EnrollmentsResearch/Study

Women’s Undergraduate Enrollment Is Up, but Remains Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has released new data on higher education enrollment estimates for the spring 2025 semester, including information on women’s enrollment in recent years.

Overall, postsecondary enrollment in the United States grew by 3.2 percent since the spring 2024 semester. Undergraduate enrollment grew by 3.5 percent and graduate enrollment increased by 1.5 percent. While overall undergraduate enrollment remains 2.4 percent below pre-pandemic levels, total graduate enrollment has grown by 7.2 percent since spring 2020.

Across all institutional sectors, women continue to outpace men in higher education enrollment. In the spring 2025 semester, there were 8.3 million undergraduate women and 1.8 million women graduate students enrolled at colleges and universities in the United States, compared to 6.1 million male undergraduates and 1.1 million male graduate students.

Compared to the spring 2024 semester, women’s overall undergraduate enrollment grew by 3.3 percent, but remains 3 percent below that of spring 2020. Similarly, men’s undergraduate enrollment grew by 3.2 percent from spring 2024 and decreased by 3.9 percent from spring 2020.

Women’s undergraduate enrollment at public 4-year institutions has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 0.3 percent. Regarding private 4-year institutions, for-profit universities have seen consistent progress in women’s undergraduate enrollment, increasing by 4 percent from spring 2024 and 23.6 percent from spring 2020. In contrast, women’s undergraduate enrollment at non-profit universities has been on a downward trend, currently 3.9 percent below pre-pandemic levels. At community colleges, women’s enrollment has increased over the past three years, but remains below spring 2020 enrollment.

At the graduate level, women’s overall enrollment has continually increased over the past five years, showing a 1.7 percent increase from spring 2024 and a 7.4 percent increase from spring 2020. Across all institutional types, women’s graduate enrollment is above spring 2020 levels

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