For those interested in studying in North Carolina, we have a very useful list. We selected the best North Carolina institutions for prospective students. Please know that rankings are based on academic research, alumni reviews, graduation rates, as well as assessment from peer colleges. On the page, you will find major admissions stats such as acceptance rate, tuition fees, average SAT scores for each ranked college or university.
| Rankings | Schools |
| 1 | Duke University (Durham, NC) Tuition: $43,623 Total enrollment: 15,427 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 14.0% Average freshman retention rate: 97% 6-year graduation rate: 94% Classes with under 20 students: 71.6% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 1350-1530 |
| 2 | Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC) Tuition: $43,200 Total enrollment: 7,351 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 39.9% Average freshman retention rate: 94% 6-year graduation rate: 88% Classes with under 20 students: 56.5% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 1230-1400 |
| 3 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) Tuition: in-state: $7,694, out-of-state: $28,446 Total enrollment: 29,137 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 31.4% Average freshman retention rate: 97% 6-year graduation rate: 90% Classes with under 20 students: 32.9% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 1200-1400 |
| 4 | North Carolina State University–Raleigh (Raleigh, NC) Tuition: in-state: $7,788, out-of-state: $20,953 Total enrollment: 34,767 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 52.3% Average freshman retention rate: 91% 6-year graduation rate: 72% Classes with under 20 students: 20.8% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 1090-1280 |
| 5 | University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Greensboro, NC) Tuition: in-state: $6,136, out-of-state: $19,934 Total enrollment: 18,265 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 58.7% Average freshman retention rate: 77% 6-year graduation rate: 53% Classes with under 20 students: 44.7% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 930-1120 |
| 6 | East Carolina University (Greenville, NC) Tuition: in-state: $5,318, out-of-state: $17,896 Total enrollment: 27,386 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 60.7% Average freshman retention rate: 79% 6-year graduation rate: 59% Classes with under 20 students: 34.2% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 980-1130 |
| 7 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte, NC) Tuition: in-state: $5,857, out-of-state: $18,386 Total enrollment: 25,277 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 69.6% Average freshman retention rate: 78% 6-year graduation rate: 53% Classes with under 20 students: 26.2% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 980-1150 |
| 8 | North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (Greensboro, NC) Tuition: in-state: $5,199, out-of-state: $15,797 Total enrollment: 10,881 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 66.4% Average freshman retention rate: 75% 6-year graduation rate: 43% Classes with under 20 students: 36.6% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 800-980 |
Early History of North Carolina
In the spring of 1585, five ships with immigrants set off for America, whose task was to create a permanent settlement. In August, about a hundred colonists (and the expedition included only men), led by Ralph Lane, landed on Roanoke Island, and the ships that delivered them went home. It was planned that in April next year the ships would return, delivering food and new settlers, but May passed, and they were still not there. The colonists were running out of supplies, the situation was further complicated by constant clashes with the Indians. Fortunately, the ships of the famous navigator and corsair Francis Drake passed by Roanoke, taking the settlers and delivering them to England. Supply ships arrived two weeks later, but the colony had already been abandoned.
Two years later, in 1587, Walter Raleigh sent a new group of colonists to America (about one hundred and fifty people, this time both men and women) under the leadership of John White. On July 22, the settlers landed on the island of Roanoke, but did not find people left there two years ago. On August 18, 1587, Virginia Dare, White’s granddaughter and the first child of English descent to be born in North America, was born in the colony. John White tried to establish good neighborly relations with the Indians, but his attempts were unsuccessful. The settlers convinced White to return to England with a request for assistance to the new settlement, and at the end of the year he went to England.
Because of the war between England and Spain, John White was able to organize an expedition and return to Roanoke only three years later, in August 1590. He saw the abandoned settlement, and the houses were dismantled, and there were no signs of struggle or battles. There was also no conventional sign (Maltese cross), which, by agreement, the settlers were supposed to carve on a tree in case of any disasters. But they found a carved inscription “Croatoan”, which gave reason to assume the possibility of resettlement of people on the island of the same name (now it is called Hatteras).
Due to storms and very difficult navigation conditions in the area of the Outer Banks Islands, White was forced to stop searching and the fate of the colonists is still unknown for certain. The most popular version is about the relocation of the British to another place and subsequent assimilation among the Indians. The Roanoke Colony, the first English colony in North America, went down in US history as a “vanished” or “lost colony”. In honor of Walter Raleigh, who was the initiator of its creation, the capital of North Carolina, the city of Raleigh, is named.
In the fifties of the XVII century, colonists from the north, from Virginia, began to move to the Albemarle Sound area. It was then that permanent European settlements appeared here, but Carolina received official status only a decade later.