List of earliest coeducational colleges and universities in the United States explained

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)

1837 Oberlin College (women were admitted to the "preparatory department" in 1833)[1]
1844 Hillsdale College[2] [3]
1845 Franklin College (co-ed secondary-level classes began in 1842 at "Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute"; chartered as Franklin College in 1845)[4] [5]
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)[6] [7] [8] [9]

1847 Earlham College[10]
1849 New-York Central College (disestablished 1860)[11]
Otterbein University[12]
1851 Waynesburg College[13]
1852 Westminster College[14]
1853 Antioch College
Cornell College (originally Iowa Conference Seminary, co-ed classes start with founding 1853)[15]
Lawrence University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1849)[16]
Willamette University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1842)[17]
1854 Muskingum University[18]
Pacific University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1849)[19]
Urbana University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1850)[20] [21]
1855 Eureka College (First school in Illinois and third in the nation to admit women on an equal basis with men at its founding) [22] Bates College[23] [24]
University of Iowa (first coeducational public or state university in the United States)[25]
1856 Baldwin University (now Baldwin Wallace University) (co-ed secondary classes began in 1845)[26]
University of Evansville (formerly Moore's Hill College)[27]
St. Lawrence University[28]
Wilberforce University (first coeducational HBCU in the United States)
1857 Alfred University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1836; it received its university charter in 1857)[29] [30]
Hamline University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1854)[31]
1858 University of Mount Union (co-ed classes began in 1846; chartered as college in 1858)[32]
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)[33]
Cooper Union (free college; enrollment open to all genders, races, religions, economic classes) [34] [35]
Olivet College (co-ed secondary classes began in 1844; chartered as college in 1859)[36]
1860Wheaton College (Illinois)[37]
1861North Central College (as Plainfield College)[38] Grinnell College[39]
1862 Baker University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1858)
1863 Kansas State University[40] [41]
1864 Swarthmore College[42]
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)[43] [44]
1867 Carleton College[45]
DePauw University[46]
Hiram College (co-ed secondary classes began in 1850)
Indiana University[47] [48]
Lebanon Valley College[49]
McDaniel College[50]
1868 University of Missouri[51]
Oregon State University (co-ed secondary classes began about 1858; chartered as college in 1868)Wells College (Coeducational in 2005)

University of Minnesota[52]

1869 Berea College[53]
Boston University[54]
Iowa State University[55] [56]
University of Kansas (co-ed secondary classes began in 1866)[57]
Northwestern University[58]
Ohio University[59]
Washington University in St. Louis[60]
1870 Allegheny College[61]
University of California, Berkeley[62]
Carthage College[63]
Cornell University[64] [65]
University of Illinois
University of Iowa Medical School[66]
Knox College[67]
Michigan State University[68]
College of Wooster[69]
1871 California Wesleyan College
Colby College[70] (until 1890, when women were resegregated into separate classes)
University of Michigan[71]
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Pennsylvania State University[72]
Syracuse University
University of Vermont
1872 Tusculum College[73]
University of Akron (at that time "Buchtel College")
University of Maine
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)[74]
1873 North Georgia College & State University (then North Georgia Agricultural College; since 2013 merged into the University of North Georgia)
Ohio State University
Susquehanna University[75]
Texas Christian University
1875 Purdue University[76]
St. Olaf College[77]
1876 University of Oregon
1877 University of Colorado at Boulder
Ohio Wesleyan University[78]
1878 Hope College
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)
Emerson College
University of Pennsylvania (women previously admitted to non-degree-granting programs in 1876)[79]
University of Southern California
Ursinus College[80]
1881 Coe College
Hendrix College
1882 University of South Dakota
1883 Bucknell University
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.)[81]
Middlebury College
University of Texas
1884 University of North Dakota
1885 University of Mississippi
1886 University of Nevada, Reno
1887 Baylor University
Gallaudet University (at the time "National Deaf-Mute College)[82]
Occidental College
Pomona College
Stetson University (co-ed secondary classes began in 1883)
University of Wyoming
1888 George Washington University
Guilford College (co-ed secondary classes began in 1837; it became a college in 1888)[83]
University of Kentucky
Tulane University Pharmaceutical School
1889 Elon University[84]
West Virginia University[85]
1891
1892 Auburn University
Greenville University
University of Chicago (women resegregated into separate classes in 1902 for their first two years)
University of New Mexico
University of OklahomaAmerican International College[86]
1893 University of Alabama
University of Connecticut
Johns Hopkins University Graduate School
Macalester College[87]
University of Tennessee
1894 Boalt Hall[88]
1895 Beloit College
University of Montana
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)

Notes and References

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  2. Web site: Hillsdale College – History & Mission . 2010-01-15.
  3. Hillsdale College, 2016, Hillsdale College: 2015 - 2016 Catalog, Retrieved June 18, 2016, see page 101, first paragraph: "...In 1844, Hillsdale College was founded on the then truly exceptional precept of offering “all persons, irrespective of nationality, color or sex ... a literary and scientific education,” enrolling blacks, women ... two decades before the Civil War...."
  4. Web site: Franklin College Facts . 2010-01-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100219184406/http://www.franklincollege.edu/about-fc/franklin-facts . 2010-02-19 . dead .
  5. CMC What are America's first coed colleges? Although the integration of the sexes at CMC, and other liberal arts colleges, didn’t take place until the 1970s, many American universities started this process long ago in the 19th century, Retrieved June 17, 2016, "...But by 1861 ... there were more than 20 coeducational schools ... thanks to educational reformers fighting for access for women, black students, and minors, too...."
  6. Web site: Baylor Alumni Association: The Founders' Vision . 2011-07-07 . 2011-10-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111009140353/http://www.bayloralumniassociation.com/baylor_line/past_issues/fall08founders.asp . dead .
  7. http://www.independencetx.com/BaylorPark.htm Old Baylor Park
  8. Web site: Baylor History . 2011-07-07 . 2011-09-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110905035305/http://www.baylordebate.com/id10.html . dead .
  9. Henrietta Baker Embree, Tennessee Keys Embree, Amy L. WinkUniv. of Tennessee Press, 2008 Tandem Lives: The Frontier Texas Diaries of Henrietta Baker Embree and Tennessee Keys Embree, 1856-1884, Retrieved June 18, 2016, "....Baylor College ... 1846..."
  10. Web site: Friends Collection and College Archives: Earlham Trivia . 2021-05-27.
  11. McGraw Historical Society, The New York Central College, Retrieved June 17, 2016
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  21. 2011-2012 student Handbook, Urbana University, Urbana Urbana University, Retrieved June 18, 2016, see page 4, paragraph 2, "...Urbana was a coeducational institution from its beginning..."
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  23. Infoplease, Bates College, Retrieve June 17, 2016, "...Bates College, at Lewiston, Maine; coeducational; founded 1855 as Maine State Seminary, chartered as a college 1864. It was the first Eastern college to admit women students. The Edmund S. Muskie Archives are there...."
  24. Sarah Connell, College Prowler, Inc, 2005, Bates College College Prowler Off the Record, Retrieved June 17, 2016
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