College ranking

Top colleges in NC by 10-year ROI

College Scorecard + IPEDS Last updated: May 2026

Executive Summary

Bachelor’s-predominant institutions located in NC with at least 200 students, sorted by the same 10-year ROI estimate used nationally. Duke University leads this list at $319,092 (10 Yr. ROI).

Leaders: top 3

Duke University

10 Yr. ROI $319,092

NC · Private nonprofit

Davidson College

10 Yr. ROI $272,444

NC · Private nonprofit

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

10 Yr. ROI $266,778

NC · Public

Top 25 Top colleges in NC by 10-year ROI

Rank	Institution	State	Control	Enrollment	10 Yr. ROI	Also see
1	Duke University	NC	Private nonprofit	6,442	$319,092	Grad 96.8% · Net $29,612
2	Davidson College	NC	Private nonprofit	1,867	$272,444	Grad 91.1% · Net $17,379
3	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	NC	Public	20,752	$266,778	Grad 91.2% · Net $11,655
4	Chamberlain University-North Carolina	NC	Private for-profit	202	$249,949	Grad — · Net $38,436
5	Wake Forest University	NC	Private nonprofit	5,485	$236,251	Grad 89.1% · Net $28,719
6	North Carolina State University at Raleigh	NC	Public	27,371	$233,282	Grad 84.8% · Net $17,303
7	University of North Carolina at Charlotte	NC	Public	24,453	$186,392	Grad 69.0% · Net $15,435
8	East Carolina University	NC	Public	19,896	$176,818	Grad 62.6% · Net $15,739
9	University of North Carolina at Greensboro	NC	Public	14,062	$167,162	Grad 56.3% · Net $10,965
10	Western Carolina University	NC	Public	10,024	$163,474	Grad 60.3% · Net $13,315
11	Appalachian State University	NC	Public	19,444	$155,914	Grad 74.5% · Net $16,836
12	Fayetteville State University	NC	Public	5,762	$154,550	Grad 38.5% · Net $7,892
13	University of North Carolina Wilmington	NC	Public	14,922	$154,406	Grad 70.6% · Net $20,109
14	Elizabeth City State University	NC	Public	1,975	$151,605	Grad 43.5% · Net $6,364
15	University of North Carolina at Pembroke	NC	Public	5,330	$151,322	Grad 43.5% · Net $10,260
16	Winston-Salem State University	NC	Public	4,170	$149,190	Grad 46.7% · Net $13,479
17	North Carolina A & T State University	NC	Public	12,182	$148,861	Grad 57.2% · Net $10,846
18	Pfeiffer University	NC	Private nonprofit	655	$148,776	Grad 35.0% · Net $19,076
19	Gardner-Webb University	NC	Private nonprofit	1,856	$143,176	Grad 55.4% · Net $17,674
20	University of North Carolina Asheville	NC	Public	2,910	$142,726	Grad 54.5% · Net $12,250
21	Wingate University	NC	Private nonprofit	2,668	$141,412	Grad 46.4% · Net $20,748
22	University of Mount Olive	NC	Private nonprofit	1,796	$135,644	Grad 51.8% · Net $18,853
23	Lenoir-Rhyne University	NC	Private nonprofit	1,359	$128,972	Grad 47.8% · Net $20,689
24	Campbell University	NC	Private nonprofit	2,680	$128,872	Grad 61.0% · Net $24,516
25	Meredith College	NC	Private nonprofit	1,188	$126,536	Grad 70.1% · Net $22,488

Method notes

Underlying institution file: EDsmart Data processed College Scorecard extract merged to IPEDS 2023 directory for HBCU and Carnegie fields.
ROI column matches the processed college_roi_rankings series in this site build; see College Scorecard ROI methodology.
School profile links use generated slugs; not every campus has a published profile page yet—use the Scorecard site as fallback.

Download

Download CSV Download JSON