Help Me Find a College: North Carolina

Where to Start Looking to Find a College in North Carolina

The College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) is sponsored by the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) and Pathways of North Carolina. The website provides a detailed planning guide for college by grade with relevant links such as links to test prep resources and college matching assistant.?  The matching assistant is limited to North Carolina but includes private and public institutions.

If you create a an account, the website allows you to apply to colleges and manage your high school transcript. Registered users can also take a variety of assessments such as an interest profiler and career cluster survey. The financial portfolio section also includes information on the scholarship application process. The site also has a variety of financial literacy tools and videos.

The College Redirection feature allows students who haven’t been admitted for the fall to be submitted to a pool of students for North Carolina institutions with open admission slots. Users can also download a schedule of financial aid workshops offered by CFNC.?  Students interested in the Transferred Assured Admissions Policy also need to register at the CFNC website.

Information on transferring from community colleges to private institutions can be found on the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities website (NCICU).?  Students interested in private colleges should download the NCICU Counselors Handbook that has information on private North Carolina colleges and universities.

Students interested in online opportunities should visit the elearningNC website. The website contains information on online programs for high school, community college, and four-year institutions.

Some Numbers to Help You Find a College

There are 50 four-year institutions with 500 or more full-time undergraduates in North Carolina according to the Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System. A little over 29 percent of students attend one of the 34 private colleges while approximately 70 percent of students attend one of the 16 state institutions.

The private colleges have an average four-year graduation rate of 36 percent while the four-year state schools have a five-year rate of 48 percent. Only nine colleges meet the 50-50 DIY College Rankings Profile Requirements.

College-bound seniors in North Carolina had an average of 491 for SAT Critical Reading and 506 for the Math section.?  The 75th Percentile scores were 560 for Critical Reading and 580 for Mathematics. A total of 17 colleges had 75th percentile scores at or above this level.

The top 20 colleges SAT test takers in North Carolina applied to:

• North Carolina State University Raleigh
• East Carolina University
• University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• Appalachian State University
• University North Carolina Charlotte
• University of North Carolina Wilmington
• University of North Carolina Greensboro
• Western Carolina University
• North Carolina Central University
• Campbell University
• North Carolina Agricultural Tech State U
• Duke University
• Winston-Salem State University
• University of South Carolina Columbia
• Wingate University
• University of North Carolina Pembroke
• University North Carolina Asheville
• Wake Forest University
• Clemson University
• Elon University

List of Colleges in North Carolina

In the following table, the four-year graduation rate is used for private colleges and the five-year rate for public colleges. The data are based on the data available from IPEDS in the fall of 2012 which are available on the DIY College Search spreadsheet.