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University of North Carolina at Wilmington Data & Information Overview

84 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
69% Acceptance Rate
This overview covers the essential stats on University of North Carolina at Wilmington, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.
Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

How Well Is University of North Carolina at Wilmington Ranked?

#415 Best Colleges in Nation
#12 Best Colleges in NC
General Business Administration and Management Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2025 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

University of North Carolina at Wilmington was awarded 84 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general business administration and management.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked UNCW as #415 out of 2,152 colleges and universities in the country on its 2025 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when UNCW held the #457 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Out of the 93 colleges in North Carolina, UNCW is ranked at #12.

See all of the rankings for University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Is It Hard to Get Into UNCW?

69% Acceptance Rate
67% Of Accepted Are Women
7% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

If you're applying to University of North Carolina at Wilmington you'll face some tough competition, since the school's acceptance rate is only 69%. Definitely don't wait until the last minute to submit your application, since applying early may be in your favor.

Average Test Scores

About 7% of students accepted to UNCW submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 620 and 690. Math scores were between 600 and 680.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for University of North Carolina at Wilmington  ( 620 to 690 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for University of North Carolina at Wilmington  ( 600 to 680 )
200
800
UNCW received ACT scores from 15% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 24 and 29.

ACT Composite Scores for University of North Carolina at Wilmington  ( 24 to 29 )
1
36

Learn more about University of North Carolina at Wilmington admissions.

University of North Carolina at Wilmington Faculty

17 to 1 Student to Faculty
71% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 17 to 1, University of North Carolina at Wilmington 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

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at University of North Carolina at Wilmington is 71%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  71 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of North Carolina at Wilmington

83% Freshmen Retention
57% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

University of North Carolina at Wilmington has a freshmen retention rate of 83%. 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  83 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At UNCW the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 57%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  57 out of 100
0
100

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

University of North Carolina at Wilmington Undergraduate Student Diversity

11,989 Full-Time Undergraduates
18.1% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
62.0% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 14,650 undergraduates at UNCW with 11,989 being full-time and 2,661 being part-time.

How Much Does University of North Carolina at Wilmington Cost?

$19,442 Net Price
47% Take Out Loans
$32,160 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of UNCW is $19,442. 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 UNCW

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$11,916 $14,101 $19,438 $22,829 $24,292

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 UNCW, 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 UNCW, approximately 47% of students took out student loans averaging $8,040 a year. That adds up to $32,160 over four years for those students.

Get more details about paying for University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

How Much Money Do UNCW Graduates Make?

$54,967 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from UNCW with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $54,967 in their early years. That's great news for UNCW students since it is 12% more than the average college graduate's salary of $49,219 per year.

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

Location of University of North Carolina at Wilmington

North Carolina State
11,989 Full-Time Undergraduates
Midsize City Campus Setting
Located in Wilmington, North Carolina, University of North Carolina at Wilmington is a public institution. The city atmosphere of Wilmington makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.

Get more details about the location of University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

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Contact details for UNCW are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 601 South College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403-5963
Phone: 910-962-3000
Website: www.uncw.edu/

University of North Carolina at Wilmington Majors

67 Majors With Completions
10,855 Undergraduate Degrees
10,946 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 67 majors graduated from University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Of these students, 10,855 received undergraduate degrees and 10,946 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
Nursing 995 $74,463
Business Administration & Management 925 $48,369
General Psychology 242 $29,418
Teacher Education Grade Specific 222 $40,777
Accounting 210 NA
Communication & Media Studies 210 $36,695
Health & Physical Education 209 NA
General Biology 189 $32,925
Social Work 156 $38,380
Public Health 120 $36,458

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

Online Learning at UNCW

70% Take At Least One Class Online
26% Take All Classes Online

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 2022-2023, 12,402 students took at least one online class at University of North Carolina at Wilmington. This is a decrease from the 13,440 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2022-2023 12,402 4,619
2021-2022 13,440 4,857
2020-2021 17,032 6,269
2018-2019 7,833 3,040

Learn more about online learning at University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

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

Curious on how these schools stack up against UNCW? 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

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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