Points of Progress & Pride
Members of the North Carolina A&T Board of Trustees are often called upon to represent A&T in the community. This page is a one-stop resource to ensure Trustees and those around them have the most current and best knowledge about the current state of the university, including its rankings and recognitions. Use the anchor links below to take you to specific sections.
Current State & National Standing
Preeminence in Student Success
Current State & National Standing
Now in its 134th year, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University was the second institution created nationally and the first in this state under the 1890 Morrill Act, which provided for land-grant colleges to serve Black students. Today, North Carolina A&T has more than 80,000 alumni, and is a leading source today of Black graduates in a range of disciplines, from Engineering to Agriculture to Communications.
In addition to its storied past and abiding nature as a leading historically black university (HBCU), N.C. A&T is a public, land grant, doctoral research university. With a current enrollment of 14,331, it is America's largest HBCU for the 11th consecutive year. North Carolina A&T is also ranked the no. 1 public HBCU in America by the Wall Street Journal (2024), as well as the nation's most affordable doctoral research university for thee consecutive years (Money).
A&T's record enrollment - more students than any other HBCU, ever - was driven by nearly 52,000 applications for admission. Enrollment rose not only among undergraduates, but in A&T's consistently growing master's and doctoral programs, adding up to more than 1,800 students pursuing graduate degrees. Those students, in many cases, could go anywhere; the Fall 2024 entering class had an average GPA of 3.73 and average SAT score of more than 1,100.
A&T further ranks among the country’s top 40 national universities in Social Mobility, its top 50 in Most Innovative campuses, and its top 36 in Economic Diversity (US News & World Report). Also in U.S. News, A&T ranks second only to Spelman College among HBCUs in peer scoring with a 4.3 on a 5.0 scale, signifying that colleagues who perhaps know the university better than others in higher education hold it in exceptionally high regard.
The university is composed of nine colleges and schools:
- College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
- College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
- College of Education
- College of Engineering
- College of Science and Technology
- John R. and Kathy R. Hairston College of Health and Human Sciences
- Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics
- The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering
- The Honors College
- The Graduate College
A&T ranks second nationally among HBCUs and second among UNC System campuses in median starting salaries for alumni. In North Carolina, it trails only Duke, Wake Forest and N.C. State in this critical measure of return on investment, and offers the lowest cost to attend of any of those campuses. That combination of affordability and outstanding ROI has become a major point of distinction for A&T nationally, growing enrollment and drawing attention.
Preeminence in Student Success
- A&T produces more Black bachelor’s degree graduates in Agriculture and Agriculture Operations and Related Sciences than any campus in America. It is America's largest HBCU agricultural college.
Engineering
- North Carolina A&T produces more Black engineering grads overall and at the bachelor’s and
doctoral degree levels than any university in America (U.S. Dept. of Education). It also sends more Black bachelor’s degree graduates on to engineering doctoral programs than any university in the nation (U.S. Black Engineer magazine). - N.C. A&T also produces more Black women engineering graduates than any campus in America and is making significant contributions toward changing the image and reality of Engineering as a male-dominated profession.
Journalism, Liberal Arts, Leisure/Fitness Studies
- A&T is one of the nation’s top two producers of Black graduates in Liberal Arts, Communications, Journalism & Related Programs and in Parks, Recreation, Leisure and Fitness Studies (USDOE).
Preeminence in Research
- North Carolina A&T ranks among the top three public research universities in this state in sponsored research productivity, alongside North Carolina State and UNC Chapel Hill. It is classified as a R2-High Research Activity university by the Carnegie Classifications for Institutions of Higher Education. It now exceeds classification criteria for the R1-Very High Research Activity designation.
- Over the past three fiscal year, A&T faculty and student researchers earned $350 million in external contracts and grants.
- Since 2020, A&T has launched a series of new centers of excellence in cybersecurity, autonomous vehicles, entrepreneurship, advanced manufacturing and product design and additional areas funded by agencies at the federal and state levels.
Preeminence in Service
- North Carolina A&T is one of only 119 universities and colleges nationally to hold the Carnegie Foundation's Community Engagement Classification, an elective designation that indicates institutional commitment in this area.
- A&T's extensive service commitments include ensuring no student goes without. Over the past three years, student leaders have launched Aggie Source, a food pantry providing free food and personal items, and more recently Aggie Rack, a professional clothing closet that makes business attire available free, enabling students to dress appropriately for career fairs and job interviews.
Preeminence in Athletics
The impact of North Carolina A&T's athletics program has grown explosively over the past five years. Winners of two gold and one bronze medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, four of the past five Black college football national championships, numerous best national and global times in myiad track events, Aggie student athletes have also won scores of conference championships in recent years in bowling, women's and men's basketball and baseball.
- Aggie student athletes excel in the classroom, as well. In 2021, 137 Aggies were named to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) All-Academic Team, signifying they had earned grade point averages of 3.0 or higher. Overall, A&T has won the MEAC's Academic Performance Rate Award for three consecutive years, meaning that its student athletes have logged stronger academic outcomes than those of any intercollegiate athletics program in the conference.
- Also in 2021, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association named eight A&T women and five A&T men among its All-Academic Athletes nationally.
Preeminence in Philanthropy
In 2020, A&T completed the most successful fund-raising effort in public HBCU history, closing out the Campaign for North Carolina A&T with $181.4 million. The total was nearly $100 million above the university's original goal of $85 million and significantly more than the revised stretch goal of $100 million.- At the end of FY2021, the university completed an incredible year of raising support for A&T with a record $93.8 million in total gifts. The university's previous best year in fundraising was $18.1 million. The $93.8 million total included the largest single gift in A&T's history, a $45 million donation from philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott.
- The success of the Campaign for North Carolina A&T grew the university's endowment to $157.5 million -- the largest of any public HBCU -- and its total managed assets to $178 million. While many majority-culture institutions have larger holdings, A&T is beginning to close the wealth gap between itself as an HBCU and other schools that for generations have had access to a level of philanthropic funding that was largely denied HBCUs.
