N.C. A&T Charts New Enrollment Record: 14,311

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Sept. 6, 2024) – Enrollment at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has soared to 14,311 this fall on the strength of more than 47,000 undergraduate and graduate applications for admission.

The new total -- up a little more than 3% from last year -- is expected to maintain North Carolina A&T’s status as America’s largest historically Black college or university for the 11th consecutive year. While final enrollment figures haven’t been released for all campuses nationwide, the A&T student body appears to be the largest ever enrolled at an HBCU. If that claim holds, this would be the third year in a row that A&T has set a new national record for HBCUs.

Overall, enrollment growth in graduate programs and significant improvement in student persistence among both undergraduate (up 3.1%) and graduate (up by 4.5%) populations account for the steady, manageable growth of the student body. A&T enrollment has increased every year since Fall 2013, when 10,561 students attended the university – 3,750 fewer than today.

 “Since 2011, applications to our university were among the fastest growing of any doctoral research university in America – up by 350%,” said North Carolina A&T Chancellor James R. Martin II. “As we watch that trend continue to play out, it’s clear that North Carolina A&T stands for something special in the higher education marketplace – a place of academic excellence where education is delivered at an affordable price, an exponential university with a disproportionately large impact on African American representation in the global knowledge economy and a campus culture that is absolutely second to none.” 

N.C. A&T students are increasingly some of the most accomplished college students in the nation. The entering first-year class this fall, for instance, has an average GPA of 3.73; for out-of-state students, those credentials are even stronger, including an average GPA of 3.91.

Within the overall enrollment of 14,311 lie several special points of strategic progress that portend well for A&T this year and in the near-term future:

• Graduate Growth. New graduate program enrollment of 701 is composed of 596 new master’s students and 105 new doctoral students – a total increase of nearly 15% over the prior year. Total graduate enrollment now stands at 1,814 – an all-time high for A&T. Graduate program growth was driven by a spike in applications, which rose overall by 16% – 44% at the doctoral level. With new doctoral programs having launched this fall and others expected to begin accepting their first applications this year, more growth is expected in the years ahead.
• Online Instruction. The numbers of students taking only online courses or a mix of online and in-person courses both grew significantly this year. Students taking a mix of courses grew by 550 to a total of 7,698, while online-only learners crested over 1,700 for the first time, up by nearly 5.5% over last year.
• New Undergrads. A&T enrolled 3,432 new undergraduates this fall, including 2,735 new first-year students and 696 new transfer students.
• Persistence. A total of 326 more continuing students returned for this academic year than last year, with growth at every student level. This improvement indicates more students are moving toward completion of their degrees. The trend also enables the university to develop in a more balanced fashion than if all growth came in new-student populations.