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

Dean

Eric Wilcots

Faculty and Staff

  • More than 5,200 Faculty and Staff (Spring 2025)

Students

  • Total enrolled students: 24,123 (2024)
  • 19,635 enrolled undergraduates (2024)
  • 4,488 enrolled graduate students, clinical, & doctoral students combined (2024)

Credit Hours

  • 730,856 Total Hours (2023-24)
  • 63.8% of UW-Madison undergraduate credit hours (2023-2024)

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 four broad divisions: arts and humanities, computer, data & information sciences, physical and natural sciences, and the social sciences.

Popular Majors

L&S offers 85 majors. Four of the top five of UW Madison's most popular majors are in L&S (2023-24).

Total Degrees Conferred

  • 4,006 undergraduate degrees (2023-24)
  • 1,386 graduate and professional degrees (2023-24)
  • 5,392 total degrees (2023-24)

Average L&S Undergraduate Time to Degree

Students who entered as full-time, first-time freshmen averaged 3.81 years to receive their degree. (2023-24)

Alumni

As of January 2024, there are more than 216,847 alumni of L&S. 44.2% of UW-Madison alumni.

Research Funding

Extramural Research Awards: $163.2 million (2023-24)
Federal Research Awards: $125.7 million (2023-24)
Total Research Expenditures: $212.5 million (2023-24)

Sources: UW-Madison Data Digest / Conferred Degree Reports