Examining Degree Attainments at the Nation’s Women’s Colleges

New data from the U.S. Department of Education offers information on the number of degrees awarded by women’s colleges and universities in the United States during the 2017-18 academic year. That year, women’s colleges awarded 534 associate’s degrees, 12,176 bachelor’s degrees, 6,123 master’s degrees, and 522 doctorates. All graduate degree programs (and some bachelor’s degree programs) at women’s colleges are open to men and women.

Texas Woman’s University conferred 1,968 bachelor’s degrees in the 2017-18 academic year. The university has been fully co-educational since 1994 but it is still listed among women’s colleges in U.S. Department of Education data. Today, women still make up 88 percent of the undergraduate student body.

Barnard College in New York City, the most highly selective women’s college in the nation, gave out 651 bachelor’s degrees in the 2017-18 academic year. This was second only to Texas Woman’s University. Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and St. Cathinere University in St. Paul, Minnesota, each awarded 636 bachelor’s degrees. Mount St. Mary’s University in California, Mount Holyoke Collge and Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and the College of St. Benedict in Minnesota, each awarded more than 500 bachelor’s degrees in the 2017-18 academic year.

Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, awarded 36 bachelor’s degrees, the lowest number of any four-year women’s college. Judson College in Alabama, Bennett College in North Carolina, the Moore College of Art and Design in Pennsylvania, and Sweet Briar College in Virginia, all awarded fewer than 100 bachelor’s degrees.

Texas Woman’s University awarded the most master’s degree and doctoral degrees among the institutions classified as women’s colleges. Simmons University in Boston ranked second in both master’s and doctoral degrees.