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Enrollment by Carnegie Classification, Fall 2016

Almanac 2018 August 19, 2018

Doctoral universities and associate colleges each enroll almost a third of all students, even though doctoral universities represent only 8 percent of all institutions, while associate colleges represent just over a quarter. Baccalaureate colleges represent 13 percent of all institutions but less than 5 percent of overall enrollment.

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Doctoral universities and associate colleges each enroll almost a third of all students, even though doctoral universities represent only 8 percent of all institutions, while associate colleges represent just over a quarter. Baccalaureate colleges represent 13 percent of all institutions but less than 5 percent of overall enrollment.


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.


Number of institutions by classification

ClassificationTotal number of institutions% of all institutionsPublicPrivate nonprofitFor-profit
Doctoral universities 326 7.9% 192 117 17
Highest research activity 115 2.8% 81 34 0
High research activity 104 2.5% 74 30 0
Moderate research activity 107 2.6% 37 53 17
Master’s colleges and universities 733 17.7% 269 407 57
Larger programs 394 9.5% 162 205 27
Medium programs 206 5.0% 66 123 17
Smaller programs 133 3.2% 41 79 13
Baccalaureate colleges 529 12.8% 92 401 36
Arts and sciences focus 240 5.8% 26 213 1
Diverse fields 289 7.0% 66 188 35
Baccalaureate/associate colleges 275 6.6% 96 52 127
Mixed baccalaureate/associate 161 3.9% 34 45 82
Associate dominant 114 2.8% 62 7 45
Associate colleges 1,041 25.1% 882 31 128
High transfer; high traditional students 160 3.9% 150 8 2
High transfer; mixed traditional/nontraditional students 126 3.0% 125 1 0
High transfer; high nontraditional students 82 2.0% 78 3 1
Mixed transfer/career and technical; high traditional students 107 2.6% 101 3 3
Mixed transfer/career and technical; mixed traditional/nontraditional students 98 2.4% 96 0 2
Mixed transfer/career and technical; high nontraditional students 122 2.9% 119 0 3
High career and technical; high traditional students 79 1.9% 52 3 24
High career and technical; mixed traditional/nontraditional students 108 2.6% 68 4 36
High career and technical; high nontraditional students 159 3.8% 93 9 57
Special-focus 2-year institutions 364 8.8% 9 60 295
Health professions 212 5.1% 5 24 183
Technical professions 54 1.3% 1 11 42
Arts and design 39 0.9% 0 10 29
Other fields 59 1.4% 3 15 41
Special-focus 4-year institutions 841 20.3% 39 559 243
Faith-related institutions 283 6.8% 0 283 0
Medical schools and centers 50 1.2% 23 26 1
Other health-professions schools 226 5.5% 5 123 98
Engineering schools 6 0.1% 1 4 1
Other technology-related schools 11 0.3% 1 2 8
Business and management schools 75 1.8% 1 21 53
Arts, music, and design schools 129 3.1% 2 57 70
Law schools 32 0.8% 6 21 5
Other special-focus institutions 29 0.7% 0 22 7
Tribal colleges 35 0.8% 27 8 0
All institutions 4,144 100.0% 1,606 1,635 903

•••

Enrollment by classification

ClassificationTotal enrollment% of all enrollmentAverage enrollmentAverage for public colleges
Average for private nonprofit collegesAverage for for-profit colleges
Doctoral universities 6,475,241 32.9% 19,863 24,804 11,776 19,707
Highest research activity 3,429,881 17.4% 29,825 34,711 18,184 0
High research activity 1,692,634 8.6% 16,275 18,449 10,913 0
Moderate research activity 1,352,726 6.9% 12,642 15,825 8,154 19,707
Master’s colleges and universities 4,377,048 22.2% 5,971 9,163 3,867 5,939
Larger programs 3,303,116 16.8% 8,384 11,561 5,472 11,424
Medium programs 728,378 3.7% 3,536 5,938 2,575 1,164
Smaller programs 345,554 1.8% 2,598 4,877 1,713 790
Baccalaureate colleges 902,951 4.6% 1,707 3,007 1,512 554
Arts and sciences focus 395,619 2.0% 1,648 2,410 1,561 430
Diverse fields 507,332 2.6% 1,755 3,241 1,457 557
Baccalaureate/associate colleges 920,769 4.7% 3,348 7,934 1,256 738
Mixed baccalaureate/associate 325,222 1.7% 2,020 5,778 1,372 817
Associate dominant 595,547 3.0% 5,224 9,117 509 594
Associate colleges 6,207,877 31.5% 5,963 6,955 507 449
High transfer; high traditional students 1,447,922 7.4% 9,050 9,623 494 279
High transfer; mixed traditional/nontraditional students 1,253,843 6.4% 9,951 10,027 446 0
High transfer; high nontraditional students 471,721 2.4% 5,753 6,011 917 79
Mixed transfer/career and technical; high traditional students 689,454 3.5% 6,443 6,758 1,423 890
Mixed transfer/career and technical; mixed traditional/nontraditional students 660,494 3.4% 6,740 6,833 0 2,267
Mixed transfer/career and technical; high nontraditional students 789,250 4.0% 6,469 6,628 0 166
High career and technical; high traditional students 238,969 1.2% 3,025 4,396 286 396
High career and technical; mixed traditional/nontraditional students 263,722 1.3% 2,442 3,673 255 360
High career and technical; high nontraditional students 392,502 2.0% 2,469 3,908 271 467
Special-focus 2-year institutions 152,707 0.8% 420 1,001 526 382
Health professions 104,026 0.5% 491 672 906 434
Technical professions 22,565 0.1% 418 2,176 258 418
Arts and design 9,644 0.0% 247 0 266 241
Other fields 16,472 0.1% 279 1,158 287 212
Special-focus 4-year institutions 634,496 3.2% 754 1,874 677 757
Faith-related institutions 84,076 0.4% 297 0 297 0
Medical schools and centers 111,308 0.6% 2,226 2,604 1,952 647
Other health-professions schools 178,010 0.9% 788 755 803 769
Engineering schools 6,897 0.0% 1,150 2,809 879 571
Other technology-related schools 18,127 0.1% 1,648 573 7,308 367
Business and management schools 74,166 0.4% 989 297 1,588 765
Arts, music, and design schools 123,478 0.6% 957 1,511 1,104 838
Law schools 17,628 0.1% 551 452 599 466
Other special-focus institutions 20,806 0.1% 717 0 817 404
Tribal colleges 16,857 0.1% 482 494 440 0
All institutions 19,687,946 100.0% 4,751 9,026 2,479 1,264

Note: Institutions are categorized by the 2015 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, a project of Indiana University’s Center for Postsecondary Research. Doctoral universities awarded at least 20 research/scholarship doctorates in 2013-14; professional degrees like M.D. and J.D. are excluded. Master’s institutions awarded at least 50 master’s degrees but fewer than 20 doctoral degrees in 2013-14. Larger programs awarded at least 200 degrees; medium, 100-199; small, 50-99. Institutions that granted fewer than 50 master’s degrees were also included in “smaller” if they offered exclusively or mostly professional/graduate degrees. Baccalaureate/associate colleges include colleges that offered at least one bachelor’s-degree program but conferred more than 50 percent of degrees at the associate level. Such colleges are classified as “mixed” if they conferred more than 10 percent of degrees at the baccalaureate level, and as “associate dominant” if less than 10 percent. Associate colleges are categorized based on how much they focused on career and technical fields that required only an associate degree, compared with fields that required transfer to another institution for further education to obtain related employment. They are also classified by their traditional versus nontraditional student mix: the share of degree-seeking, full-time, and younger students compared with non-degree-seeking and part-time students. Tribal colleges and special-focus institutions are excluded from other categories. Branch campuses are counted separately if reported separately in the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Enrollment represents all full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students in the fall of 2016. Enrollment averages are weighted by the number of institutions in each classification. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to the Almanac editor.

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

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