The Carnegie Classifications

Tony Pina's reply to Dennis on the 'Quackwatch' thread got me interested in the Carnegie classifications.

The Carnegie Foundation counts 3,941 colleges and universities in the US. (At least approximately, a few are starting or closing all the time.) I believe that they include all schools with US DoEd/CHEA recognized accreditation. Here's how they classify them:

261 Doctoral/Research Universities

Broken down into 151 "Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive", formerly called "Research I", the large research institutions that offer doctoral programs in many different fields. These are the schools like UC Berkeley that are striving to be what Fairfax University is.

110 "Doctoral/Research Universities—Intensive", formerly called "Research II", which offer doctoral programs in a smaller group of specialties. This is where Carnegie puts the Union Institute.

611 Master's Colleges and Universities (these sometimes offer a doctoral program or two, usually in psychology or education, sometimes in law or a semi-medical subject like pharmacy).

606 Baccalaureate Colleges

These are broken down into 228 "Baccalaureate Colleges—Liberal Arts" that emphasize traditional academic subjects like history or the sciences, often with an eye towards graduate school and teaching.

321 "Baccalaureate Colleges—General" that grant a larger percentage of their degrees in job related subjects like busines or IT with an eye towards employment.

57 "Baccalaureate/Associate's Colleges" which are community colleges that have started offering a few bachelors degrees in popular subjects.

1,669 Associate's Colleges. These are the community colleges.

766 Specialized Institutions, an extremely diverse category that includes:

312 Theological seminaries and other specialized faith-related institutions

54 Stand-alone_Medical schools and medical centers

97 Other separate health profession schools

66 Schools of engineering and technology

49 Schools of business and management

87 Schools of art, music, and design

25 Schools of law

6 Teachers colleges (Many of the masters universities are essentially teachers colleges, but these six apparently only offer degrees in education.)

70 Other specialized institutions. These are everything that won't fit elsewhere, ranging from a surprising number of military schools (and the private American Military U.) though prestigious places like Rand and the Scripps Graduate Institute (multiple Nobel Prize winners) to DL-friendly places like CIIS, Saybrook, Fielding, ITP, Naropa and Pacifica.

28 Tribal Colleges and Universities run by and primarily serving American Indians.

http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/Classification/CIHE2000/PartIfiles/partI.htm

 

Interestingly, the Carnegie Foundation breaks schools down by whether they are public, private (non-profit) or private (for-profit).

Here's where some of our Degreeinfo "usual suspects" end up:

Nova Southeastern => Doctoral/Research University - Intensive, private non-profit

The Union Institute => Doctoral/Research University - Intensive, private non-profit

U. Sarasota => Doctoral/Research University - Intensive, private for-profit

Walden U. => Doctoral/Research University - Intensive, private for-profit

U. Maryland University College => Masters Colleges and Universities I - public

CSU Dominguez Hills => Masters Colleges and Universities I - public

Thomas Edison State College => Masters Colleges and Universities II - public

Charter Oak State College => Baccalaureate College Liberal Arts - public

Regents College => Baccalaureate College Liberal Arts - private non-profit

Fielding I. => Other Specialized Institutions - private non-profit

Saybrook I. => Other Specialized Institutions - private non-profit

Institute of Transpersonal Psychology => Other Specialized Institutions - private non-profit

Calif. I. Integral Studies => Other Specialized Institutions - private non-profit

Pacifica Graduate I. => Other Specialized Institutions - private for-profit

Naropa U. => Other Specialized Institutions - private non-profit

American Military U. => Other Specialized Institutions - private for-profit

U. Phoenix => Schools of Business and Management - private for-profit

Amber U. => Schools of Business and Management - private non-profit

Luther Rice Seminary => Theological Seminaries and Other Specialized Faith-related institutions - private non-profit

 

Update ...

Hi Bill:

The Carnegie Foundation needs to update their List - names change and new schools open. I don't know how often they update the List. University of Sarasota is now Argosy University; Capella also a for profit is not on their list even under their old name, The Graduate School of America. Jones International University is also a for profit.

The List is an interesting mix of RA, NA and professionally accedited institutions. Since 2000 they have been using this new classification system.