At a Glance
NC State admits 41.7% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
40%
receive need-based grant aid
$25,344
average debt at graduation
NC State graduates carry an average of $25,344 in debt.
Merit Aid
1,804
students received merit aid
$5,697
average merit award
Getting In
NC State admits 41.7% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 25% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 41% of the class submitted
40% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
North Carolina State University gives essays less weight than many schools — academics drive most admissions decisions here. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
31.9% of NC State classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At NC State, 31.9% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section I-3 (class sizes)
15:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
Live on campus
38%
Men in fraternities
15%
Women in sororities
18%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
NC State's student body is 66.1% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
NC State graduates 67.7% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
NC State graduates 67.7% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
NC State
67.7%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $26,425*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2024–25, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
80%
Overall 6-yr rate
80%
Pell recipient rate
Lower-income students graduate at nearly the same rate as their peers — a sign of strong institutional support.
Freshman Retention
93%
93% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Raleigh.
NC State sits on the western edge of downtown Raleigh, with Hillsborough Street running along the campus's north side as its main strip of restaurants, coffee shops and bars. Raleigh is a real city rather than a college town — a state capital of roughly half a million people — and the campus is close enough to walk or take a short bus ride into it. Campus itself is split: the older brick quads around the Memorial Belltower, and Centennial Campus a mile south, a research campus where corporate labs sit alongside university buildings.
Notable Alumni
Christina Koch
NASA astronaut who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman and flew on the first all-female spacewalk. She took bachelor's degrees in physics and electrical engineering here, then a master's in electrical engineering, and is assigned to Artemis II as the first woman to fly around the Moon.
Class of 2001
Jim Goodnight
Co-founder and chief executive of SAS, the analytics company he started in 1976 out of work done on this campus and still runs from nearby Cary. He earned a bachelor's in applied mathematics here and stayed for a master's and doctorate in statistics.
Class of 1968
Bill Cowher
Head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers for fifteen seasons and winner of Super Bowl XL. He was a starting linebacker, team captain and team MVP as a senior here, and took a degree in education.
Class of 1979
John Edwards
U.S. senator for North Carolina and the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004. The first in his family to attend college, he graduated with a degree in textile technology before taking a law degree elsewhere.
Class of 1974
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Mid-size city
Raleigh, NC
Best For
Traditions
The Krispy Kreme Challenge
Students run two and a half miles from the Memorial Belltower to the Krispy Kreme on Peace Street, eat a dozen doughnuts, and run the same two and a half miles back. It started in 2004 as a dare between friends and now draws thousands of runners each winter, having raised more than $2 million for UNC Children's Hospital.
The Free Expression Tunnel
A pedestrian underpass connecting north and central campus where anyone may paint anything, designated a graffiti-friendly zone in the late 1960s. It is repainted constantly, so the walls change week to week — and it has been the centre of more than one campus argument about where free speech ends.
The Memorial Belltower
The campus landmark, its cornerstone laid in 1921 as a memorial to alumni killed in the First World War. Seniors leave their class rings in its shrine room overnight before commencement, ROTC cadets are commissioned at its base, and it is lit red after a Wolfpack win.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Raleigh
Durham & Chapel Hill
30 minutesThe other two points of the Research Triangle. Durham's American Tobacco district and Duke's campus are half an hour up the road, and the rivalry games make the trip a fixture of the calendar.
The Outer Banks
3 hoursNorth Carolina's barrier islands — open Atlantic beach, Cape Hatteras and the Wright Brothers memorial at Kitty Hawk. The standard long-weekend trip once the weather turns.
Asheville & the Blue Ridge Mountains
4 hoursWest across the state to the mountains, for hiking on the Blue Ridge Parkway in autumn and skiing at the small resorts near Boone in winter.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Raleigh-Durham International (RDU)
20 minutes from campus
Flies international — you can start a trip abroad from here.
Pro sports nearby
- Carolina Hurricanes NHL
- North Carolina Courage NWSL
- Carolina Panthers NFL
- Charlotte Hornets NBA
Career Proximity
NC State anchors one corner of the Research Triangle, and its Centennial Campus puts corporate R&D labs on university land — which is why engineering, computing and life-sciences recruiting here happens close to home rather than by flying students out.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- SAS
- Red Hat
- Cisco
- IBM
- Biogen
- Merck
- Lenovo
- Fidelity Investments
Research Triangle Park, 20 minutes
Who Thrives Here
NC State is a 28,422-undergraduate campus in Raleigh where Greek life stays a minority pursuit — 15% of men and 18% of women join — and only 38% of undergraduates live on campus, so the social centre of gravity sits off it rather than in a residential quad. Classes are sized like the large public it is: 31.9% enrol fewer than 20 students, against a 15-to-1 student-faculty ratio. Two things deserve a hard look from families. NC State meets 72% of demonstrated need and graduates leave owing about $25,300, so an out-of-state family paying roughly $31,800 in tuition and fees is covering most of the gap itself. And 67.7% finish in four years against 80.0% in six — a fifth year is common enough here that it belongs in the budget rather than as a surprise.