North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, founded in 1887 as the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. It remains the state's land-grant institution, with a mission in teaching, research, and Cooperative Extension. The main campus lies west of downtown Raleigh; Centennial Campus, developed from the 1980s, houses engineering, research institutes, and industry partners inside the Research Triangle.

Academic units include the College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Sciences, the Poole College of Management, the College of Design, the College of Education, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Natural Resources, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Wilson College of Textiles. Engineering, agriculture, textiles, veterinary medicine, and the physical sciences are the fields most associated with graduate study. Nearby Research Triangle Park laboratories and the veterinary teaching hospital are working sites for many doctoral students.

Enrollment is about 37,000, with more than 10,000 graduate and professional students. International students form a substantial share of graduate enrollment, especially in engineering, and represent well over 100 countries. The faculty numbers several thousand. Alumni include SAS founder James Goodnight, former U.S. senator John Edwards, and NASA astronaut Christina Koch.

Graduate degrees include the PhD, master's of engineering and science, the DVM, and professional master's aimed at industry. Doctoral study is research-group based, with heavy use of Centennial Campus labs and sponsored projects. The calendar is two semesters plus summer. Assistantships and research-grant support are the usual PhD funding. Raleigh and the Research Triangle give graduate students access to a dense cluster of technology, pharmaceutical, and government employers.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, North Carolina State University lists 192 graduate programs across 44 subjects: 118 master's programs and 69 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in education, biology and agriculture, food & forestry. North Carolina State University holds rank 114 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.