The American system of higher education is noteworthy, in part, for its variability. It includes public, private, and nonprofit institutions; large, small, and in-between ones; and residential and commuter campuses.
There’s something for everybody, which makes it tough to fully understand the sweep and diversity of institutions that make up the bulk of the sector. Moreover, the narrative surrounding higher ed is often consumed by a small group of well-known and typically highly selective institutions.
But what if higher ed’s nearly 4,000 degree-granting colleges were boiled down to 100 institutions? Here is what that would look like:
If Higher Ed Was 100 Colleges ...
Methodology
This analysis, drawn from data reported to the U.S. Education Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data system, is based on 3,892 degree-granting U.S institutions that were eligible to participate in the Title IV financial-aid program in 2022-23. The dataset reflects two- and four-year public, private, and for-profit institutions; U.S. service schools and colleges with incomplete data in IPEDS were excluded.
Institutions labeled as four-year colleges in IPEDS, but that are classified as associate, baccalaureate/associate colleges (associate-dominant), mixed baccalaureate/associate collegesor special-focus two-yearunder the 2021 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, are grouped with two-year colleges.
Unclassified colleges are grouped by their sector as labeled in IPEDS. Tribal colleges, whether labeled two- or four-year in IPEDS, are reflected in the analysis as a standalone group.
All subtypes describing an institution’s locale (i.e. small city, midsize city, large city) are combined into a single type. Enrollment figures represent the total number of students enrolled at an institution for credit in the fall of 2022. The institutions in the analysis have a Carnegie classification of: doctoral, master’s, baccalaureate, baccalaureate/associate, associate, special focus, tribal, or unclassified.
Online-only colleges are those that reported to IPEDS that all of their programs were offered via distance education in 2022-23. The regional groupings referred to in this analysis are used by IPEDS, which follow the definitions established by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. Information about which states are included in each region can be found here.
Colleges affiliated with certain religious subgroups have been combined into single denominations.
