Guide
What this land-grant list includes
Each row is one federal land-grant designee that has a College Scorecard campus. The three groups are the 1862 institutions, the 1890 institutions, and the 1994 tribal institutions. The page uses one campus for each designee. A branch campus is not a second designee.
Massachusetts has two 1862 designees. MIT is one, and it is private. The University of Massachusetts Amherst is the other. The University of California uses the Berkeley row. Nevada uses Reno. The count in the fact strip is the roster that survived those rules.
- Schools
- 112
- States
- 57
- Median admit rate
- 74%
- 72 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $48,175
- 10 years after entry
Three federal lists, one campus each
The 1890 group is the set NIFA describes as the 1890 land-grant universities, including Tuskegee and Central State. The 1994 group is the tribal colleges named in the current land-grant statute and present in the Scorecard. Lac Courte Oreilles and Turtle Mountain use the names the Scorecard stores now.
D-Q University remains in older copies of that statute. It is closed. The Scorecard has no row, so this page has no row. The 1862 group includes the state designees plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas, and the College of Micronesia-FSM.
Famous universities that are not the designee
The University of Michigan is not Michigan's land-grant. Michigan State is. The University of Texas at Austin is not Texas's land-grant. Texas A&M University-College Station is. The University of Iowa, the University of Kansas, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Washington are on other conference pages and off this roster.
UC Davis is a Big Sky football school and a campus of the University of California. It is not a second land-grant row. UNLV is not the Nevada row. Yale and Brown were early designees in their states. Those designations later moved. Neither school is on this page. Purdue West Lafayette is Indiana's row. Indiana University is not.
Do not confuse it with the flagship list
The flagship page keeps one public campus per state. New York's flagship there is the University at Buffalo. New York's land-grant here is Cornell. Ohio's flagship and Ohio's land-grant are both Ohio State. The two pages agree only when the same campus fills both jobs.
Predominant degree is not the land-grant test. A designee can show Associate in that Scorecard field and still belong. Branch campuses such as Texas A&M-Kingsville, Purdue Fort Wayne, and Colorado State University Pueblo stay off. Open the main-campus row for the designee.
How this sits next to HBCU and tribal pages
The 1890 rows are also HBCUs. The HBCU page is larger, because most HBCUs are not land-grant designees. The 1994 rows are the tribal-flag colleges in this file. The tribal page and this 1994 set match. A tribal flag without a 1994 designation would stay on the tribal page only.
Land-grant status is a federal designation for teaching, research, and extension. It is not a football conference and not a quality rank. Use the Scorecard columns to compare the campuses. Use the source line to see that the roster is a hand list, not a single index field.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 57 states. The largest groups are Montana (8), North Dakota (6), Minnesota (5), Michigan (4), and New Mexico (4). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
Who runs them
By reported control, 104 are public and 8 are private nonprofit. A blank control stays out of that split.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is a bachelor's degree at 73 schools, an associate degree at 35 schools, and a certificate at 4 schools. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are Texas A&M University-College Station in College Station, Texas, with 59,615 undergraduates, Ohio State University-Main Campus in Columbus, Ohio, with 45,638 undergraduates, Purdue University-Main Campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, with 44,503 undergraduates, University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, with 42,537 undergraduates, and Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus in University Park, Pennsylvania, with 42,284 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
Admission
72 of 112 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 74%. Schools with no reported rate stay out of the median. A missing rate is not an open door, and it is not a closed one.
The lowest reported admission rates on this list are Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at 5%, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, at 9%, and University of California-Berkeley in Berkeley, California, at 11%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are University of the Virgin Islands in Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands, at 99%, Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, at 99%, and South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota, at 98%.
What they charge
Among 104 public colleges that report an in-state sticker price, the median is $9,156. Among 8 private colleges that report a sticker price, the median is $5,845.
Sticker price is not net price. Grants, waivers, and a service commitment can move the bill by a wide margin. Open a school for the net-price figures.
Earnings and graduation
Among 106 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $48,175. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at $143,372, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, at $104,043, and University of California-Berkeley in Berkeley, California, at $92,446.
Among 112 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 48%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
Athletics in this file
60 report NCAA Division I athletics, 39 play FBS football, and 19 play FCS football. A blank athletics field means this file has no division for that campus. It does not prove the campus has no team.
Also on other lists
Some of these schools also meet the rule for another list on this site. The overlap is a second flag or a second classification. It is not a second ranking.
44 are also on R1 research universities. 13 are also on R2 research universities. 21 are also on HBCU colleges. 6 are also on Hispanic-serving institutions. 35 are also on tribal colleges.
How these figures work
Admission rate, enrollment, sticker price, earnings, and graduation rate all come from the College Scorecard. Earnings are the median 10 years after a student entered the school. Tuition for a public college is the in-state sticker price. Tuition for a private college is the published sticker price. None of these is net price after aid.
A blank field stays blank. This page does not turn a blank admission rate into an open door, a blank fee into a free application, or a blank earnings figure into zero. The table above is membership under the rule in this guide. Sort order is not a quality ranking.