University Enrollments

UNIVERSITY ENROLLMENTS

REGISTRATION ENROLLMENTS FOR VARIOUS UNIVERSITIES, 1885-1930

University	1885	1895	1905	1915	1925	1930
California	197	1,781	3,294	6,434	16,294	17,322
Georgia	184	299	483	651	1,390	1,840
Illinois	247	814	3,597	5,439	11,212	12,709
Iowa	234	1,133	1,560	2,680	5,082	4,860
Michigan	524	2,818	3,832	5,833	9,422	9,431
Minnesota	54	2,171	3,633	4,484	10,170	12,400
Nebraska	142	1,397	2,728	3,832	5,930	5,795
North Carolina	230	229	666	1,088	2,288	2,749
Ohio State	64	805	1,835	4,599	8,849	10,709
Texas	151	630	1,235	2,574	4,810	5,070
Washington	6	425	811	3,249	6,149	7,368
Wisconsin	313	1,520	3,010	5,128	7,760	9,401
Chicago		1,265	2,373	3,803	5,484	5,679
Columbia	425	1,943	4,020	10,211	11,727	14,958
Cornell	461	1,638	3,230	5,598	5,397	5,725
Harvard	1,586	3,290	4,136	5,226	7,608	8,218
Stanford		1,100	1,568	2,054	3,117	3,556
Yale	1,086	2,350	2,992	3,300	4,722	5,259
Data for the last two columns were taken from Walter's statistics for autumn registration, as printed annually in School and Society. Summer session, extension, and parttime students are not included.

Source:

Ellwood P. Cubberley, Public Education in the United States (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934), p. 653.

Spiraling Enrollments

During the 1920s private and state universities enjoyed dramatic increases in enrollment. At the University of California, University of Georgia, and University of Minnesota enrollments nearly tripled between 1915 and 1930, while other universities doubled their numbers of students. Enrollments in the private colleges and universities also increased significantly during the 1920s.

Growth in Higher Education

The doubling of enrollments in colleges and universities during the decade was accompanied by increases in private donations from $7.5 million in 1915 to $25 million in 1930 and a rise in support from state and local governments from $62 million to $152 million. These increases were reversed by the devastating stock-market crash and resulting economic crisis that came in October 1929, but by the end of the decade nearly 150,000 college and university degrees were being granted annually, and the physical-plant value of these institutions totaled nearly $2 billion.

Source:

Ellwood Cubberley, Public Education in the United States: A Study and Interpretation of American Educational History, revised edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948).