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List of earliest coeducational colleges and universities in the United States

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The following is a list of mixed-sex colleges and universities in the United States, listed in the order that mixed-sex students were admitted to degree-granting college-level courses.

Many of the earliest mixed-education institutes offered co-educational secondary school-level classes for three or four years before co-ed college-level courses began – these situations are noted in the parentheticals below.

Earliest mixed-sex higher education institutes (through 19th century)

[edit]
  • Schools that were previously all-female are listed in bold.
1837 Oberlin College (women were admitted to the "preparatory department" in 1833)[1][dead link][2][3]
1844 Hillsdale College[3][4][5]
1845 Franklin College (co-ed secondary-level classes began in 1842 at "Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute"; chartered as Franklin College in 1845)[6][7][3]
1847 Lawrence University

Baylor College (until 1851 Baylor offered "coeducation" in the same building, although in separate classes; after 1851 the school fully segregated the sexes until 1887)[3][8][9][10][unreliable source?][11]

1847 Earlham College[12]
1849 New-York Central College (disestablished 1860)[13]
Otterbein University[3][14]
1851 Waynesburg College[15]
1852 Westminster College[16]
1853 Antioch College[17]
Cornell College (originally Iowa Conference Seminary, co-ed classes start with founding 1853)[18]
Lawrence University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1849)[19]
Willamette University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1842)[20]
1854 Muskingum University[21]
Pacific University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1849)[22]
Urbana University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1850)[23][24]
1855 Eureka College (First school in Illinois and third in the nation to admit women on an equal basis with men at its founding) [25]

Bates College[26][27]
University of Iowa (first coeducational public or state university in the United States)[1][2]

1856 Baldwin University (now Baldwin Wallace University) (co-ed secondary classes began in 1845)[28]
University of Evansville (formerly Moore's Hill College)[29]
St. Lawrence University[30]
Wilberforce University (first coeducational HBCU in the United States)[citation needed]
1857 Alfred University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1836; it received its university charter in 1857)[31][32]
Hamline University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1854)[33]
1858 University of Mount Union (co-ed classes began in 1846; chartered as college in 1858)[34]
1859 Adrian College (four women enrolled as early as 1855 when Michigan Union College; Adrian itself was open to women from the onset under equal curriculum)[35]

Cooper Union (free college; enrollment open to all genders, races, religions, economic classes) [36][37]
Olivet College (co-ed secondary classes began in 1844; chartered as college in 1859)[38]

1860 Wheaton College (Illinois)[39]
1861 Plainfield College[40]Grinnell College[41]
1862 Baker University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1858)[citation needed]
1863 Kansas State University[42][43]
1864 Swarthmore College[44]
1866 University of Wisconsin–Madison (women admitted to classes in the "Normal Department" in 1863 and all college classes about 1866, although separate Female College and separate graduation existed until 1874)[45][46]
1867 Carleton College[47]
DePauw University[48]
Hiram College (co-ed secondary classes began in 1850)[citation needed]
Indiana University[49][50]
Lebanon Valley College[51]
McDaniel College[52]
1868 University of Missouri[53]
Oregon State University (co-ed secondary classes began about 1858; chartered as college in 1868)[citation needed]

Wells College (Coeducational in 2005)

University of Minnesota[54]

1869 Berea College[55]
Boston University[56]
Iowa State University[57][58]
University of Kansas (co-ed secondary classes began in 1866)[59]
Northwestern University[60]
Ohio University[61]
Washington University in St. Louis[17]
1870 Allegheny College[62]
University of California, Berkeley[50][63]
Carthage College[64]
Cornell University[65][66]
University of Illinois[50]
University of Iowa Medical School[67]
Knox College[68]
Michigan State University[69]
College of Wooster[70]
1871 California Wesleyan College
Colby College[71] (until 1890, when women were resegregated into separate classes)[50]
University of Michigan[72]
University of Nebraska-Lincoln[50]
Pennsylvania State University[73]
Syracuse University[2]
University of Vermont
1872 Tusculum College[74]
University of Akron (at that time "Buchtel College")[citation needed]
University of Maine[50]
University of Washington (co-ed secondary classes began in 1861; the school was closed at various times between 1862 and 1869)
Wesleyan University (until 1912, when it became all male once again)[75]
1873 North Georgia Agricultural College, subsequently North Georgia College & State University; since 2013 merged into the University of North Georgia)[citation needed]
Ohio State University[50]
Susquehanna University[76]
Texas Christian University[citation needed]
1875 Purdue University[77]
St. Olaf College[78]
1876 University of Oregon[50]
1877 University of Colorado at Boulder[50]
Ohio Wesleyan University[79]
1878 Hope College[citation needed]
1880 Bridgewater College (the first private liberal arts college in Virginia to be co-ed, and one of the first of its kind in the south)[citation needed]
Emerson College[citation needed]
University of Pennsylvania (women previously admitted to non-degree-granting programs in 1876)[80]
University of Southern California[citation needed]
Ursinus College[81]
1881 Coe College[citation needed]
Hendrix College[citation needed]
1882 University of South Dakota[citation needed]
1883 Bucknell University[66]
Florida State University (The school was a coeducational seminary beginning in 1851, and was chartered as a coeducational university in 1883. However, in 1905, a reorganization of the state's higher education system converted what was then Florida State College to a women's school, Florida State College for Women. It returned to coeducation in 1947, adopting its current name at that time.)[82]
Middlebury College[citation needed]
University of Texas[citation needed]
1884 University of North Dakota[50]
1885 University of Mississippi[citation needed]
1886 University of Nevada, Reno[50]
1887 Baylor University[citation needed]
Gallaudet University (at the time "National Deaf-Mute College)[83]
Occidental College
Pomona College[citation needed]
Stetson University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1883)
University of Wyoming[50]
1888 George Washington University
Guilford College (co-ed secondary classes began in 1837; it became a college in 1888)[84]
University of Kentucky
Tulane University Pharmaceutical School
1889 Elon University[85]
West Virginia University[86]
1891 University of Arizona[50]
George Fox University (at the time "Pacific College")
College of Idaho
Stanford University
1892 Auburn University
Greenville University
University of Chicago (women resegregated into separate classes in 1902 for their first two years)[50]
University of New Mexico[50]
University of Oklahoma[50]American International College[87]
1893 University of Alabama[50]
University of Connecticut
Johns Hopkins University Graduate School
Macalester College[88]
University of Tennessee
1894 Boalt Hall[89]
1895 Beloit College
University of Montana[50]
University of Pittsburgh
University of South Carolina
1897 University at Buffalo Law School
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (graduate students)
1899 Eastern Michigan University (co-ed classes in the "Normal school" began 1852; chartered as college in 1899)

References

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