I am trying to determine the average enrollment of
colleges/universities in the US -- if it is greater than 5000. (I am
using that statistic as a comparison to a specific small town
population.) If the avg college/university has less than 5000
students, I'd like to know what percentage is greater than 5000. (Such
as, x% of US colleges/universities have over 5000 students).  I
promise a $10 tip to the person who answers this for me.

Hello Lumenhawk,


I used the  IPEDS College Opportunities On-Line tool at the National
Center for Education Statistics website to obtain student enrollment
numbers.
http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/


--------------------------------------------------
Number of Institutions    Students Enrolled
--------------------------------------------------
1,483                     Less than 1,000 
1,576                     Between 1,000 and 5,000 
486                       Between 5,000 and 10,000 
325                       Between 10,000 and 20,000 
175                       Over 20,000 
--------------------------------------------------

The data is for the following types of institutions:
- Public, 4 year or above
- Private not-for-profit, 4 year or above
- Private, for profit, 4 year or above
- Public, 2 year
- Private, not for profit, 2 year
http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/

Therefore:

75.6% of US colleges/universities have fewer than 5000 students 

24.4% of US colleges/universities have over 5,000 students



Search terms used: 
National Center for Education Statistics
Students enrolled


I hope the information provided is helpful!

Best regards,
Bobbie7

This is EXACTLY the information I was looking for.  Thank you!!

Thank you for the tip!
--Bobbie7

nice job this really helps me out!:)

Great answer, bobbie7 ... gotta love IPEDS data. A quick note: These
numbers include junior colleges and community colleges, which account
for roughly half of higher education institutions in the U.S. minime,
if you're considering "colleges and universities" to be four-year
institutions, the figures likely will shift upward slightly.