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Trends by state

Trends by state

Georgia

54 colleges on the site: 21 public, 28 private nonprofit, 5 for-profit. Their undergraduates grew 8% in total since fall 2014, to 256,126 today (49 of 54 Georgia colleges in the panel).

Explore Georgia's colleges

How Georgia's colleges changed

The median Georgia college, fall 2014 to fall 2024, against the national median (dashed) over the same .

Undergraduates

+2%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Applicants

+58%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

No point for fall 2017: fewer than 90% of this state's colleges reported.

Acceptance rate

+6.2 pts

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

No point for fall 2016 to fall 2018: fewer than 90% of this state's colleges reported.

Average total cost

-12%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Public and private

State stories are often public-system stories: a state's publics shrinking while its privates hold, or the reverse.

Public

20 colleges
Undergrads
+1%
Applicants
+68%
Acceptance rate
+7.7 pts
Average cost
-19%

Private nonprofit

25 colleges
Undergrads
+4%
Applicants
+54%
Acceptance rate
+2.7 pts
Average cost
-8%

Where Georgia's first-years come from

Top sending states

  1. Georgia (in-state)81%
  2. FL3%
  3. TX1%
  4. SC1%
  5. NY1%
  6. NC1%
  7. CA1%
  8. VA1%

Public:

3% → 7% (21 colleges)

Private nonprofit:

26% → 25% (28 colleges)

First-years crossing state lines, fall 2024

Inflow
11,054
Outflow
13,726
Net
-2,672

Georgia's colleges enroll 0.8 first-years from other states for every Georgia resident who starts college in another state, among four-year colleges on this site.

Colleges taking the most of the inflow

  1. Savannah College of Art and Design22%
  2. University of Georgia11%
  3. Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus10%
  4. Emory University8%
  5. Clark Atlanta University7%

One fall, over campus-based colleges only: not that fall, not for-profit, and not a campus that merged or split.

Biggest movers in Georgia

The same as the national lists, restricted to Georgia's colleges.

Applications surged

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: +65.4% (24 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Clark Atlanta University+430.1%5,140 → 27,245
  2. 2Spelman College+178.1%4,324 → 12,023
  3. 3Georgia State University+160.1%12,858 → 33,447
  4. 4Kennesaw State University+144.0%14,215 (fall 2015) → 34,680
  5. 5Fort Valley State University+133.4%2,228 → 5,201
  6. 6Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus+131.0%25,884 → 59,789
  7. 7Mercer University+124.3%4,375 → 9,813
  8. 8University of Georgia+104.3%20,918 → 42,732
  9. 9Emory University+88.0%17,796 → 33,450
  10. 10University of North Georgia+77.5%7,493 → 13,298

Sources:IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Grew the most

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: +0.4% (33 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Savannah College of Art and Design+72.3%8,846 → 15,243
  2. 2Spelman College+59.9%2,135 → 3,414
  3. 3Clark Atlanta University+40.4%2,567 → 3,603
  4. 4Kennesaw State University+38.3%29,841 (fall 2015) → 41,254
  5. 5Morehouse College+35.0%2,106 → 2,844
  6. 6Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus+34.2%13,996 → 18,785
  7. 7Oglethorpe University+27.1%1,064 → 1,352
  8. 8Fort Valley State University+23.6%2,172 → 2,684
  9. 9University of Georgia+20.2%26,738 → 32,137
  10. 10Augusta University+11.6%5,030 → 5,613

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Students pay much less

(in 2023–24 dollars), 2013–14 to 2023–24

Median college: −11.5% (34 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Fort Valley State University−45.7%$21,191 → $11,504
  2. 2Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College−39.0%$18,634 → $11,363
  3. 3Gordon State College−38.2%$17,908 → $11,062
  4. 4Savannah State University−34.7%$14,956 → $9,765
  5. 5Kennesaw State University−31.1%$27,304 (2015–16) → $18,823
  6. 6Valdosta State University−29.7%$21,150 → $14,879
  7. 7Georgia Southwestern State University−29.5%$18,834 → $13,281
  8. 8Clayton State University−28.7%$18,720 → $13,355
  9. 9Shorter University−27.9%$25,419 → $18,326
  10. 10University of West Georgia−26.5%$21,518 → $15,809

Sources:IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2013 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Public research universities

Georgia's public R1 and R2 universities (Carnegie 2025), with their undergraduate change over the same window. No classification in the data means "flagship," so this is simply the state's public research universities.

How this was measured

  • Which colleges. Colleges with 300 or more undergraduates in both fall 2014 and fall 2024: 49 of 54 Georgia colleges. It's a , so colleges entering or leaving the data don't look like change.
  • Average total cost is an academic-year figure, one year behind fall: 2013–14 to 2023–24, after inflation.
  • Out-of-state shares are collected in even-numbered falls only; odd years are gaps, not zeros.
  • Totals and medians both appear because they can diverge: a state's total can fall more (or less) than its median college when its biggest colleges move differently.
  • No policy attribution. This page shows what changed, not why; a state's mix of public, private, and for-profit colleges, and its system policies, aren't broken out as causes.
  • First-years crossing state lines is a single snapshot, fall 2024, over campus-based colleges only: colleges that fall, for-profit colleges, and campuses that merged or split are left out. It's the newest fall the site's per-college home-state tables cover, not this page's ten-year window.

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (part C, residence of first-time students), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)