What Colleges Require the COVID-19 Vaccine?

As 2023 fall students prepare for finals, more colleges and universities have ended their COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

Many institutions announced the end of their COVID-19 vaccine requirements last May, days after President Joe Biden signed a bill ending the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies.

BestColleges reporting has found that even more colleges ended their COVID-19 vaccine requirement over the course of the summer months and into the new semester.

“Our response to the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, remains a public health priority, but thanks to the Administration’s whole of government approach to combatting the virus, we are in a better place in our response than we were three years ago, and we can transition away from the emergency phase,” the Department of Health and Human Services wrote.

BestColleges found a variety of university responses to handling the now-endemic COVID-19 disease. Some have chosen to keep their vaccine requirements and treat them like regular vaccination requirements like measles, mumps, and rubella.

A new booster shot targeting the COVID-19 omicron variant was released in September, the New York Times reported. The new shot is more efficient against the COVID-19 variant EG.5, nicknamed “eris”, which was the dominant strain this summer.

“At this time, there is no evidence indicating EG.5 is able to spread more easily, and currently available treatments and vaccines are expected to continue to be effective against this variant,” a CDC spokesperson told Politico.

A few colleges responded to the uptick in COVID-19 cases by reinstating temporary mask mandates.

Historically Black college and university (HBCU) Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, reinstated an indoor mask mandate on Aug. 20 before removing it Sept. 1st, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Another HBCU, Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, instated a two-week mask mandate that started on August 25th.

Other colleges and universities have either entirely removed COVID-19 resource websites or haven’t updated them since early 2022.

Check your school’s website to learn about your school’s COVID-19 vaccine requirements. You can also review our full list below, which includes colleges requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for on-campus, residential students.

Last Updated: October 19, 2023, at 2:01 P.M. EST

Note that this list covers COVID-19 vaccine requirements for 2023-2024 on-campus or residential students and does not specify individual university policies such as vaccine exemptions. Some colleges may require all students, regardless of their residential status, to get vaccinated. Faculty and staff vaccine requirements may be different from the residential student requirements listed above.

Don’t see your school on this list? Reach out to contact@support.bestcolleges.com if your college or university still requires the COVID-19 vaccine. Please include the relevant vaccine page link or email.

Editor’s Note: This article is updated regularly as new information becomes available. Reporting and data collection for this piece has been provided by Jessica Bryant, Anne Dennon, Darlene Earnest, Reece Johnson, Hannah Muniz, Rachel Schneider, Evan Castillo, Chloe Appleby, and Jordan Stewart-Rozema.