Post Secondary

In Louisville, you can advance your education by any increment - earning a certificate that shows you've mastered an essential job skill, or engaging in post-doctoral study at the advancing edge of science. There are over 50,000 students here, attending 30 local colleges, universities, seminaries, technical schools and other institutions of higher learning.

The University of Louisville is the big dog, with more than 21,000 students, and eleven different colleges and schools, including medicine, law, dentistry and business; it's one of the state's two research universities. Jefferson Community and Technical College has 15,000 students on five campuses, the largest enrollment in the state community and technical college system.

Private colleges include Bellarmine University, which has been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as a top-tier regional university for 14 years running; Sullivan University, the state's largest independent four-year institution; and a variety of accelerated evening and weekend programs geared toward working professionals.

The community has shown the value it puts on higher education by such efforts as Graduate Greater Louisville and the HIRE Education Forum -initiatives intended to make postsecondary possibilities more accessible.

High school was fun, and a good start on life. But the paths that lead beyond it are some of the widest and brightest highways of Possibility City.