Fast Facts: An Overview of the College of Letters & Science at UW-Madison

Interim Dean

Kristin Eschenfelder

Faculty and Staff

• More than 5,400 Faculty and Staff (Spring 2026)

Students

• Total enrolled students: 23,151 (Spring 2026)
• 18,838 enrolled undergraduates (Spring 2026)
• 4,313 enrolled graduate students, clinical, & doctoral students combined (Spring 2026)

Credit Hours

• 745,902 Total Hours (2024-25)
• 62.7% of UW-Madison undergraduate credit hours (2024-2025)

Academic Offerings

The College of Letters & Science is comprised of more than 34 academic departments, 10 non-academic departments, 73 centers and institutes, and 5 professional schools across three broad divisions: arts and humanities, physical and natural sciences, and the social sciences.

• Undergraduate majors and certificates
• Master's, Doctoral and Professional degree programs

Popular Majors

L&S offers 84 majors. Two of the top five of UW Madison's most popular majors are in L&S (2024-25).

• Computer Sciences (College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence)
• Economics
• Psychology
• Data Science (College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence)
• Finance, Investment, and Banking (School of Business)

Total Degrees Conferred

• 4,726 undergraduate degrees (2024-25)
• 1,551 graduate and professional degrees (2024-25)
• 6,277 total degrees (2024-25)

Average L&S Undergraduate Time to Degree

Students who entered as full-time, first-time freshmen averaged 3.71 years to receive their degree. (2024-25)

Alumni

As of Spring 2026, there are more than 222,339 alumni of L&S. 44.2% of UW-Madison alumni.

Research Funding

• Extramural Research Awards: $170.0 million (2024-25)
• Federal Research Awards: $133.2 million (2024-25)
• Total Research Expenditures: $209.5 million (2024-25)

Sources: UW-Madison Data Digest / Conferred Degree Reports