From Olympia to Tacoma, the South Sound offers people a variety of college choices when it comes to completing a master's degree.

Saint Martin's University - a Catholic, Benedictine university located in Lacey - offers master's programs in counseling psychology, business administration, education, teaching, civil engineering, and engineering management.

The university prides itself on offering master's programs during evenings, weekends and summers to meet the needs of working professionals.

Saint Martin's also offers extension campuses at Fort Lewis, McChord Air Force Base, Centralia Community College, Tacoma Community College, and Olympic College in Bremerton. The extension locations offer a limited selection of degree programs in evening and weekend study for military and civilian students. Master's degree and teacher certification and endorsement programs are also available at Fort Lewis and McChord.

Farther north in Tacoma, the University of Puget Sound offers master's degrees in education, occupational therapy and physical therapy. The liberal arts college located in North Tacoma offers students the chance to combine teacher certification with graduate studies in education. It also offers a degree in counseling. The counseling program is designed for teachers who wish to improve their skills and or change their roles within education.  

The UPS School of Education is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, a specialized accrediting body recognized by the United States Department of Education.

The School of Occupational Therapy at UPS combines the skills of the faculty with an on-campus clinic, therefore giving students a unique learning environment for putting theory and skills into practice. Students evaluate and treat clients under the supervision of expert community clinicians. The School of Physical Therapy offers a three-year program leading to a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree.

South of UPS is Pacific Lutheran University, also located in Tacoma. PLU offers master's degrees in business administration, education, creative writing, marriage and family therapy, and nursing. PLU's creative writing program focuses on the fields of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction and is intended for those who wish to develop and pursue careers as writers. PLU's School of Education is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education while the marriage and family therapy program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

In downtown Tacoma, the University of Washington Tacoma offers graduate students the chance to get the same education the Seattle campus farther north offers. The University of Washington Tacoma offers master's degrees in business administration, computing and software systems, education, interdisciplinary studies, and nursing.