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 8 of 11Simpson University
Redding, California
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, New York
Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts
Soka University of America
Aliso Viejo, California
South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary
Deerfield Beach, Florida
South University - Austin
Round Rock, Texas
South University - Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
South University - Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Southern California Seminary
El Cajon, California
Southern Virginia University
Buena Vista, Virginia
Southwestern Adventist University
Keene, Texas
Southwestern Christian University
Bethany, Oklahoma
Southwestern College
Winfield, Kansas
Southwestern University
Georgetown, Texas
Spelman College
Atlanta, Georgia
Spring Hill College
Mobile, Alabama
St Lawrence University
Canton, New York
St Olaf College
Northfield, Minnesota
St. Andrews University
Laurinburg, North Carolina
St. Francis College
Brooklyn, New York
St. John's College
Santa Fe, New Mexico
St. John's College
Annapolis, Maryland
St. Mary's College of Maryland
St. Mary's City, Maryland
Sterling College
Craftsbury Common, Vermont
Sterling College
Sterling, Kansas
Stevens - The Institute of Business & Arts
Saint Louis, Missouri
Stillman College
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Stonehill College
Easton, Massachusetts
Strayer University - Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
SUNY at Purchase College
Purchase, New York
SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill
Cobleskill, New York
SUNY College of Technology at Canton
Canton, New York
SUNY College of Technology at Delhi
Delhi, New York
Susquehanna University
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Sweet Briar College
Sweet Briar, Virginia
Tabor College
Hillsboro, Kansas
Talladega College
Talladega, Alabama
Taylor University
Upland, Indiana
Tennessee Wesleyan University
Athens, Tennessee
Texas College
Tyler, Texas
Texas Lutheran University
Seguin, Texas
The College of Idaho
Caldwell, Idaho
The College of Westchester
White Plains, New York
The College of Wooster
Wooster, Ohio
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
New York, New York
The University of Montana - Western
Dillon, Montana
The University of Olivet
Olivet, Michigan
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.
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Data: IPEDS Fall 2025–26 provisional · College Scorecard (June 2026 release). All sources & release dates →
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