Enrollments are down at many colleges and universities across the United States. But many historically Black colleges and universities have reported significant increases, and some have achieved a record number of enrolled students. Undoubtedly, widespread campus unrest and the end of race-sensitive admissions at predominantly White colleges and universities have been contributing factors to the surge in enrollments at many HBCUs.
Following is a rundown of enrollment successes at some HBCUs.
Alabama A&M University has 2,157 first-year students, a record number. Some 42 percent of the new students are men, bucking a downward trend in male enrollments in recent years.
Coppin State University in Baltimore welcomed over 1,000 new undergraduate students this fall, marking the largest incoming class in over a quarter-century.
More than 1,600 new freshman and transfer students have enrolled at Delaware State University. The university has broken new student enrollment records in four of the last five years and is once again poised to reach another all-time high.
Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Florida, recorded its highest enrollment in more than 20 years. The university 2025 enrollment stands at 1,210 students, marking a remarkable 30 percent increase since 2019.
Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina has recorded its largest enrollment in more than a decade. The institution welcomed the Class of 2029 with 363 first-time freshman and nearly 250 transfer students. This fall, 2,359 students are enrolled at ECSU — a 4.5 percent increase over last year. This is the ninth consecutive year of enrollemnt growth since 2016.
For the fourth consecutive year, Fayetteville State University in North Carolina set an all-time high enrollment of 7,628 students, exceeding last year’s record of 7,100 by more than 500 students. The first-year class is the largest since 2007.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University enrollment crested over 15,000 this fall. For the twelfth consecutive year, North Carolina A&T is the largest public historically Black college or university in the nation.
For the first time in its 115-year history, North Carolina Central University has passed the 9,000-student mark. Enrollments are up 6.8 percent from a year ago.
Simmons College of Kentucky has welcomed 210 new freshmen, the largest incoming class in its history.
Spelman College in Atlanta received over 11,500 first-year applications and 262 transfer applications for Fall 2025. Ultimately, 651 first-year students and six transfer students were enrolled, bringing the total undergraduate population to over 2,500. Spelman’s current acceptance rate is 23.5 percent, a drop from 25 percent in 2024.
Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina had its highest enrollment growth in years with 4,962 students enrolled this fall. The increase represents a 4.7 percent jump from the previous year. Among the total enrollment are 1,003 new first-time freshmen, marking the third consecutive year of growth. WSSU’s Graduate School has also reached its highest enrollment in a decade, with 679 students, marking a 15 percent increase over last year.
This is great news. Thanks Gene Turner
Please see what’s happening here! A gross number of on-site traditional black and brown potential students are lower income, rejected from PWIs, $500 tuition, and have lower test scores. This keeps segregation alive and well which is not good… UNC-FSU has Fort Bragg to thank online and on-site for their increase. Overall, I would definitely choose an HBCU considering today’s woes.
Hey Mary,
Your misguided and dimwitted comment is indicative of years of miseducation. It’s very unfortunate that ole farts like yourself have been thoroughly brainwashed to believe that if an educational institution (i.e., K-12 or even HBCUs, communities, etc.) is majority native born Black American that some sort of negative outcome is normative. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would venture in saying that your narrowly tailored lens of Black American is from a disjointed deficit narrative.
Further, I never hear anyone using pejoratives to describe a high school, college or university that’s “All White, Asian, or Latino”. Yet, low IQ people like yourself are so quick to simply view HBCUs as school of choice by default. Finally, I am most confident that your sub-par “qualitative, mixed-methods, or quantitative” dissertation has not improved the lives of people who look like you. The facts remain, time is up for you sellouts, rabid neoliberals, and spineless ole fart to step aside. Times up with your Tom Foolery.