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Trends by state

Trends by state

Louisiana

28 colleges on the site: 17 public, 10 private nonprofit, 1 for-profit. Their undergraduates fell 1% in total since fall 2014, to 122,938 today (24 of 28 Louisiana colleges in the panel).

Explore Louisiana's colleges

How Louisiana's colleges changed

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

Undergraduates

-14%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Applicants

+52%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Acceptance rate

+5.3 pts

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Average total cost

-2%

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

15 colleges
Undergrads
-14%
Applicants
+52%
Acceptance rate
+11.6 pts
Average cost
+7%

Private nonprofit

9 colleges

Where Louisiana's first-years come from

Top sending states

  1. Louisiana (in-state)74%
  2. TX7%
  3. CA2%
  4. FL2%
  5. GA1%
  6. IL1%
  7. NY1%
  8. MD1%

Public:

8% → 8% (17 colleges)

Private nonprofit:

45% → 43% (10 colleges)

First-years crossing state lines, fall 2024

Inflow
7,385
Outflow
3,640
Net
+3,745

Louisiana's colleges enroll 2.0 first-years from other states for every Louisiana resident who starts college in another state, among four-year colleges on this site.

Colleges taking the most of the inflow

  1. Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College42%
  2. Tulane University of Louisiana20%
  3. Xavier University of Louisiana8%
  4. Southern University and A & M College7%
  5. Grambling State University5%

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

Biggest movers in Louisiana

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

Applications surged

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: +42.7% (15 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Southern University and A & M College+710.5%3,003 → 24,340
  2. 2Grambling State University+348.4%2,894 → 12,976
  3. 3Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College+183.9%16,580 → 47,065
  4. 4Xavier University of Louisiana+158.9%3,963 → 10,260
  5. 5University of New Orleans+93.3%3,828 → 7,401
  6. 6Southeastern Louisiana University+60.0%3,909 → 6,255
  7. 7Louisiana Tech University+44.8%5,863 → 8,491
  8. 8McNeese State University+42.7%2,734 → 3,902
  9. 9Nicholls State University+39.0%2,424 → 3,369
  10. 10Dillard University+24.0%6,142 → 7,618

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: −14.1% (19 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College+25.1%24,452 → 30,594
  2. 2Grambling State University+18.3%3,520 → 4,164
  3. 3Louisiana Tech University+14.3%7,272 → 8,312
  4. 4Xavier University of Louisiana+13.6%2,313 → 2,628
  5. 5Southern University and A & M College+7.5%5,133 → 5,519
  6. 6Loyola University New Orleans+2.9%2,734 → 2,812

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 6 and how it's ranked

Students pay much less

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

Median college: −0.0% (19 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Loyola University New Orleans−23.3%$37,806 → $28,984
  2. 2Grambling State University−22.5%$23,035 → $17,858
  3. 3Xavier University of Louisiana−13.6%$21,410 → $18,491
  4. 4Louisiana State University at Alexandria−10.8%$17,230 → $15,367
  5. 5Southern University at New Orleans−7.6%$17,195 → $15,888
  6. 6Louisiana Christian University−7.4%$19,176 → $17,750
  7. 7Dillard University−5.1%$25,088 → $23,802
  8. 8Louisiana Tech University−4.0%$14,760 → $14,164
  9. 9New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary−3.5%$18,157 → $17,522
  10. 10Nicholls State University−0.0%$17,186 → $17,184

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

Louisiana'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: 24 of 28 Louisiana 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)