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Counting online students, Western Governors University is the largest US university. On one campus, it's Texas A&M. See the 10 largest campus-based schools.
The answer depends on what you count. Counting students who study fully online, Western Governors University is the largest, with 210,208 students in fall 2024, according to federal data. On a single campus, it's Texas A&M: 74,407 students at College Station in fall 2025, more than any other single campus below.
Arizona State University is the largest public university if you count its campuses and ASU Online together: 152,812 students in fall 2024. The list below ranks universities that teach most students on campus by fall 2024 enrollment, the latest year in College Navigator, the federal database. Western Governors and other mostly online universities are covered after it.
If one of these schools makes your list, our guide to early action, early decision and restrictive early action explains which deadline to choose.
Facts checked October 2026. Fall 2024 figures come from College Navigator. Newer counts come from each university or its state board, are labeled with their term and follow the school's own counting rules.
Fall 2024 enrollment from College Navigator, for universities that teach most students on campus. Federal totals include online students, and ASU reports ASU Online separately.
Just outside the top 10 is the University of Florida, with 56,311 students.
Among universities that teach most students on campus, Arizona State's campuses led fall 2024 federal data with 79,818 students combined. Texas A&M (78,321) was a close second and UCF (69,713) third, and nine of the top 10 are public. Places 6 to 10 are within about 2,300 students, so the order can change from year to year.
Federal data counts ASU Online as a separate unit, with 72,994 students in fall 2024. That is why ASU's own totals are about twice its campus figure. ASU's 2025-26 Common Data Set reports a student-to-faculty ratio of 17.7 to 1 on its campuses.
Texas A&M's 2025-26 Common Data Set reports a student-to-faculty ratio of 20 to 1 for fall 2025. The university offers more than 140 undergraduate degree programs.
UCF calls itself the largest university by enrollment in Florida. It offers 112 bachelor's programs, and its Burnett Honors College enrolled 508 new students in fall 2025. UCF's 2024-25 Common Data Set reports a student-to-faculty ratio of 28.3 to 1 for fall 2024.
Ohio State lists more than 200 undergraduate majors. The Columbus campus covers 1,704 acres.
Fall 2025 was the first time Illinois enrolled more than 60,000 students. It received 83,045 applications and enrolled a record 9,207 first-year students.
For fall 2026, Purdue admitted 75% of Indiana applicants and fewer than half of applicants from other states. If you're considering Purdue for artificial intelligence, it's one of the schools in our list of top colleges for artificial intelligence.
UW's own count for Seattle in autumn 2024 was 51,719, about 5,300 below the federal figure. Washington residents made up 74.1% of UW's incoming first-year and transfer students in autumn 2025, across its three campuses.
Almost half of NYU's students are in graduate or professional programs, the highest share in the top 10.
The Twin Cities campus also enrolled 1,843 new transfer students that fall.
The Arizona Board of Regents' count leaves out 23,070 students at the University of Arizona Global Campus.
Western Governors University, an online nonprofit, had 210,208 students in fall 2024. Southern New Hampshire University was second with 189,531, and almost all of its students also study online. The two also led NCES's ranking for fall 2021, the latest one on its Fast Facts page.
In that fall 2021 ranking, Grand Canyon University and Liberty University came third and fourth. The largest community college in it was Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, sixth with 86,100 students.
Arizona State University. Counting its campuses and ASU Online together, it had 152,812 students in fall 2024 and 160,114 in fall 2025. Federal data lists the two parts separately, and even ASU's campus figure (79,818 in fall 2024) is larger than any other public university's.
Southern New Hampshire University, with 164,423 undergraduates in fall 2024, almost all of them online. Western Governors University was next with 155,088. Among universities that teach most students on campus, ASU's campuses had the most (65,450), ahead of Texas A&M (60,710) and UCF (59,552).
By enrollment, it's Texas A&M's main campus in College Station, with 74,407 students in fall 2025 by the university's count. By land, Berry College in Georgia says its 27,000 contiguous acres make it the largest college campus in the United States.
For comparison, Arizona State's largest campus, Tempe, had 55,351 students in fall 2025, and UCF counted 70,674 across the whole university.
Sources count different groups of students. NCES notes that schools "may report their enrollment by campus or by system," and its totals include online students. Arizona State's two federal units, covered above, are one example; to compare schools fairly, use one source and one fall term.
Expect a mix of small and very large classes. In ASU's 2025-26 Common Data Set, 2,196 of 6,367 campus class sections for undergraduates had under 20 students, and 414 had 100 or more. You can check the same table for other schools.
Arizona State had 160,114 students in fall 2025, including 81,562 in ASU Online, by the Arizona Board of Regents' count. That makes it the largest public university. Overall, WGU (210,208) and SNHU (189,531) were bigger in fall 2024 federal data, when ASU's two parts totaled 152,812.
Western Governors University, which teaches online, with 210,208 students in fall 2024. Among universities that teach most students on campus, New York University is the largest private one, with 56,832 students that fall.
No. The California State University is a system of separate universities, with 471,451 students on 23 campuses in fall 2025. Its largest campus, Cal State Fullerton, had 45,147 students.
Federal fall 2025 figures aren't out yet. As of October 2026, College Navigator's latest enrollment year is fall 2024, when Western Governors University was the largest. Some universities have posted their own fall 2025 counts, which appear in their entries above.
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