges ranking - to help you make that decision.

We analyzed 3 colleges and universities across Alaska to determine which were the best in terms of overall quality. Instead of depending on subjective information, we focus on over 20 objective factors to determine this ranking. These factors include such things as student-to-faculty ratio, average graduate earnings, and graduation rate.

See what other factors we include in our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

We've developed a number of other tools and rankings to help you make your college decision. Start by filtering this list by location or field of study and then explore our other rankings that feature schools great for different groups of students such as veterans or returnings adults.

We've created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. If you're torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another!

Top Colleges in Alaska

Learn more about these excellent schools below:

1

University of Alaska Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska

12% 4-Year Graduation Rate

$47,891 Average Early-Career Earnings

3.4% Student Loan Default Rate

Our 2024 rankings named University of Alaska Anchorage the best school in Alaska in terms of overall quality for students working on their bachelor’s degree.Anchorage, Alaska is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelor’s degrees to 2,079 students in 2020-2021.

The student loan default rate at the school is 3.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1% During the early years of their career, graduates from UAA make an average of $47,891 a year.

Read full report on University of Alaska Anchorage

2

University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska

25% 4-Year Graduation Rate

$43,728 Average Early-Career Earnings

8.5% Student Loan Default Rate

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Alaska Fairbanks. It ranked #2 on our 2024 Best Colleges in Alaska list. Located in Fairbanks, Alaska, the medium-sized public school handed out 1,335 bachelor’s degrees in 2020-2021.

Upon graduation, bachelor’s degree recipients go on to jobs making an average salary of $43,728 during the early years of their career..

Read full report on University of Alaska Fairbanks

3

University of Alaska Southeast
Juneau, Alaska

13% 4-Year Graduation Rate

$40,727 Average Early-Career Earnings

5.1% Student Loan Default Rate

A rank of #3 on our Best Colleges in Alaska list means University of Alaska Southeast is a great place for students working on their bachelor’s degree. UAS is a public institution located in Juneau, Alaska. The school has a small population, and it awarded 582 bachelor’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The student-to-faculty rate of 9 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one. Those who receive a bachelor’s degree from UAS go into careers with an average salary of $40,727 during the early years of their career.

Read full report on University of Alaska Southeast

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Notes and References

Footnotes

*These averages are for the top 3 schools only.

References

• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

More about our data sources and methodologies.