- The HBCU story is uneven: Some historically Black colleges are experiencing substantial enrollment growth, while others continue to face declining enrollment and financial pressure.
- FAMU reflects the renewed demand: FAMU received more than 32,000 applications for fall 2026 and welcomed its largest incoming class in a decade.
- Enrollment is only the beginning: For HBCUs, the larger challenge is retaining students, helping them overcome financial and academic barriers and getting more of them to graduation.
For historically Black colleges and universities, the current enrollment picture is encouraging —but it is not the full story.
Some HBCUs are attracting students in numbers they have not seen in years, even as colleges across the country confront demographic changes, rising costs and growing questions about the value of a college degree.
But the gains are uneven.
Federal data show that 42 of 101 HBCUs increased enrollment between 2019 and 2024. Howard University grew 50 percent during that period, Morgan State University 42 percent, Virginia State University 27 percent and Elizabeth City State University 23 percent. At the same time, other HBCUs have experienced significant enrollment declines and financial difficulties.
The distinction matters.
There is no single HBCU enrollment story. The institutions gaining students are finding ways to turn the enduring appeal of the HBCU experience into a contemporary recruiting advantage — through stronger academic programs, broader geographic recruiting, social media and investments in the student experience.
FAMU received more than 32,000 applications for fall 2026 and welcomed more than 1,900 first-time-in-college students, the university's largest incoming class in a decade. It also welcomed about 700 transfer students and 1,200 graduate students.
Those figures represent incoming student groups, not FAMU's total enrollment.
The geographic reach of the new class is notable. Students came from all 67 Florida counties and 49 states. Their average core GPA was 3.9, with an average SAT score of about 1,120 and an average ACT score of 23.
The numbers point to more than a strong recruiting cycle.
They suggest that FAMU's appeal extends well beyond Tallahassee and Florida, an important development as HBCUs compete nationally for students.
FAMU's experience also illustrates why enrollment numbers alone can be misleading.
The university's enrollment growth is occurring across undergraduate and graduate education, including programs in pharmacy, engineering, health sciences and other fields that require students to make significant investments of time and money.
The challenge is not simply getting those students to FAMU.
It is keeping them there.
FAMU reported an 88.8 percent Academic Progress Rate in 2026, a measure of students making academic progress toward completing their degrees. The figure provides another way to look beyond the size of the incoming class and toward what happens after students arrive.
At Alabama A&M University, enrollment reached 7,808 students in fall 2025, the largest in the university’s history and the third consecutive year the university has set an enrollment record. The university enrolled 2,825 new students, helping drive a 7.03 percent increase over the previous year.
The growth has extended beyond the freshman class. In fall 2024, AAMU reported an 8.9 percent increase in undergraduate enrollment and a 20.3 percent increase in graduate enrollment. At the same time, the university has continued to focus on retention. Its first-year retention rate rose to about 70 percent, an improvement of six percentage points, but the figure underscores a challenge that accompanies rapid enrollment growth: attracting more students is only part of the equation. Keeping them enrolled and helping them graduate is equally important.
Taken together, FAMU and AAMU illustrate a broader possibility for HBCUs: institutions that once competed primarily within regional markets are increasingly attracting students from across the country.
But their growth also illustrates the challenge that comes with success.
More students require more capacity, from classrooms and housing to academic advising, student support and the resources needed to help those students persist to graduation.
Morgan State offers a glimpse of what that can mean. Its enrollment grew from 7,151 students in 2019 to 12,477 in 2026. The university has responded by adding residence halls, renovating existing housing and leasing nearby apartments to accommodate demand.
FAMU has faced its own housing pressures. More than 3,300 students moved into university residence halls for fall 2026, and the university extended its deposit window for some Florida students while acknowledging that its residence halls were full.
Growth, in other words, is not simply a matter of counting students.
It requires an institution to have the infrastructure and resources to serve them.
And that raises an even more fundamental question.
Can students afford to stay?
Many students rely on financial aid and federal borrowing to finance college. For graduate and professional students, the financing landscape changed significantly beginning July 1, 2026, when new federal rules eliminated Grad PLUS for new borrowers and established new annual and aggregate federal loan limits for graduate and professional students.
The changes could have particular implications for HBCUs with substantial graduate and professional programs, including FAMU.
For students pursuing pharmacy, engineering and other advanced degrees, a gap between the cost of attendance and available federal financing can become more than an admissions issue.
It can become a retention issue.
A student can be academically qualified, admitted and eager to attend an HBCU — and still struggle to remain enrolled if the cost of completing the degree becomes unmanageable.
Applications can be counted.
Deposits can be counted.
Freshman classes can be counted.
A record entering class matters only if students have the academic support, financial resources, housing and institutional guidance necessary to remain enrolled and complete their degrees.
That is particularly important for institutions such as FAMU, where growing demand has produced larger entering classes and increased national visibility.
The opportunity is significant.
So is the responsibility.
Beyond the headlines about enrollment surges, HBCUs must focus on what happens after students arrive: retaining them, helping them navigate the new federal financial landscape and academic obstacles that can derail a college career and moving more of them from enrollment to degree completion.
For FAMU and its peers, the defining measure of this moment will not simply be how many students walk through the gates.
It will be how many walk across the commencement stage.