Best Grad Schools in North Carolina 2025

Badge for BEST IN NORTH CAROLINA GRADUATE SCHOOLS

By Dr. James Barham
Reviewed By Jenn Finley

Published: Mar 25, 2021
Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Key Takeaways

Sixteen schools in North Carolina meet our criteria for the best grad schools in the state.
Earning a master’s or doctorate degree from one of the state’s best grad schools will qualify graduates to work in one of North Carolina’s top industries.
It is important to choose a grad school in North Carolina that offers opportunities for independent research, mentorships, and professional networking.

Table of Contents

Best Grad Schools in North Carolina in 2025

Duke University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
North Carolina State University
Wake Forest University
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
East Carolina University
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
North Carolina Central University
Appalachian State University
Western Carolina University

2025 Ranking Update

Our Influence Ranking Engine™ leverages machine learning to track the real-world influence of colleges and universities over time. Below you’ll see which schools gained or lost ground for the 2025 school year.

There are no changes in our ranking of the best grad schools in North Carolina for 2025. Duke University, the top grad school in North Carolina has expanded their interdisciplinary programs across more than 80 departments, helping grad students to engage in cross-disciplinary research and innovation. For this year, Duke has also launched a new Executive Master of Public Affairs program, appealing to professionals who are interested in transitioning into public service or growing their leadership skills.

For 2025, UNC at Chapel Hill has implemented the largest-ever increase in minimum graduate student stipends. The university is also expanding their research spaces.

Graduate school may be a critical step in your higher education, whether you are interested in expanding your knowledge, learning a specialization, or earning advanced credentials required by your profession. The best graduate schools in North Carolina offer advanced degrees, such as master’s and doctoral degrees, as well as opportunities for independent research, mentorships, and professional networking.

Colleges and Universities in North Carolina

There are over 60 public colleges and universities in North Carolina, including the state’s largest school, North Carolina State University, which serves almost 30,000 students. Tuition costs average about $9,000, just below the national average, and students also have the option to enroll in over 1,000 online courses.

Another notable public school is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is one of the country’s oldest universities. The 25,000 students who attend UNC will walk the same halls as Francis Collins, Thomas Wolfe, and former president James K. Polk.

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North Carolina’s private schools have also made a name for themselves, including the well-known Duke University located in Durham. Here, students can earn degrees in some of the top programs, like nursing, political science, and business.

What are North Carolina’s Colleges & Universities?

North Carolina’s Best Overall

How do we determine North Carolina's best grad schools?

Methodology

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.

Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.

There are 16 doctorate-granting graduate schools in North Carolina. Our ranking of the best graduate schools in the North Carolina is composed of both private and public schools. To be included, schools must be fully accredited non-profit institutions, and must offer doctoral degrees and a broad array of graduate degrees.