Carnegie Classifications 2025: Research Activity Designations Released with Updated Methodology

South Dakota Mines has been designated as a special focus university with higher earnings by the recently updated Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

The Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education released the fully redesigned Carnegie Classifications as part of an ongoing effort to make the classification more useful, relevant and reflective of the nation's ever-evolving higher education landscape. These updates are intended to reflect the multifaceted nature of higher education in the 21st century and measure the extent to which institutions provide students with access and a path to earning competitive wages.

The redesigned system includes a revision of the historic Basic Classification, now titled the Institutional Classification, and a newly developed Student Access and Earnings Classification. 

“Hundreds of institutions nationwide are providing students an excellent opportunity to use higher education as a springboard to a better life,” said Ted Mitchell, president of ACE. “The Student Access and Earnings Classification highlights the depth and breadth of schools where student success is front and center.”

The full list of institutions that received a 2025 Research Activity Designation can be found here.

Since 1973, the Carnegie Classification has served as the gold standard for organizing the landscape of higher education in the United States. The 2025 Institutional Classification updates the historic approach to grouping similar colleges and universities, now organizing institutions by multiple characteristics, including their size, the types of degrees they award, and the fields of study in which students receive their degrees. 

Mines’ 2025 Institutional Classification has a special focus on technology, engineering, and sciences. The university was also classified as a lower access, higher earnings university, which means Mines has fewer students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, but those students have a higher likelihood of earning competitive wages. 

The university’s first Carnegie Classification came in 1973.

The Carnegie Classifications are updated every three years. The next release is planned for spring 2028. Future methodology, including data source, will be determined closer to the release.