Where Washington high school graduates actually go after graduation
Sixteen months after they walk across the stage, about 1 in 3 Washington public-school graduates is enrolled at a 4-year college, 1 in 6 is at a 2-year or career-and-technical college, and 1 in 2 isn't enrolled at any college at all. The 4-year share ranges from 75% at the top (Mercer Island) to under 15% across much of the Capital Region.
Published May 15, 2026 · updated June 10, 2026postsecondarycollegeoutcomesERDC
1 in 7
Washington college-bound public-school graduates who start at the University of Washington — more than WSU and Western combined (Class of 2024)
Washington's Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) follows every public-school graduating cohort into the next school year and reports, by high school, the share enrolled at a 4-year college, the share at a community college or career-and-technical center, and the share not enrolled at any college. It's the cleanest after-the-diploma outcome data the state publishes.
Washington public-high-school graduates by fall enrollment after graduation (state weighted average, 2024-25)
ERDC HS Graduate Outcomes; enrollment-weighted across 256 comprehensive public high schools with reported data.
"Not enrolled" doesn't mean "not doing anything" — it covers students who entered the workforce, the trades, apprenticeships, the military, or who deferred a year. ERDC tracks broader labor-market and military outcomes in separate reports, but those breakdowns aren't surfaced at the per-school level in OSPI's report card data — at the per-school level, all we see is enrolled-at-2-year / enrolled-at-4-year / not-enrolled-at-any-college. The 52% no-college share is also higher than the national norm in part because Washington has strong building-trades and aerospace job pipelines that absorb graduates directly.
The top of the 4-year list
Twenty schools — almost all of them on the Eastside, in north Seattle, or on the islands — send a majority of their graduates straight to a 4-year college.
Top 15 Washington public high schools by 4-year college matriculation rate (fall after graduation)
Mercer Island HS
75%
Eastlake HS (Sammamish)
71%
Bainbridge HS
68%
Skyline HS (Sammamish)
67%
Lake Washington HS (Kirkland)
67%
Roosevelt HS (Seattle)
65%
Raisbeck Aviation HS
65%
Bellevue HS
64%
Ballard HS (Seattle)
63%
Issaquah HS
62%
Inglemoor HS (Kenmore)
61%
Redmond HS
60%
Mount Si HS (Snoqualmie)
60%
Newport HS (Bellevue)
60%
Interlake HS (Bellevue)
60%
ERDC HS Graduate Outcomes via OSPI Report Card, 2024-25.
Regional contrast
By Washington's nine Educational Service Districts (ESDs) — the state's regional school administrative groupings — the gap between the highest and lowest median 4-year matriculation rates is more than 14 percentage points.
Median 4-year matriculation rate by Educational Service District, comprehensive public high schools, 2024-25
ESD 121 (Puget Sound)
34%
ESD 101 (NE WA / Spokane)
34%
ESD 189 (Northwest)
29%
ESD 114 (Olympic Peninsula)
24%
ESD 112 (SW WA)
23%
ESD 123 (SE WA / Tri-Cities)
23%
ESD 171 (North Central)
23%
ESD 105 (South Central / Yakima)
22%
ESD 113 (Capital Region)
20%
ERDC HS Graduate Outcomes; medians across each ESD's comprehensive public high schools.
Which colleges they actually go to
ERDC also names names. For each high school, the same record linkage reports which institutions its graduates enrolled at during the first year after graduation — a wider window than the fall-only figures above, counted as a share of the graduates who enrolled anywhere. Statewide, the University of Washington is the single biggest destination: about 1 in 7 of the Class of 2024's college enrollees started there — more than Washington State University and Western Washington University combined. WSU takes about 1 in 13. No other institution reaches 5%, and the top of the two-year list — Bellevue College — reflects what community-college enrollment mostly is: local.
Top named destinations, Class of 2024 — share of Washington public-school graduates who enrolled at any college within a year of graduation
University of Washington
14.2%
Washington State University
7.8%
Western Washington University
4.7%
Bellevue College
3.3%
Columbia Basin College
2.6%
Clark College
2.5%
Central Washington University
2.4%
Green River College
2.1%
Eastern Washington University
2.0%
Everett Community College
1.8%
WA ERDC Enrollment by Institution (Class of 2024)
Every high school has its own version of this list, and the mixes read like fingerprints. Bellevue High School sends 26% of its college enrollees to UW; Garfield sends 27% to UW and another 20% to Seattle Central College; at Mount Si, the single biggest destination is Bellevue College, at 18%. Each school's page on the atlas carries its full list.
Two reading rules for the destination shares. They are percentages of graduates who enrolled at any college within a year — not of the whole class. And ERDC names an institution only when a school sends roughly four or more students per year; smaller streams roll into “Other 4 Year” and “Other 2 Year” buckets, which together absorb about 3 in 10 college enrollees statewide. Named shares are floors, not exact counts.
This is matriculation, not graduation — it counts who enrolled the fall after high school, not who eventually earned a degree. Persistence and completion data lag enrollment data by 4–6 years.
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16 months after graduation, ~1 in 3 Washington public-school grads is at a 4-year college, 1 in 6 at a 2-year/CTC program, and 1 in 2 isn't enrolled at any college. Of those who do go: 1 in 7 starts at UW — more than WSU and Western Washington combined.
Source: WA K12 Academic Atlas · https://waschools.org/research/where-wa-grads-go/
Methodology
Source is ERDC's HS Graduate Outcomes file, surfaced through the OSPI Report Card and joined into the WA K12 Academic Atlas as ps_4_year, ps_2_year_ctc, and ps_not_enrolled. Universe is comprehensive public high schools (level=HIGH, grades roughly 9-12, enrollment ≥200) with a reported postsecondary cohort (n=256). State averages are enrollment-weighted (graduating cohort × per-school rate, summed and divided). ESD medians are unweighted across schools within each ESD. "4-year college" and "2-year / CTC" are ERDC's own categorizations; "not enrolled" means not enrolled at any postsecondary institution the fall after graduation — it does not mean unemployed, in the military, or in an apprenticeship. Named destinations come from ERDC's Enrollment by Institution file (tsxw-5hpt), Class of 2024, first-year window (fallfirstyearflg = N). Institution shares are percentages of each school's graduates who enrolled at any institution within one year of graduation — not of the full class. The statewide chart aggregates the 195 comprehensive public high schools (enrollment ≥200) with both a Class-of-2024 destination record and a reported postsecondary cohort, weighting each school by its estimated college-enrollee count (graduates × fall enrollment share). Institutions below ERDC's reporting threshold (under ~4 average enrollees per year from a school) are suppressed into the "Other 4 Year" / "Other 2 Year" buckets, so named-institution shares understate true totals.
Sources
ERDC HS Graduate Outcomes (postsecondary enrollment), via OSPI
WA ERDC Enrollment by Institution, tsxw-5hpt (Class of 2024)
These figures come from the WA K12 Academic Atlas — an interactive map of every K-12 school in Washington, assembled from twelve public data sources. Browse the map · see the rankings. Reporters: see the note on the research index.