Foster is the Pacific Northwest’s talent engine, working directly with local leaders across a wide array of industries who are shaping the future and the global economy.
Foster is a top-ranked research institution embedded in the innovation economy that built modern business. Our students learn inside the region where the decisions get made, alongside the faculty who are shaping their fields, within a community built on collaboration rather than competition.
What we offer is more than a credential, we offer access to Seattle’s global industries, to a 60,000-strong alumni network already working where you want to go, and individualized career support for the career future you want.
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What makes Foster different?
Foster is the right school for students who want rigorous academics, real relationships, and a community that takes collaboration seriously, all while inside one of the most consequential business regions on earth.
Foster is intentionally small by design. Small cohorts mean faculty know your name. Teams are built on collaboration, not competition. Career support is individualized, not one-size-fits-all. Students consistently identify this as the defining feature of their experience, the intimacy of a boutique program backed by the resources, alumni reach, and research credibility of a world-class public university.
Foster’s faculty are ranked among the top 15 in the world for research productivity. Our faculty are not distant researchers. They are accessible, engaged in student life, and teaching from the work they are doing right now.
Highlights
#1
MBA in the Northwest
U.S. News & World Report
#1
Undergraduate Program in the Northwest
U.S. News & World Report
#4
Entrepreneurship
Princeton Review
Foster at a glance
65,000+
Foster Alumni Network
2,500
Full-time Students
140+
Full-Time Faculty
The UW Advantage
Choosing Foster means choosing the University of Washington, one of the world’s leading public research universities.
Rankings
- #1 most innovative public university in the world (Reuters)
- #3 U.S. public university (Academic Ranking of World Universities)
- #7 best global university (U.S. News & World Report)
Network
- 590,000 active alumni
- $30+ billion in startup exit value from UW-affiliated companies in the past decade
- $9.9+ billion in startup funding raised by UW spinoffs
World-Class Research & Innovation
- $1.7 billion in annual research grants and contracts
- Home to 8 Nobel Prize winners, 17 MacArthur Fellows, and 189 members of the National Academies