Ranked #10 in popularity, accounting is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in Washington to determine which ones were the best for accounting students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 171 master's degrees in accounting during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Master's Degree
The accounting master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to accounting students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of accounting students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt accounting students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized accounting related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for accounting students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Accounting Master's Degree Schools in Washington ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Accounting in Washington
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in accounting.
Top Washington Schools for a Master's in Accounting
University of Washington - Seattle Campus is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in accounting. Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the accounting program at University of Washington - Seattle Campus make $2,884 above the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Every student who is interested in a master's degree in accounting has to look into Gonzaga University. Located in the midsize city of Spokane, Gonzaga is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the accounting program make around $69,747 for their early career.
It is difficult to beat Eastern Washington University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in accounting. Located in the town of Cheney, EWU is a public university with a large student population.
Soon after graduation, accounting master's recipients generally make an average of $60,672 in their early careers.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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 the rest 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).
The accounting master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
