North Carolina State University Data & Information Overview

Want the scoop on North Carolina State University? We've put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors NC State offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more. If you're interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning
• Related Schools

How Well Is North Carolina State University Ranked?

2021 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

North Carolina State University was awarded 232 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked NC State as #105 out of 1,715 colleges and universities in the country on its 2021 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

NC State is also ranked #6 out of 56 schools in North Carolina.

See all of the rankings for North Carolina State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into NC State?

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at North Carolina State University is a competitive 51%, so make sure you take your application seriously when putting it together. Even leaving out a minor detail could be a reason to move you to the rejection pile.

Average Test Scores

About 41% of students accepted to NC State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 610 and 680. Math scores were between 620 and 710.

NC State received ACT scores from 60% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 26 and 31.

Learn more about North Carolina State University admissions.

North Carolina State University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 13 to 1, North Carolina State University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at North Carolina State University is 88%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at North Carolina State University

Freshmen Retention Rate

North Carolina State University has a freshmen retention rate of 94%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At NC State the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 44%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at North Carolina State University.

Good Overall Diversity at NC State

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 25,199 undergraduates at NC State with 22,317 being full-time and 2,882 being part-time.

NC State Diversity Score

When calculating the overall diversity score for a school, College Factual does not just look at the percentage of women and racial-ethnic minorities*. Instead, it looks to see how good of a mixture a school has with regard to gender, ethnicity, age, and location of origin.

The overall diversity score for NC State is 81.01 out of 100, meaning that is is more diverse than most schools in the country.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at North Carolina State University.

How Much Does North Carolina State University Cost?

The overall average net price of NC State is $16,404. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for NC State

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$8,744	$10,112	$14,667	$19,364	$22,244

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of NC State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At NC State, approximately 47% of students took out student loans averaging $6,809 a year. That adds up to $27,236 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at NC State is 2.8%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for North Carolina State University.

How Much Money Do NC State Graduates Make?

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from NC State with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $52,500 in their early years. That's great news for NC State students since it is 32% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at North Carolina State University make the most money.

Location of North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University is a public institution situated in Raleigh, North Carolina. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

Get more details about the location of North Carolina State University.

Contact details for NC State are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	2101 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27695-7001
Phone:	919-515-2011
Website:	www.ncsu.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/ncstate
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/ncstate

North Carolina State University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 107 majors graduated from North Carolina State University. Of these students, 6,096 received undergraduate degrees and 3,432 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors	Bachelor’s Degrees	Average Salary of Graduates
Business Administration & Management	675	$48,400
General Biology	305	$31,000
Textile Engineering	256	$42,400
Computer Science	239	$69,800
Mechanical Engineering	230	$63,800
General Psychology	205	$23,000
Communication & Media Studies	200	$34,200
Electrical Engineering	200	$69,100
Animal Science	195	$26,900
Accounting	153	$45,700

Learn more about the majors offered at North Carolina State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at NC State

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2017-2018, 14,541 students took at least one online class at North Carolina State University. This is an increase from the 14,199 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	14,541	2,986
2016-2017	14,199	2,713
2015-2016	12,377	2,726
2014-2015	12,321	2,750
2013-2014	11,901	2,591

Learn more about online learning at North Carolina State University.

Related Schools

If you’re considering North Carolina State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

• Pennsylvania State University - University Park
• Purdue University - Main Campus
• Texas A&M University - College Station
• University at Buffalo
• University of California - Davis

Curious on how these schools stack up against NC State? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Haruhide000 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.