List of United States colleges and universities by enrollment
This is a list of the largest United States colleges and universities by enrollment for colleges and universities in the United States.
What this list includes:
- Colleges and universities within the United States
- University systems if the system is run under a single administration
- Enrollment is the sum of the headcount of undergraduate and graduate students
- Enrollment is counted by the Integrated Post-secondary Education System within the U.S. Department of Education.
- Enrollment is the 12-month unduplicated headcount, indicating the number of unique students who attended the university during the year.
What this list does not include:
- Any indication of how many of the enrolled students are full or part time (e.g., some universities may have a high enrollment, but have most students enrolled in only a single class)
For other lists that measure university enrollment, see the See Also section below.
US Department of Education Ranking
The US Department of Education's Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System contains information on all 7,316 officially-recognized institutions of higher education in the United States. The following is a list of the 20 largest institutions of higher education by "12-month unduplicated headcount," meaning it is the number of unique individuals who enrolled in at least one class during the 12 months of 2009. Whether a system of individual campuses is counted as one or multiple institutions depends on how that institution is accredited and chartered. All data can be verified on the IPEDS system website.[1]
12 month unduplicated enrollment, 2009[2] |
Ranking |
College |
Location |
Enrollment |
1 |
University of Phoenix |
Online Campus (Headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona) |
532,672 |
2 |
Community College of the Air Force |
Multiple Campuses (Headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama) |
324,573 |
3 |
Kaplan University |
Multiple Campuses (Headquarters in Davenport, Iowa) |
96,166 |
4 |
Miami Dade College |
Miami, Florida |
96,123 |
5 |
Houston Community College |
Houston, Texas |
78,780 |
6 |
Ashford University |
Multiple Campuses (Headquarters in Clinton, Iowa) |
78,353 |
7 |
Arizona State University |
Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Arizona |
75,341 |
8 |
Strayer University |
Washington, DC |
74,713 |
9 |
Lone Star College System |
The Woodlands, Texas |
69,340 |
10 |
Northern Virginia Community College |
Annandale, Virginia |
67,175 |
11 |
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities |
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota |
65,006 |
12 |
Austin Community College District |
Austin, Texas |
64,276 |
13 |
Ohio State University |
Columbus, Ohio |
62,807 |
14 |
Tarrant County College District |
Fort Worth, Texas |
62,488 |
15 |
College of Southern Nevada |
Las Vegas, Nevada |
59,691 |
16 |
University of Florida |
Gainesville, Florida |
59,614 |
17 |
University of Central Florida |
Orlando, Florida |
59,360 |
18 |
American River College |
Sacramento, California |
57,959 |
19 |
Pima Community College |
Tucson, Arizona |
57,924 |
20 |
East Los Angeles College |
Los Angeles, California |
57,340 |
Additional Rankings
This list of rankings is gathered from individual institution websites, and may contain non-credit students and university systems containing separate institutions.
Largest U.S. colleges and universities by total enrollment |
Ranking |
College |
Location |
Enrollment |
Year |
1 |
State University of New York |
64 Campuses, New York State |
467,845 |
2010[3] |
2 |
University of Phoenix |
Online / Multiple Campuses |
455,600 |
|
3 |
California State University |
23 Campuses, California |
450,000 |
|
4 |
Community College of the Air Force |
Multiple Campuses |
332,095 |
|
5 |
City University of New York |
New York, New York |
261,602 |
|
6 |
Maricopa County Community College District |
Multiple Campuses, Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Arizona |
260,000 |
2009[4] |
7 |
Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana |
Multiple Campuses, Indiana |
165,000 |
2008-2009[5] |
8 |
Miami Dade College |
Multiple Campuses, Miami, Florida |
161,668 |
2007-2008[6] |
9 |
City College of San Francisco |
Multiple Campuses, San Francisco, California |
100,544 |
2000-2001[7] |
10 |
The Pennsylvania State University |
Multiple Campuses, Pennsylvania |
94,301 |
2008-2009[8] |
11 |
Florida State College at Jacksonville |
Multiple Campuses, Jacksonville, Florida |
81,370 |
2008-2009[9] |
12 |
Arizona State University |
Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Arizona |
70,440[10] |
|
13 |
Houston Community College System |
Multiple Campuses, Houston, Texas |
68,011 |
|
14 |
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities |
Minneapolis, Minnesota |
65,622 |
|
15 |
University of Puerto Rico |
Puerto Rico, USA |
64,511 |
|
16 |
Northern Virginia Community College |
Multiple Campuses, Virginia |
63,000 |
|
17 |
North Harris Montgomery Community College District |
Harris County, Texas |
62,705 |
|
18 |
Ohio State University |
Columbus, Ohio |
60,466 |
|
19 |
University of Florida |
Gainesville, Florida |
59,050 |
|
20 |
Austin Community College |
Multiple Campuses, Austin, Texas |
57,227 |
|
21 |
University of Central Florida |
Orlando, Florida |
55,358 |
|
See also
Notes
References