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Fastest-Growing Colleges, 2005-15

Almanac 2017

August 13, 2017

The largest growth outside the for-profit sector occurred at two private nonprofit master’s institutions that offered classes entirely or largely online: Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University. The third-largest increase in enrollment among public and private nonprofit institutions from 2005 to 2015 was at the University of California at Merced, which has grown more than sevenfold since its first class of undergraduate students arrived on the campus in 2005.

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Public doctoral institutions

Rank for size of increase	Institution	Enrollment, fall 2005	Enrollment, fall 2015	Increase
1.	U. of California at Merced	878	6,685	661.4%
2.	Utah State U.	14,458	28,622	98.0%
3.	U. of Alabama at Tuscaloosa	21,793	37,098	70.2%
4.	U. of Texas at Dallas	14,480	24,554	69.6%
5.	U. of Massachusetts at Lowell	10,666	18,047	69.2%
6.	U. of Texas-Pan American	17,048	28,584	67.7%
7.	Rowan U.	9,762	16,155	65.5%
8.	U. of Texas at Arlington	25,432	41,988	65.1%
9.	Missouri U. of Science and Technology	5,600	8,886	58.7%
10.	U. of Mississippi	14,901	23,212	55.8%
11.	Northern Arizona U.	18,773	29,021	54.6%
12.	Oregon State U.	19,224	29,576	53.9%
13.	City U. of New York Graduate Center*	4,554	6,954	52.7%
14.	U. of Arkansas at Fayetteville	17,821	26,754	50.1%
15.	Texas A&M U. at Commerce	8,777	12,928	47.3%
16.	Georgia Institute of Technology	17,135	25,034	46.1%
17.	U. of Massachusetts at Boston	11,862	17,030	43.6%
18.	Rutgers U. at New Brunswick	34,449	49,428	43.5%
19.	Ohio U.	20,461	29,157	42.5%
20.	Texas A&M U. at College Station	44,910	63,813	42.1%
	Over all for 189 institutions	4,043,819	4,651,352	15.0%

Private nonprofit doctoral institutions

Rank for size of increase	Institution	Enrollment, fall 2005	Enrollment, fall 2015	Increase
1.	Liberty U.	12,458	80,494	546.1%
2.	U. of the Cumberlands	1,843	6,276	240.5%
3.	Maryville U. of Saint Louis	3,223	6,414	99.0%
4.	American International College	1,815	3,539	95.0%
5.	Wilmington U. (Del.)	7,911	15,002	89.6%
6.	Lipscomb U.	2,517	4,680	85.9%
7.	Regent U.	3,961	6,950	75.5%
8.	Benedictine U.	3,400	5,954	75.1%
9.	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	3,917	6,573	67.8%
10.	California Institute of Integral Studies	1,057	1,488	40.8%
11.	Florida Institute of Technology	4,745	6,631	39.8%
12.	Drexel U.	18,466	25,595	38.6%
13.	Stevens Institute of Technology	4,690	6,359	35.6%
14.	Georgetown U.	13,652	18,459	35.2%
15.	Spalding U.	1,641	2,202	34.2%
16.	U. of Southern California	32,836	43,401	32.2%
17.	Rice U.	5,095	6,719	31.9%
18.	Carnegie Mellon U.	10,017	12,963	29.4%
19.	U. of Rochester	8,588	11,105	29.3%
20.	Clarkson U.	3,045	3,910	28.4%
	Over all for 116 institutions	1,177,574	1,370,078	16.3%

Public master’s institutions

Rank for size of increase	Institution	Enrollment, fall 2005	Enrollment, fall 2015	Increase
1.	U. of Washington at Bothell	1,534	5,277	244.0%
2.	California State U.-Channel Islands	2,575	6,167	139.5%
3.	U. of Washington at Tacoma	2,189	4,599	110.1%
4.	Florida Gulf Coast U.	7,249	14,833	104.6%
5.	Indiana U. East	2,459	4,716	91.8%
6.	California State U.-Monterey Bay	3,773	7,102	88.2%
7.	U. of Maryland University College	27,429	50,248	83.2%
8.	U. of Texas of the Permian Basin	3,406	6,077	78.4%
9.	Arkansas Tech U.	6,842	12,054	76.2%
10.	California State U. at San Marcos	7,502	12,793	70.5%
11.	Texas A&M International U.	4,298	7,192	67.3%
12.	U. of Houston-Victoria	2,491	4,152	66.7%
13.	Massachusetts Maritime Academy	1,008	1,674	66.1%
14.	Fort Hays State U.	9,019	14,210	57.6%
15.	Savannah State U.	3,091	4,800	55.3%
16.	U. of Texas at Tyler	5,777	8,785	52.1%
17.	State U. of New York Maritime College	1,294	1,860	43.7%
18.	Weber State U.	18,142	25,955	43.1%
19.	Eastern New Mexico U.	4,033	5,725	42.0%
20.	California State U. at Los Angeles	20,034	27,680	38.2%
	Over all for 261 institutions	2,178,280	2,397,333	10.1%

Private nonprofit master’s institutions

Rank for size of increase	Institution	Enrollment, fall 2005	Enrollment, fall 2015	Increase
1.	Western Governors U.	4,715	70,504	1,395.3%
2.	Southern New Hampshire U.	6,186	61,285	890.7%
3.	Bethel U. (Tenn.)	1,381	5,951	330.9%
4.	Saint Joseph’s College (N.Y.)	1,318	4,749	260.3%
5.	Russell Sage College	838	2,897	245.7%
6.	Mid-America Christian U.	743	2,540	241.9%
7.	Colorado Christian U.	2,122	6,879	224.2%
8.	King U. (Tenn.)	970	2,920	201.0%
9.	Baker U.	916	2,689	193.6%
10.	California Baptist U.	3,105	8,541	175.1%
11.	U. of New England	3,312	7,794	135.3%
12.	U. of Charleston	1,006	2,327	131.3%
13.	Keiser U. at Ft. Lauderdale	7,371	16,579	124.9%
14.	Central Methodist U., College of Graduate and Extended Studies	2,065	4,516	118.7%
15.	Tiffin U.	1,605	3,496	117.8%
16.	Concordia U. (Calif.)	2,092	4,505	115.3%
17.	Bay Path U.	1,456	3,107	113.4%
18.	Concordia U. at St. Paul	2,069	4,380	111.7%
19.	Concordia U. Texas	1,211	2,559	111.3%
20.	Maharishi U. of Management	741	1,530	106.5%
	Over all for 387 institutions	1,292,699	1,517,989	17.4%

Public baccalaureate institutions

Rank for size of increase	Institution	Enrollment, fall 2005	Enrollment, fall 2015	Increase
1.	U. of Hawaii-West Oahu	858	2,692	213.8%
2.	Nevada State College	1,556	3,534	127.1%
3.	Purdue U. North Central	3,519	6,158	75.0%
4.	Colorado Mesa U.	6,062	9,448	55.9%
5.	U. of South Carolina at Beaufort	1,319	1,980	50.1%
6.	City U. of New York York College	5,899	8,511	44.3%
7.	Oregon Institute of Technology	3,347	4,777	42.7%
8.	Granite State College	1,540	2,179	41.5%
9.	Indiana U. at Kokomo	2,895	4,090	41.3%
10.	City U. of New York, New York City College of Technology	12,439	17,424	40.1%
11.	Valley City State U.	1,035	1,422	37.4%
12.	State U. of New York College at Farmingdale	6,461	8,648	33.8%
13.	U. of South Carolina-Upstate	4,484	5,996	33.7%
14.	U. of Minnesota at Crookston	2,134	2,823	32.3%
15.	U. of Maine at Fort Kent	1,193	1,559	30.7%
16.	City U. of New York Medgar Evers College	5,211	6,765	29.8%
17.	Wright State U. Lake Campus	910	1,172	28.8%
18.	Pennsylvania State U. at Abington	3,142	3,966	26.2%
19.	Virginia Military Institute	1,369	1,717	25.4%
20.	Cal State Maritime Academy	859	1,075	25.1%
	Over all for 88 institutions in category	217,946	260,247	19.4%

Private nonprofit baccalaureate institutions

Rank for size of increase	Institution	Enrollment, fall 2005	Enrollment, fall 2015	Increase
1.	Brigham Young U.-Idaho	13,047	43,803	235.7%
2.	Everglades U. at Boca Raton (Fla.)	502	1,498	198.4%
3.	Trine U.	1,172	3,395	189.7%
4.	Edward Waters College	839	2,254	168.7%
5.	Young Harris College	532	1,204	126.3%
6.	U. of Pikeville	1,129	2,531	124.2%
7.	William Jessup U.	532	1,161	118.2%
8.	Chowan U.	796	1,532	92.5%
9.	Concordia College (N.Y.)	649	1,156	78.1%
10.	Midland U.	926	1,646	77.8%
11.	Adrian College	972	1,715	76.4%
12.	Wisconsin Lutheran College	691	1,188	71.9%
13.	Brescia U.	621	1,060	70.7%
14.	Belmont Abbey College	887	1,495	68.5%
15.	High Point U.	2,753	4,573	66.1%
16.	San Diego Christian College	553	916	65.6%
17.	William Peace U.	668	1,038	55.4%
18.	Marymount California U.	726	1,099	51.4%
19.	Jarvis Christian College	572	863	50.9%
20.	Concordia U. (Mich.)	600	899	49.8%
	Over all for 407 institutions	556,758	609,891	9.5%

Public associate and baccalaureate/associate institutions

Rank for size of increase	Institution	Enrollment, fall 2005	Enrollment, fall 2015	Increase
1.	Northwest Louisiana Technical College at Minden	554	2,924	427.8%
2.	Delaware Technical and Community College-Terry	2,569	13,471	424.4%
3.	South Louisiana Community College	1,880	6,958	270.1%
4.	South Central Louisiana Technical College-Young Memorial Campus	786	2,669	239.6%
5.	Blue Ridge Community and Technical College	1,711	5,552	224.5%
6.	Wichita Area Technical College	1,044	3,318	217.8%
7.	Metropolitan Community College Longview (Mo.)	5,667	17,821	214.5%
8.	Ranger College	756	2,063	172.9%
9.	Kent State U.-Geauga (Ohio)	931	2,531	171.9%
10.	Saint Louis Community College at Forest Park	7,276	18,902	159.8%
11.	Bluegrass Community and Technical College	4,049	10,388	156.6%
12.	West Georgia Technical College-Murphy Campus	2,888	6,431	122.7%
13.	Arkansas State U.-Newport	1,217	2,651	117.8%
14.	Crowder College	2,615	5,584	113.5%
15.	South Texas College	16,233	34,371	111.7%
16.	Sandersville Technical College	765	1,569	105.1%
17.	Georgia Northwestern Technical College	2,893	5,874	103.0%
18.	Harrisburg Area Community College	9,505	19,121	101.2%
19.	York County Community College	874	1,758	101.1%
20.	East Georgia State College	1,503	3,001	99.7%
	Over all for 995 institutions	6,253,415	6,992,954	11.8%

2-year and 4-year for-profit institutions

Rank for size of increase	Institution	Enrollment, fall 2005	Enrollment, fall 2015	Increase
1.	Ashford U.	814	42,452	5,115%
2.	Grand Canyon U.	7,969	69,444	771.4%
3.	Post U.	1,101	7,429	574.8%
4.	San Joaquin Valley College at Visalia	876	5,605	539.8%
5.	Florida Technical College at Orlando	796	4,575	474.7%
6.	Full Sail U.	4,511	20,025	343.9%
7.	Miller-Motte Technical College at Wilmington (N.C.)	707	3,065	333.5%
8.	Northcentral U.	2,820	11,029	291.1%
9.	Colorado Technical U. Online	6,734	22,757	237.9%
10.	Waldorf College	647	2,001	209.3%
11.	Pima Medical Institute at Tucson	690	2,023	193.2%
12.	Harrison College at Indianapolis Downtown	1,048	3,040	190.1%
13.	Herzing U. at Madison (Wis.)	1,082	2,753	154.4%
14.	Capella U.	13,907	34,365	147.1%
15.	South College (Tenn.)	544	1,335	145.4%
16.	Walden U.	22,168	52,799	138.2%
17.	Art Institute of California-Hollywood	520	1,198	130.4%
18.	Kaplan U. at Davenport (Iowa)	20,042	45,355	126.3%
19.	Alliant International U. at San Diego	1,584	3,509	121.5%
20.	ECPI College of Technology	5,301	11,735	121.4%
	Over all for 1,246 institutions	661,544	1,345,559	103.4%

* The figure for the City University of New York Graduate Center includes enrollment at four administratively linked university programs: the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies, the CUNY School of Professional Studies (including the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies), the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and Macaulay Honors College.

Note: Data are based on a fall head count of full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students. The table includes only U.S. degree-granting institutions with at least 500 students in 2005. Growth at some colleges reflects a jump in online-only students. Colleges vary in whether they report enrollment of all campuses and programs together or separately; changes in reporting methods could account for part of the increases in some cases, and some fast-growing institutions may not appear on the list because they did not use the same Unit ID number to report enrollment in 2005 and 2015. Institutions are grouped by the 2015 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Institutions may fall into different categories than they did in a similar table in the previous year’s Almanac, which used 2010 Carnegie Classifications. The category of public associate and baccalaureate/associate institutions includes public colleges that grant primarily associate degrees but also offer some bachelor’s degrees, as well as special-focus two-year institutions. Private nonprofit associate and baccalaureate/associate institutions are excluded from the table.

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

Correction (8/24/2017, 4:24 p.m.): The original version of this table listed the outdated name of Bay Path College for Bay Path University. The table has been corrected.