Seattle Colleges, Universities, Trade and Vocational Schools

Seattle Colleges and Schools

In 2018, U.S. News & World Report ranked Seattle No. 10 among the Best Places to Live in the country. That's good news for students attending the more than 20 colleges and universities in Seattle. Contrary to popular belief, Seattle has less rain annually than New York, Chicago, or Portland. Plus, the local economy is booming, with companies like Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon headquartered there.

One of the ways Seattle fosters career preparedness for high school students is through the efforts of Seattle's Career and Technical Education Department, which partners with professional industries to provide career academies in areas such as finance, hospitality and tourism, and information technology.

Fun Facts about Trade and Technical Schools in Seattle

More than a dozen Seattle colleges offer certificate or diploma programs in fields ranging from cosmetology to game design and animation to medical, dental, or veterinary assisting, through schools such as the Gary Manuel Aveda Institute, the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, and Pima Medical Institute.

The Divers Institute of Technology, one of the highly specialized colleges in Seattle, has been training students for careers as commercial divers since 1968. Aside from basic learning in the classroom, most training takes place in the waters in and around Seattle, which simulate challenging conditions real-world divers face.

Fun Facts about Seattle Colleges and Universities

A mix of public and private universities in Seattle offer bachelor's degree programs, and students can choose from a wide range of majors at most of them. Many institutions are also noteworthy in other ways. Here are some examples.

The public University of Washington-Seattle counts seven Nobel Prize winners among its faculty members. The institution's most popular majors are biochemistry, speech communication and rhetoric, psychology and public health.

At Seattle Pacific University, a Christian college, more than 80 percent of students complete internship programs with more than 90 percent saying their internship was a key to landing their first job after college.

And Seattle University, founded by Jesuits, emphasizes community service in addition to students' academic studies. Seventy-five percent of its undergrads are involved in community service — three times the national average.

Graduate Schools in Seattle

Almost a dozen universities in Seattle have master's and doctoral degree programs. Among them, City University of Seattle has multiple master's programs related to education, counseling, and IT. Seattle Pacific University has doctoral programs in business, education, psychology, nursing and theology. And the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine also offers master's and doctoral programs.

To learn about more higher education options in Washington, see our page on Washington colleges.

Sources:

• Divers Institute of Technology, Accessed October 2018, https://www.diversinstitute.edu/
• National Center for Education Statistics' College Navigator, Accessed October 2018 http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
• Pima Medical Institute-Seattle, Accessed October 2018, https://pmi.edu/locations/washington/seattle
• Seattle Pacific University, Accessed October 2018, http://spu.edu/
• Seattle University, Accessed October 2018, https://www.seattleu.edu/
• University of Washington-Seattle, Accessed October 2018, http://www.washington.edu/
• Visit Seattle, Accessed October 2018, https://www.visitseattle.org
• What's it like to live in Seattle, WA?, Accessed October 2018, https://realestate.usnews.com/places/washington/seattle