UW Plans Largest Tuition Hike Ever; Here Are Eight Way Cheaper Other Local Schools

On Thursday, the University of Washington Board of Regents announced that they would raise tuition at UW by a whopping 20 percent for in-state undergrads--setting the price at $10,574 per year, not counting room, board, books, etc. The raise comes after two years of double-digit tuition hikes at the university, making UW 50 percent more expensive than it was just three years ago.

Obviously this sucks for potential students. But fear not! If it's not crucial that one be a Husky, there are eight Washington State four-year colleges that will school you for a fraction of the cost of UW.

The UW tuition hike was handed down by the Regents because, they say, the school receives much less state funding than it used to, so tuition needs to make up the difference.

This is certainly debatable.

What's not debatable is that there are plenty of other smaller schools that may not promise the allure of a big-name Division I university, but can promise that students who graduate might not have to sell a kidney in order to do so.

The information comes the U.S. Department of Education's recent report on the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which ranks colleges based on tuition cost and net cost.

The average tuition in the United States for four-year state universities is $6,397, meaning UW's nearly $11,000 tuition is high--very high. Not as high, however, as some of the most expensive state schools like Pennsylvania State and the University of Pittsburgh, which both charge more than $14,000 per year.

But in terms of Washington state's cheapest four-year public universities, the list is as follows:

1. Seattle Community College, Central Campus, Seattle: $2,773 per year.

2. Olympic College, Bremerton: $2,823 per year.

3. Bellevue College, Bellevue: $2,868 per year.

4. Lake Washington Technical College, Kirkland: $2,922 per year.

5. Columbia Basin College, Pasco: $3,075 per year

6. Peninsula College, Port Angeles: $3,108 per year.

7. Seattle Community College, South Campus, Seattle: $3,115 per year.

8. Northwest Indian College, Ferndale: $3,306 per year.

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