A&T Enrollment Surges to Record 13,487

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Sept. 9, 2022) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has grown to enrollment of 13,487 – another record for the university, as well as the largest enrollment ever for a historically Black college or university (HBCU).

In N.C. A&T’s first strategic plan under Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. – “A&T Preeminence,” which was put in place 11 years ago – the university committed itself to growing enrollment to 13,500 students. Its current plan revised that goal to 14,000 by next fall.

The principal driver of this year’s measured and strategic 1.56% growth is A&T’s largest-ever first-year class: 3,108 students, raising the university’s undergraduate population alone to 11,876. The remaining 1,654 students are enrolled in A&T master’s and doctoral programs.

The first-year class comes with outstanding academic credentials: An average GPA of 3.77 and average SAT and ACT of 1,058 and 20, respectively. The top three intended majors for the new freshmen are nursing, biology and management. A&T enrolls more Black first-year students each year than U.S. News and World Report’s top 10 national universities combined and with a nationally competitive academic profile.

“We are proud to have a wonderful class of ambitious and high-achieving students who have joined A&T as first-year students this fall, and delighted with what they bring to our university,” said Martin. “The opportunities available to them at a campus that is one of this state’s top public research universities and a major HBCU are unparalleled. We look forward to what the newest Aggies will achieve during their time in Greensboro.”

A&T’s enrollment, which has grown by about 25% in just the past seven years, has been fueled by investment in student success through merit- and need-based awards as well as initiatives designed to mitigate student debt.

These investments and initiatives, in turn, have propelled A&T’s graduation rates. Over the past five years, four-year and five-year graduation rates have increased by 8% and 3.5%, respectively.

All of this growth has enabled A&T not only to increase its program offerings, but also attract record-setting sponsored research funding. The two newest graduate degree programs are the M.S. in health psychology and Ph.D. in agricultural and environmental sciences – the latter of which is the university’s 11^th doctoral program.

Last year, A&T received eight U.S. patents – the most in a single fiscal year in A&T’s history. The 2022 fiscal year also saw A&T faculty awarded $97.3 million in contracts and grants, an increase of $19.2 million over the previous fiscal year.

The momentum is an outgrowth of A&T strategc planning, as well as with a plan to move from its current classification among doctoral research universities of R2, high research activity, to R1, very high research activity.

Those standards are set by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.