"Women's college" sounds like a single, stable category, but it's really a shrinking and increasingly varied one -- both in how many schools still exist, and in what "women-only" actually means at each of the ones that do.

The numbers: from 200+ to 31, and still falling

There were once over 200 women's colleges in the US, per NCES data reported by Pew Research Center. As of fall 2022, only 31 remain. Enrollment at those 31 fell 40% between 1998 and 2022 (from roughly 112,500 students to about 67,300), with the decline accelerating recently -- an 18% drop between 2012 and 2022 alone, nearly double the 10% enrollment decline across all US colleges over the same span. Of the women's colleges that existed in 1998, roughly half no longer operate under their original single-sex status today: 4 closed permanently, 1 merged into another school, and 28 went fully coeducational.

This isn't an abstract trend -- Wells College (Aurora, NY) actually closed outright on June 30, 2024, citing financial challenges, the same pattern covered in our piece on the real warning signs a college might close. Other schools took the more common exit ramp instead of closing: Mills College became coeducational and was absorbed into Northeastern University in 2022, and Cedar Crest College and an earlier iteration of Wells itself both went coed rather than shut down. Going coed, not closing, has been the far more common outcome for a women's college under financial pressure.

The Seven Sisters, then and now

The "Seven Sisters" were the historic women's-college counterpart to the all-male Ivy League. Only 5 of the original 7 still operate as women's colleges today: Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley. Vassar went fully coeducational in 1969 -- the only Seven Sister with a coed undergraduate program today. Radcliffe formally merged into Harvard in 1999 and now exists only as the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, which doesn't grant its own undergraduate degrees at all.

The 31-school count also includes a genuine overlap worth knowing about: Spelman College, one of the most selective schools in either category, is simultaneously an HBCU and a women's college -- not two separate, competing labels, but one institution that's fully both at once.

"Women-only" doesn't mean the same policy at every school

This is the part that's genuinely changed fastest, and it's worth checking directly rather than assuming one school's policy applies to all of them. As of 2026, admission eligibility varies meaningfully school to school:

  • Smith College considers for admission any applicant who self-identifies as a woman, including cisgender, transgender, and nonbinary applicants who identify as women.
  • Mount Holyoke College describes itself as "the leading gender-diverse women's college" and admits everyone except applicants who identify as male in accordance with their sex assigned at birth.
  • Wellesley College and Barnard College both admit students who live and consistently identify as women -- meaning transgender women are eligible at both, but transgender men and nonbinary applicants generally are not.

This isn't a settled, static picture: as of May 2026, the U.S. Department of Education opened a federal Title IX investigation into Smith College specifically over its transgender-inclusive admission policy, and the outcome could carry implications for Mount Holyoke and Wellesley too. Check a specific school's current, official admission policy directly rather than assuming based on what you've heard about women's colleges generally -- this is exactly the kind of detail that can change between application cycles.

The real, sourced case for choosing one

The Women's College Coalition (the sector's own trade association -- read its figures accordingly, not as neutral third-party research) reports real, specific outcomes among its member schools' alumnae: roughly 95% employed within a year of graduation, one-third of female Fortune 1000 board members, more than 20% of women currently in the U.S. Congress, and graduates who are twice as likely to earn a doctoral degree as graduates of coed schools. These are genuinely striking figures, but they're self-reported by an advocacy organization for the sector it represents, not an independent study controlling for who chooses to attend a women's college in the first place -- treat them as a real data point in the conversation, not proof of causation.

What this means for you

  • A shrinking list isn't the same as a dying option -- 31 women's colleges still operate, several (Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Barnard) among the most selective liberal arts schools in the country by any measure.
  • Don't assume "women-only" means the same admission policy everywhere. Smith's and Mount Holyoke's stated eligibility criteria are genuinely broader than Wellesley's and Barnard's -- check the specific school's own current policy page before assuming.
  • A school's single-sex status is itself unsettled at the federal level right now. The Smith College Title IX investigation opened in 2026 could affect how other women's colleges define eligibility going forward -- this is worth a check closer to when you actually apply, not something to treat as permanently fixed.
  • If financial stability matters to you when considering a smaller school, it applies here too -- the same real, checkable warning signs that flagged other recent closures are worth running on any specific women's college on your list, the same way you'd check any small, tuition-dependent private school.
  • Treat the Women's College Coalition's own outcomes statistics as a real data point, not settled proof -- they're self-reported by the sector's own advocacy group, which is a different kind of source than an independent study.

Sources