You would not know it based on media coverage of a small number of highly rejective colleges that enroll a tiny portion of all undergraduates, but most college students in the United States attend a public college or university that admits most or all applicants. These six charts reveal a much different picture of undergraduate education in the United States in 2023 (the most recent year for which data is available).
1. 76% of undergraduates attended a public institution of higher education, according to the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Survey (IPEDS).
