Baccalaureate institutions in the United States
Baccalaureate colleges are four-year institutions where the bachelor’s degree is the predominant award. This dataset includes 493 U.S. institutions classified as Baccalaureate under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, maintained by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, enrolling about 797,270 students in total.
Of these, 85 are public and 408 private. The largest by enrollment include BYU, CUNY New York City College of Technology, and Utah Tech. Among institutions that report the figure, the median graduation rate is 52% and the median average net price is $21,083.
R1 vs R2 vs Doctoral/Professional
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, maintained by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation, sorts doctoral universities into these research tiers.
| Tier | Research activity | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| R1 | Very high research activity | Doctoral universities with the highest level of research activity, the top Carnegie research tier (e.g. Harvard, MIT, most flagship state universities). |
| R2 | High research activity | Doctoral universities with high research activity, the second Carnegie research tier, below R1 but above the doctoral/professional category. |
| Doctoral/Professional | Doctoral or professional-practice degrees | Universities that award research or professional-practice doctorates but fall below the research-activity thresholds for R1 or R2. |
493 institutions
Page 11 of 11Willamette University
Salem, Oregon
William Jewell College
Liberty, Missouri
William Peace University
Raleigh, North Carolina
William Penn University
Oskaloosa, Iowa
Williams Baptist University
Walnut Ridge, Arkansas
Williams College
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Wilmington College
Wilmington, Ohio
Wisconsin Lutheran College
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Wittenberg University
Springfield, Ohio
Wofford College
Spartanburg, South Carolina
Wright State University - Lake Campus
Celina, Ohio
York University
York, Nebraska
Young Harris College
Young Harris, Georgia
Frequently asked questions
- What is a Baccalaureate institution under the Carnegie Classification?
- Baccalaureate colleges are four-year institutions where the bachelor’s degree is the predominant award. This dataset tracks 493 of them in the United States.
- What are the largest Baccalaureate in the U.S.?
- By total enrollment, the largest are BYU, CUNY New York City College of Technology, Utah Tech, Georgia Gwinnett College, and Farmingdale State College.
- What is the typical graduation rate and net price for these institutions?
- The median graduation rate among institutions that report one is 52%, and the median average net price is $21,083. Figures come from IPEDS and College Scorecard.
Related categories
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Data: IPEDS Fall 2025–26 provisional · College Scorecard (June 2026 release). All sources & release dates →
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