Quad
Trends by state

Trends by state

North Carolina

59 colleges on the site: 16 public, 40 private nonprofit, 3 for-profit. Their undergraduates grew 5% in total since fall 2014, to 249,123 today (49 of 59 North Carolina colleges in the panel).

Explore North Carolina's colleges

How North Carolina's colleges changed

The median North Carolina college, fall 2014 to fall 2024, against the national median (dashed) over the same .

Undergraduates

-3%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Applicants

+57%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Acceptance rate

+15.0 pts

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Average total cost

-10%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Public and private

State stories are often public-system stories: a state's publics shrinking while its privates hold, or the reverse.

Public

16 colleges
Undergrads
+11%
Applicants
+84%
Acceptance rate
+16.8 pts
Average cost
-3%

Private nonprofit

32 colleges
Undergrads
-16%
Applicants
+33%
Acceptance rate
+12.7 pts
Average cost
-12%

Where North Carolina's first-years come from

Top sending states

  1. North Carolina (in-state)73%
  2. VA3%
  3. SC3%
  4. FL2%
  5. NY2%
  6. MD2%
  7. GA2%
  8. NJ2%

Public:

12% → 15% (16 colleges)

Private nonprofit:

34% → 37% (40 colleges)

First-years crossing state lines, fall 2024

Inflow
14,149
Outflow
8,753
Net
+5,396

North Carolina's colleges enroll 1.6 first-years from other states for every North Carolina resident who starts college in another state, among four-year colleges on this site.

Colleges taking the most of the inflow

  1. Duke University9%
  2. Elon University9%
  3. Wake Forest University9%
  4. North Carolina A & T State University8%
  5. High Point University8%

One fall, over campus-based colleges only: not that fall, not for-profit, and not a campus that merged or split.

Biggest movers in North Carolina

The same as the national lists, restricted to North Carolina's colleges.

Applications surged

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: +56.9% (34 colleges ranked)

  1. 1North Carolina A & T State University+415.8%7,075 → 36,496
  2. 2Wingate University+359.6%6,601 → 30,339
  3. 3University of North Carolina Asheville+138.8%3,090 → 7,378
  4. 4High Point University+137.1%7,410 → 17,572
  5. 5North Carolina State University at Raleigh+115.5%20,443 → 44,047
  6. 6University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill+112.4%31,332 → 66,535
  7. 7Winston-Salem State University+105.5%4,433 → 9,108
  8. 8University of North Carolina at Pembroke+102.7%4,035 → 8,178
  9. 9East Carolina University+85.4%14,223 → 26,369
  10. 10Appalachian State University+82.2%13,506 → 24,614

Sources:IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Grew the most

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: −3.0% (37 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Wingate University+37.5%1,941 → 2,668
  2. 2North Carolina A & T State University+37.0%8,894 → 12,182
  3. 3High Point University+22.2%4,197 → 5,129
  4. 4Appalachian State University+20.7%16,116 → 19,444
  5. 5North Carolina State University at Raleigh+19.4%22,925 → 27,371
  6. 6Fayetteville State University+18.5%4,862 → 5,762
  7. 7University of North Carolina Wilmington+17.6%12,686 → 14,922
  8. 8Western Carolina University+16.5%8,603 → 10,024
  9. 9University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill+15.9%17,908 → 20,752
  10. 10Wake Forest University+12.8%4,861 → 5,485

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Students pay much less

(in 2023–24 dollars), 2013–14 to 2023–24

Median college: −11.5% (36 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Livingstone College−37.9%$21,046 → $13,077
  2. 2Shaw University−35.5%$26,217 → $16,914
  3. 3Gardner-Webb University−32.1%$30,332 → $20,598
  4. 4Guilford College−30.2%$33,910 → $23,683
  5. 5North Carolina Wesleyan University−29.6%$27,374 → $19,278
  6. 6Catawba College−26.5%$27,205 → $19,991
  7. 7University of North Carolina at Greensboro−26.3%$20,171 → $14,864
  8. 8Chowan University−24.8%$20,950 → $15,749
  9. 9Campbell University−24.6%$36,123 → $27,243
  10. 10University of North Carolina at Pembroke−21.6%$17,176 → $13,468

Sources:IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2013 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Public research universities

North Carolina's public R1 and R2 universities (Carnegie 2025), with their undergraduate change over the same window. No classification in the data means "flagship," so this is simply the state's public research universities.

How this was measured

  • Which colleges. Colleges with 300 or more undergraduates in both fall 2014 and fall 2024: 49 of 59 North Carolina colleges. It's a , so colleges entering or leaving the data don't look like change.
  • Average total cost is an academic-year figure, one year behind fall: 2013–14 to 2023–24, after inflation.
  • Out-of-state shares are collected in even-numbered falls only; odd years are gaps, not zeros.
  • Totals and medians both appear because they can diverge: a state's total can fall more (or less) than its median college when its biggest colleges move differently.
  • No policy attribution. This page shows what changed, not why; a state's mix of public, private, and for-profit colleges, and its system policies, aren't broken out as causes.
  • First-years crossing state lines is a single snapshot, fall 2024, over campus-based colleges only: colleges that fall, for-profit colleges, and campuses that merged or split are left out. It's the newest fall the site's per-college home-state tables cover, not this page's ten-year window.

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (part C, residence of first-time students), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)