Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Preliminary Estimates Show Overall New Jersey College Enrollment Slightly Increased

January 8, 2026

By: OSHE Staff

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Fall enrollment at colleges and universities across the country is reported through the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Fall Enrollment Survey in the spring that follows and typically becomes publicly available around June, at the end of the academic year.

To provide an early look at the shape of higher education enrollment in New Jersey, the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) collects preliminary fall enrollment data from institutions through the New Jersey IPEDS Form #20 before it is finalized and reported through federal IPEDS. This includes 90 institutional reporting units that represent all degree-granting institutions of higher education in New Jersey.

In the following report and interactive dashboard, dive into OSHE’s analysis of fall 2025 semester enrollment estimates.

Key Fall 2025 Enrollment Insights for New Jersey

Preliminary estimates for fall 2025 suggest that overall college enrollment in New Jersey increased by about 1.9%.

• Undergraduate enrollment saw a 1.85% increase while graduate enrollment rose 1.87%.
• Four-year public institutions saw enrollment rise by 1.83%, the fourth-highest increase among all sectors, though this is a smaller gain compared to last year (3.2%).
• Two-year county colleges continued to reverse more than a decade of declines. After a slight dip last year (-1.1%) following a 4.3% growth in fall 2023, enrollment is again up 3.1% this fall.
• Private nonprofit colleges, the independent, public-mission institutions, show one of the strongest gains, with enrollment up 3.2%, the second-largest increase among sectors.
• For-profit colleges saw the biggest drop, with enrollment down more than 20.6%.
• Religious institutions, such as seminaries and yeshivas, grew by about 6.2%.
• A trend to watch: First-time undergraduate enrollment fell by 2.9% for the first time in four years. This will require close monitoring to determine if it’s a one-year anomaly or an ongoing trend.


Source: OSHE Preliminary Enrollment NJIPEDS Form #20, Internal Analysis

Explore the Preliminary Estimates

For the full analysis and more information by sector and institution:

• Read the Report
• Visit the Data Dashboard

Note on methodology: the preliminary data reported here is captured from enrollment counts earlier in the semester, before they become the official record for the fall semester reported to the U.S. Department of Education through IPEDS. This timing matters because enrollment can fluctuate in the first weeks of the semester as students add or drop classes without penalty. As a result, preliminary counts for many of the institutions often differ, sometimes significantly, from final numbers reported for the federal survey. The preliminary figures presented here should be viewed as early estimates rather than official totals.

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