Quad
Trends by state

Trends by state

Wisconsin

34 colleges on the site: 13 public, 21 private nonprofit. Their undergraduates fell 11% in total since fall 2014, to 153,717 today (33 of 34 Wisconsin colleges in the panel).

Explore Wisconsin's colleges

How Wisconsin's colleges changed

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

Undergraduates

-18%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Applicants

+56%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Acceptance rate

+1.1 pts

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

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

13 colleges
Undergrads
-22%
Applicants
+76%
Acceptance rate
−0.8 pts
Average cost
-12%

Private nonprofit

20 colleges
Undergrads
-15%
Applicants
+35%
Acceptance rate
+2.1 pts
Average cost
-10%

Where Wisconsin's first-years come from

Top sending states

  1. Wisconsin (in-state)67%
  2. IL12%
  3. MN10%
  4. CA2%
  5. NY1%
  6. MI1%
  7. NJ1%
  8. IA1%

Public:

19% → 18% (13 colleges)

Private nonprofit:

29% → 32% (21 colleges)

First-years crossing state lines, fall 2024

Inflow
11,013
Outflow
7,485
Net
+3,528

Wisconsin's colleges enroll 1.5 first-years from other states for every Wisconsin resident who starts college in another state, among four-year colleges on this site.

Colleges taking the most of the inflow

  1. University of Wisconsin-Madison36%
  2. Marquette University12%
  3. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire6%
  4. University of Wisconsin-River Falls5%
  5. Carthage College4%

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

Biggest movers in Wisconsin

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

Applications surged

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: +65.7% (18 colleges ranked)

  1. 1University of Wisconsin-Madison+159.0%25,438 → 65,894
  2. 2Milwaukee School of Engineering+144.3%2,574 → 6,287
  3. 3University of Wisconsin-River Falls+139.4%2,305 → 5,519
  4. 4Carroll University+107.6%2,969 → 6,164
  5. 5University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point+104.0%4,210 → 8,590
  6. 6University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee+99.3%8,067 → 16,079
  7. 7University of Wisconsin-Stout+81.6%3,055 → 5,547
  8. 8University of Wisconsin-Whitewater+74.3%5,844 → 10,187
  9. 9Beloit College+68.9%2,281 → 3,853
  10. 10University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire+62.4%5,433 → 8,824

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: −21.9% (27 colleges ranked)

  1. 1University of Wisconsin-Madison+25.9%29,302 → 36,902
  2. 2University of Wisconsin-Green Bay+11.8%5,674 → 6,341
  3. 3Milwaukee School of Engineering+2.4%2,592 → 2,654

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 3 and how it's ranked

Students pay much less

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

Median college: −11.9% (27 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Lawrence University−27.7%$37,561 → $27,161
  2. 2Beloit College−23.4%$32,417 → $24,840
  3. 3Carthage College−21.6%$37,309 → $29,266
  4. 4University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee−21.5%$26,853 → $21,086
  5. 5University of Wisconsin-River Falls−19.1%$26,074 → $21,094
  6. 6Marquette University−18.9%$43,697 → $35,452
  7. 7University of Wisconsin-La Crosse−16.3%$23,436 → $19,609
  8. 8University of Wisconsin-Parkside−15.4%$22,618 → $19,134
  9. 9University of Wisconsin-Whitewater−15.0%$21,643 → $18,391
  10. 10Milwaukee School of Engineering−14.9%$31,922 → $27,173

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

Wisconsin'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: 33 of 34 Wisconsin 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)