By Bill DeBaun, Senior Director, Data and Strategic Initiatives
Reading time: Two minutes
College enrollment for 18-year-olds increased 3.2% year-over-year in the fall 2025. This encouraging result comes on the heels of a strong Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion effort from the class of 2025, which
saw FAFSAs increase nearly 18% through the end of June.
More broadly, undergraduate enrollment ticked up 2.4% in the fall 2025 semester, according to recently-released research from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
(NSCRC). Gains were led by particularly strong increases in community college (+4%) and undergraduate certificate (+6.6%) enrollment, although these are not disaggregated by age group.
The findings are based on about 8.5 million student records representing approximately about 49% of postsecondary institutions nationwide through September 25.
Four-year institutions had relatively more modest enrollment gains, with publics (+1.9%) outpacing private nonprofits (+0.9%).
The smaller four-year gains are what we’ve come to expect in these reports. Since fall 2023, undergraduate enrollment has grown by about 5.7%, and over that time community colleges’ enrollment has grown 9.6%.
Beyond institutional sector, the NSCRC also reports on enrollment changes by institutional admission selectivity and locale and by students’ enrollment intensity, race/ethnicity, and neighborhood income, and field of study.
Two things are notable among these student-level disaggregates.
First, enrollment increased the most year-over-year for students under age 24 who were in the bottom two income quintiles, which is an encouraging sign for college access advocates.
Second, enrollment for white students decreased 3.7% while enrollment for “missing/unknown” race/ethnicity students grew by 20.9%. Black and Latino/a students saw enrollment grow by 3.1% and 3.5%, respectively. Because of a growing trend
where institutions are reporting “missing/unknown” for student race/ethnicity, it’s probably prudent not to put too much stock in these enrollment figures at present. We can’t get a good read on whether these are real declines in white student enrollment
or an increase in non-reporting; similarly, these gains for Black and Hispanic students, for example, might be an undercount because we have no sense how many students from these groups are declining to report their race/ethnicity.
The NSCRC also reports state-level estimates of enrollment changes for fall 2024, 2025, and since fall 2023.
This is the “preliminary” report from the NSCRC; they’ll have full results around January, so check back then. Keep in mind, the NSCRC has a suite of other reports examining postsecondary outcomes
like transfer, persistence and retention, completion, and more.
All of these findings point to continued strong demand for education after high school. This is the third consecutive fall with enrollment growth nationally. National College Attainment Network (NCAN) members around the country are helping to drive this
momentum forward! NCAN will continue to report on key findings that members can add to the evidence base around their work.
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