With 4,889 students, NC State’s freshman Class of 2022 is the largest class of first-year students in NC State history. According to the Undergraduate Admissions Office, admitted students for the Class of 2022 represent all 100 counties in North Carolina. NC State also received over 18,000 applications from in-state students, which is the most of any public university in North Carolina.
According to Louis Hunt, senior vice provost in Enrollment Management and Services, NC State enrolls more students from North Carolina than any other UNC System school.
“We’re really trying to be sure we do serve North Carolina, that we do serve underserved communities like some of the rural communities,” Hunt said. “Our rankings are going up, our student success metrics are going up, so that really drives applications.”
According to Hunt, this year’s overall incoming batch of students, including transfer students, is also the largest in NC State history with 6,158 students. Hunt said that in past years, NC State was deliberately shrinking the first-year class size to ensure student success in all programs.
“We had deliberately been shrinking our freshman class for a little while over a few years,” Hunt said, “… just to make sure everything was running the way we wanted. As we kind of got that all where we wanted and since our graduation rates are at an all-time high, we’ve been able to open up the front door a little wider.”
According to Jim Price, assistant director of Institution Analytics and Benchmarking, official enrollment numbers for the Class of 2022 will be released after the census date, the 10th day of classes.
Tashayia Busby-Woody, a fifth-year studying English and transfer student, is from Henderson, North Carolina.
“I chose to go to NC State because it’s closer to home,” Busby-Woody said. “In case I have to run back home and take care of my grandmother and my siblings, I can easily do that. It also was the closest one that had my particular major. I went to a community college before I came here and a lot of my teachers recommended that I go to NC State instead of [NC Central].”
Jon Westover, associate vice provost and director of Undergraduate Admissions, said that NC State has experienced a 70 percent increase in overall applicants over the last 10 years.
“As our institutional brand has risen over the years, applications to NC State has grown significantly from 17,661 applications for fall 2008 to 29,852 applications for fall 2018,” Westover said in an email.
Busby-Woody said she believes that more and more in-state students are attending NC State because of its proximity to their homes, affordability and because of the agricultural programs offered.
“I believe people are choosing [NC State] because it is closest to their home base, so they can easily go back home if they want to,” Busby-Woody said. “Hopefully they’re choosing it because it is somewhat cheaper than trying to go out of state to a different college. Also a lot of agriculture students and a lot of people that are doing the College of Natural Resources are choosing to go here because it’s such a good agricultural college.”
Srushti Pandya, a first-year studying genetics, said that NC State’s efforts to modernize and stay with the times makes it an attractive choice for in-state students, despite the existence other public universities in the region.
“Compared to other schools it’s definitely keeping up with the times and making itself more modern,” Pandya said. “Everyone is aware that in our region, we have so many schools that are in-state public schools, and even though NC State is technically part of the UNC System I think it sets itself apart. Everything here is very state of the art, it’s fresh. It represents where our generation is going.”
Hunt said that this year an unanticipated number of student accepted NC State’s offer of acceptance which contributed to the large numbers of the first-year class.
“This year we actually oversubscribed — we were planning for a slightly lower number of students, but more students took us up on our offer than what our historical numbers could have predicted,” Hunt said.
Westover said that NC State has made concentrated efforts to work on recruitment and marketing toward students from all over, especially North Carolina.
“We have worked significantly to increase recruitment and marketing efforts over the years in addition to highlighting all that NC State has to offer,” Westover said. “We have worked towards creating pathways to NC State through programs like the Community College Collaboration (C3) Program and as a land-grant institution, we are committed to serving the citizens of North Carolina. We want to make our mark as the top choice institution for the residents of North Carolina.”
