Forbes: N.C. A&T America’s No. 1 Public HBCU

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Aug. 3, 2026) – In Forbes’ magazine’s first-ever rankings of the nation’s top historically Black college and universities, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University claimed the No. 1 position among all public HBCUs across the country.

Released over the weekend as part of its “Top Colleges 2026” package, Forbes’ rankings singled out North Carolina A&T for its outstanding return on investment — the leading measurement point in Forbes’ methodology —and its size (A&T is the largest historically Black university in America). A&T’s average undergraduate cost of attendance for in-state students is $28,519, while alumni early-career median pay is $68,700, with mid-career median pay rising to $116,300.

According to data published annually in Money magazine, A&T has been America’s most affordable doctoral research university for the past three years. A&T’s costs-to-earnings ratio is highly competitive among all doctoral universities, its starting alumni pay has repeatedly ranked No. 2 in the University of North Carolina System and its mid-career median pay is second highest among all public HBCUs.

“We are strongly committed to providing exceptional value for our students and their families. That means ensuring our students not only excel while in school, but in the workplace after graduation,” said Chancellor James R. Martin II. “It’s why we host our state’s largest college career fairs and why so many Aggies graduate with multiple offers of employment. As America’s top producer of Black STEM graduates, we especially appreciate that our graduates are of strong interest to many of the best employers in the world.”

The cost of attendance in Forbes factors all expenses, not just tuition and fees: Housing, meals, books and supplies, transportation and personal expenses. For institutions listed in other Forbes’ rankings, those costs are often double or even triple A&T costs. Forbes’ top-ranked university, private MIT, has a total annual cost of $82,730; the total annual cost of Forbes’ top-ranked public university, Berkeley, is $75,830.

A&T’s graduate enrollment of 2,018 was second among HBCUs in these rankings only to Howard, which topped the private HBCU rankings. A&T, however, has achieved that enrollment without medical, law, dentistry or veterinary colleges, while Howard has medical, law, dental and pharmacy schools.

A&T is not resting on its laurels, however. In every measured category, from graduation success to retention rates to enrollment, A&T is positioned for great success in the school year that begins later this month. A&T will also be evaluated for its basic classification in the Carnegie Classification of Colleges and Universities, in which A&T is projected to achieve Carnegie’s top designation for research universities: Research 1.

And in that important “intangible” category, HBCU culture, A&T students will experience a dynamic year of opportunities, from celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the “greatest homecoming on earth” to launch of a new TED Talk series.

“Each year, we are blessed to climb into realms where no HBCU has gone before. That is critically important to us, to set a standard for achievement that adds value to our students’ experiences and prestige to the degrees our 75,000 alumni have already earned,” said Martin. “We say it a lot, but it bears repeating here: Aggies DO. And then we do it again and again and again.”