The Hardman Rankings

← World University Rankings 2026

North Carolina State University

United StatesROR 04tj63d06
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World University Rankings 2026 · 90% range 151–559 of 2,287 · score 50.7
Research Index 424

How it scores

Research
82
Alumni outcomes
89
Admissions & earnings
61/243

Research and Alumni outcomes are percentiles among 2,287 universities; alumni outcomes are counted per student. Admissions & earnings is the position among universities in the same country (United States).

Admissions, outcomes and alumni

Admit rate
41.7% src
Average SAT
1,376 src
Yield (admits who enrol)
36% src
Median earnings 10 years after entry
$68,758 src
40-year return on investment (Georgetown CEW)
$2.28M src
Graduation rate (6 years)
85% src
Rhodes Scholars, 2021–26
0 src
Internationally notable alumni (Wikidata)
43 src
Heads of state or government (Wikidata)
2 src
Founders, billionaires and $30M+ alumni
not on the published top lists; estimated
Students (undergraduate headcount / total FTE, IPEDS)
27,371 / 33,669 src

Each figure links to its source. Admissions and earnings figures are comparable only within a country.

Research Index

A · Quality
56.6
B · Strength
82.9

Percentiles among 1,305 ranked universities. Rank on quality alone: =561. On strength alone: 224. The Research Index scores research only; admissions, earnings and alumni outcomes are scored in the overall ranking where data exists.

The numbers behind it (2020–2023)

Papers in the top 10% of their field
10.2% (9.7%–10.7%)
Papers in the top 1% of their field
1.1% (0.9%–1.3%)
Top-10% papers (fractional count)
884
All papers (fractional count)
8,689
International co-authored
37.1%
Open access
65.7%
Papers from 2020–23 since retracted
7 (0.31 per 1,000)

Core publications, fractional counting, field-normalised citation shares. Brackets show Leiden’s stability interval. Collaboration and open-access shares use full counting and aren’t field-normalised. Retraction counts come from the Retraction Watch database and include publishers’ mass retractions as well as honest-error retractions; a retraction is not by itself evidence of misconduct, and the count is never scored.

By field

Biomedical & health sciences379range 279–531 of 1,671
Life & earth sciences523range 356–634 of 1,092
Mathematics & computer science=326range 196–482 of 1,391
Physical sciences & engineering=307range 216–473 of 1,742
Social sciences & humanities=565range 382–689 of 1,262

Position over time

top 30%2006–2009: 172 of 5712020–2023: 424 of 1,305

The same method applied to each 4-year publication window. The number of ranked universities grows from period to period, so position is shown as a share of the field.

How other rankings place it

424Research Index 2026
–QS 2027 (not in top 100)
–THE 2027 (not in top 100)
–ARWU 2026 (not in top 100)

Other rankings are cited for comparison. The Research Index measures research only; QS and THE also use reputation surveys and figures universities submit, and ARWU counts prize winners and total output.

Prize winners

No Nobel, Fields, Turing or Abel laureates linked to this university in Wikidata.