University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Posts Major Gain in Black First-Year Enrollments

The University of North Carolina reports that 470 black freshmen enrolled on the Chapel Hill campus this fall. This is an increase of 13 percent over the 416 black freshmen who enrolled a year ago. Blacks make up 12.3 percent of the first-year class at Chapel Hill. This is the second-highest percentage of black first-year students at any of the nation’s 30 highest-ranked universities since JBHE first began its annual survey 13 years ago. Four years ago in 2002, blacks were 12.5 percent of the entering class at the Chapel Hill campus.

Through the years, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill accepted a larger percentage of black applicants compared to the application pool as a whole. This year, 33 percent of black applicants were accepted compared to 34 percent of all applicants. The university saw a jump in black student yield from 51 percent to 57 percent, resulting in the near-record level of African-American first-year enrollments.

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