The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search.
Universities span the spectrum from cozy and personal to expansive and diverse, and finding your best fit can be difficult.
Small colleges can offer more direct contact with professors and unique camaraderie among classmates, but large universities are able to lure students with cutting-edge research facilities, far-reaching alumni networks, and a broad range of academic and extracurricular programs.
[Get 10 tips for choosing the right college.]
U.S. News surveys more than 1,800 colleges and universities annually, and 1,338 of the public and private schools ranked in Best Colleges 2012 reported student population data for fall 2010 to U.S. News. The average undergraduate population among those 1,338 schools is 5,700 students, but Arizona State University far exceeds the national average. That institution enrolled 56,562 undergraduates in the fall of 2010, the most of any school surveyed.
While the undergraduate population at both Pennsylvania State University and Michigan State University shrunk slightly between 2009 and 2010, the other eight largest schools saw their numbers grow, reflecting a trend of increased enrollment at colleges across the country.
[Learn how to tailor your college applications to specific schools.]
If you're hoping to choose your new circle of friends from a pool of more than 30,000 undergraduates, look no further than the 10 schools listed in the table below. Each of these schools is a national university, and is among those with the largest undergraduate populations in 2010 among all the colleges and universities reporting student population data to U.S. News. For-profit institutions were not considered for this list.
Schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked were not considered for this report. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.
| School name | Undergraduate student enrollment | U.S. News rank |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona State University | 59,562 | 132 |
| University of Central Florida | 47,580 | 177 |
| Ohio State University—Columbus | 42,082 | 55 |
| Texas A&M University—College Station | 39,148 | 58 |
| Pennsylvania State University—University Park | 38,594 | 45 |
| University of Texas—Austin | 38,420 | 45 |
| Michigan State University | 36,058 | 71 |
| Florida International University | 33,786 | RNP* |
| University of Minnesota—Twin Cities | 33,607 | 68 |
| University of Florida | 32,660 | 58 |
*RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one fourth of its rankings category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find admissions data, complete rankings, and much more.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2011 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists have no influence over U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.
Reader Comments