What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$6,382 to $24,652 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $26,425 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $17,471.Aid and debt
36.3%
receive need-based grants
$25,393
average debt at graduation
2,137
students got merit aid
about 7% of undergraduates
$5,111
average merit award
Getting In
A note for out-of-state applicants
North Carolina State University is bound by a North Carolina rule capping how much of its undergraduate class can come from outside the state. If you're applying from outside North Carolina, you're competing for a limited, separately-capped share of seats — a different picture than the admit rate above shows.
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1310–1440 · 11% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 28–32 · 29% of the class submitted
40% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- Important
- Class rank
- Considered
- SAT/ACT scores
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- First-gen status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Not considered
- Legacy status
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
NC State rates course rigor as Very Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong.
NC State doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
NC State just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-NC State essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
31.5% of NC State classes have fewer than 20 students.
31.5%
under 20 students
48.5%
20 to 49
20%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. NC State CDS 2025–26, I-3.
16:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
12.7%
first-years from out of state
36%
live on campus
11%
of men in fraternities
15%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White64.2%
- Asian10.2%
- Hispanic10%
- Black5.8%
- Multiracial5.1%
- Unknown / other1.6%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. NC State CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
65.4% of NC State students graduate in 4 years.
65.4%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
85.5%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
94.4%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
79.8% finish in 6 years, against 85.5% of all students.
A 5.7-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
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.
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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.
The City
Mid-size city
Raleigh, NC
Best For
Notable alumni
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.
Traditions
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 from Raleigh
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 and game days
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
Internships and jobs nearby
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
Who Thrives Here
NC State is a 29,340-undergraduate campus in Raleigh where Greek life stays a minority pursuit — 11% of men and 15% of women join — and only 36% 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: 31.5% enrol fewer than 20 students, against a 16-to-1 student-faculty ratio. Two things deserve a hard look from families. NC State meets 75% of demonstrated need and graduates leave owing about $25,400, so an out-of-state family paying roughly $34,000 in tuition and fees is covering most of the gap itself. And 65.4% finish in four years against 85.5% in six — a fifth year is common enough here that it belongs in the budget rather than as a surprise.