 Based on per capita income, University Place ranks 81st of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked.University Place received its name in the 1800s when the University of Puget Sound, a private liberal-arts college in North Tacoma, purchased land along the primary north-south route of Grandview Drive.The school sought to build a new campus there, but ended up selling the land back to the city for about $11,000.