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Colleges With the Largest Enrollments, Fall 2016

Almanac 2018
August 19, 2018

Institutions with significant online enrollments — like Liberty, Western Governors, and Southern New Hampshire Universities, and Brigham Young University-Idaho — stood out in their categories for their exceptionally high student counts. The for-profit University of Phoenix-Arizona had the largest fall-2016 enrollment of any institution, but for-profit institutions had the smallest average enrollment among all categories shown.

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Institutions with significant online enrollments — like Liberty, Western Governors, and Southern New Hampshire Universities, and Brigham Young University-Idaho — stood out in their categories for their exceptionally high student counts. The for-profit University of Phoenix-Arizona had the largest fall-2016 enrollment of any institution, but for-profit institutions had the smallest average enrollment among all categories shown.


Return to the Almanac home page, or go to the Profession, Students, Finance, or States section. To purchase a copy of the Almanac in print or as a downloadable interactive PDF, visit the Chronicle Store. Help guide us to give you the data you need by taking our 10-minute online Almanac survey.


Public institutions

Doctoral

RankInstitution Number of students
1. Texas A&M U. at College Station 65,632
2. U. of Central Florida 64,088
3. Ohio State U. 59,482
4. Florida International U. 55,003
5. U. of Florida 52,367
6. Arizona State U. 51,869
7. U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities 51,579
8. U. of Texas at Austin 51,331
9. Michigan State U. 50,340
10. Rutgers U. at New Brunswick 50,146
Average for 192 institutions 24,804

Master’s

RankInstitution Number of students
1. U. of Maryland University College 57,529
2. California State U. at Northridge 39,916
3. California State U. at Long Beach 37,776
4. Utah Valley U. 34,978
5. San Jose State U. 32,154
6. California State U. at Sacramento 30,510
7. California State U. at Los Angeles 27,827
8. Weber State U. 26,809
9. Grand Valley State U. 25,460
10. California State Polytechnic U. at Pomona 25,326
Average for 269 institutions 9,163

Baccalaureate

RankInstitution Number of students
1. City U. of New York, New York City College of Technology 17,282
2. Georgia Gwinnett College 12,052
3. Colorado Mesa U. 9,735
4. State U. of New York College at Farmingdale 9,235
5. City U. of New York, York College 8,360
6. Middle Georgia State U. 7,714
7. City U. of New York Medgar Evers College 6,819
8. U of Arkansas at Fort Smith 6,584
9. Missouri Southern State U. 6,231
10. Purdue U. Northwest 6,092
Average for 88 institutions 2,983

Associate and baccalaureate/associate

RankInstitution Number of students
1. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana 78,910
2. Lone Star College system 71,551
3. Houston Community College 57,032
4. Miami Dade College 55,206
5. Tarrant County College District 51,350
6. Northern Virginia Community College 50,835
7. Valencia College 44,515
8. Broward College 43,700
9. Austin Community College 41,543
10. East Los Angeles College 36,970
Average for 979 institutions 7,045

•••

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Private nonprofit institutions

Doctoral

RankInstitution Number of students
1. Liberty U. 75,756
2. New York U. 50,550
3. U. of Southern California 43,871
4. Brigham Young U. 34,240
5. Boston U. 32,695
6. Harvard U. 29,908
7. Columbia U. 29,372
8. George Washington U. 27,159
9. U. of Pennsylvania 24,960
10. Drexel U. 24,232
Average for 117 institutions 11,777

Master’s

RankInstitution Number of students
1. Western Governors U. 84,289
2. Southern New Hampshire U. 73,177
3. Excelsior College 41,658
4. Keiser U. at Ft. Lauderdale 19,688
5. National U. 17,192
6. Columbia College (Mo.) 16,413
7. Saint Leo U. 14,649
8. Webster U. 13,906
9. Touro College (N.Y.) 13,528
10. Park U. 11,227
Average for 407 institutions 3,867

Baccalaureate

RankInstitution Number of students
1. Brigham Young U.-Idaho 44,821
2. High Point U. 4,837
3. Ohio Christian U. 4,661
4. U. of Richmond 4,131
5. Bethune-Cookman U. 3,934
6. Calvin College 3,918
7. Cedarville U. 3,714
8. Trine U. 3,712
9. Bucknell U. 3,626
10. U. of Mount Olive 3,430
Average for 401 institutions 1,512

•••

All for-profit institutions

RankInstitution Number of students
1. U. of Phoenix-Arizona 131,629
2. Grand Canyon U. 75,834
3. Walden U. 52,565
4. American Public U. system 48,623
5. Ashford U. 41,361
6. Capella U. 37,569
7. Kaplan U. at Davenport (Iowa) 37,494
8. Chamberlain U. at Addison (Ill.) 25,569
9. Colorado Technical U. at Colorado Springs 25,548
10. Columbia Southern U. 21,442
Average for 1,054 institutions 1,120

Note: Figures include all full-time and part-time undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the fall of 2016 at degree-granting institutions in the United States that are eligible to receive Title IV federal student aid. Categories are based on the 2015 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Baccalaureate categories exclude baccalaureate/associate institutions. Associate and baccalaureate/associate private nonprofit institutions are not represented in the table. Colleges vary in whether they report enrollments of all units together or separately. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to the Almanac editor.

Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data

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A version of this article appeared in the August 24, 2018, issue.
Read other items in this Students: Almanac 2018 package.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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