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The last time Russell Sage College’s total enrollment was this high, the nation was consumed with “hanging chads” and the first contestants were being voted off the island in “Survivor.”
As of early October, Russell Sage’s official fall 2025 enrollment stands at 3,123 students, the college’s largest total since 2000, when combined enrollment across its then-separate divisions — including a junior college, graduate and evening school, and an all-women’s college — reached 3,226. The college is now one co-educational institution offering bachelor’s through doctoral degrees across campuses in Troy and Albany, New York.
“Our unique mix of programs and students is matched by only 57 other institutions, or 1% of the colleges and universities in the United States, according to the Carnegie Classifications,” said Russell Sage President Matthew Shaftel. “We’re here for the first-time college student, the student looking to finish their bachelor’s degree, and the student seeking to advance their career with graduate degrees all the way through the doctoral level. We simply stand out, which is why U.S. News & World Report has ranked us in the top 25 national universities for social mobility for a seventh consecutive year, and why we were ranked No. 36 on its Best Value Schools list this year.”
Fall 2025 also marks the first time in a decade Russell Sage has welcomed 400 or more new undergraduate students in back-to-back years.
Fueling the overall enrollment growth are new graduate programs, such as an online cohort of its M.A. in Mental Health Counseling and Community Psychology, and the college’s partnership with the Center for Integrated Training and Education (CITE). Strong student retention and larger incoming undergraduate classes over the last two years, including transfer students, have also contributed.
More exciting news ahead: This year’s enrollment growth is just one factor indicating the college’s momentum. In April, Russell Sage and Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, who share a campus border in Albany, announced plans for a strategic merger that will create the one of the region’s largest private institutions for higher education with the broadest catalog of programs in the health professions, pharmacy, and biomedical sciences, and and strong programs in education, business, criminal justice, the sciences, pre-med, pre-health, and arts and humanities.
After signing a transaction agreement in July, both institutions are seeking approvals from the New York State Education Department and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). The anticipated completion date of those processes is summer 2026. The merger will then go through federal review, with an anticipated completion date of fall 2027.
The combined institution will enroll an anticipated 4,000 students on campuses in Albany and Troy, New York, as well as online, making it the third-largest private institution for higher education in the Capital Region.
In parallel with the merger process, Russell Sage intends to seek regulatory approvals to be called Russell Sage University. ACPHS will retain its unique identity as Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Russell Sage, with a School of Pharmacy and a School of Biomedical and Health Sciences. The merger will result in a unified institution with combined assets of approximately $246 million, including $115 million in endowment investments.