Student Achievement Metrics

NC State’s academic and administrative units routinely assess their effectiveness by monitoring trends in student achievement, which includes such metrics as enrollments, retention, graduation, degrees awarded, student preparation for graduate school and the workforce, and professional licensing examinations, peer comparisons, etc.

Please note that the list of metrics on this page does not encompass all student success initiatives underway at the university.

NC State Strategic Plan Metrics

The following metrics support Goal 1 (Enhancing Student Success) of The Pathway to the Future: NC State’s 2011-2020 Strategic Plan. Specific metric goals and progress made towards them are available on NC State’s strategic planning site or in the links below.

• Undergraduate one-year retention rate [PDF] 
• Undergraduate six-year graduation rate [PDF]
  • PDF includes disaggregation by gender, race/ethnicity and Pell status
• Master’s degrees awarded [PDF] 
• Doctoral degrees awarded [PDF] 
• NC State Alumni Survey Questions [PDF]
  • How well were you prepared by NC State for graduate/professional school (% answering Excellent or Good) 
  • How well were you prepared by NC State for your first full-time position (% answering Excellent or Good)

UNC System Metrics

NC State set goals for the following metrics in support of Higher Expectations, the University of North Carolina System Strategic Plan (2017-2022). Specific metric goals and progress made towards them are available on NC State’s dashboard on the UNC System site or in the links below.

• Undergraduate five-year graduation rate [PDF]
  • By 2022, NC State will improve its five-year graduation rate from any accredited institution to 81.6%. This is an improvement over a base of 76.7% for NC State 2010 cohort.
• Undergraduate degree efficiency [PDF]
  • By 2021-22, NC State will improve its undergraduate degree efficiency to 24.9 over a base of 23.9.
• Critical workforces undergraduate degrees awarded [PDF]
  • By 2021-22, NC State will produce 6,064 critical workforce credentials, an increase of 12.3% (665 additional critical workforce credentials over a base of 5,399).
• Rural undergraduate student enrollments [PDF]
  • By fall 2021, NC State will enroll 5,836 rural students, a 6.1% increase over 2016 levels (335 additional rural students over a base of 5,501).
• Rural undergraduate student completions [PDF]
  • By 2021-22, NC State will produce 1,400 rural graduates, an increase of 7.7% (100 additional rural completions over a base of 1,300).
• Achievement gaps in undergraduate efficiency [PDF]
  • By 2021-22, NC State will reduce by 50% the achievement gap in undergraduate degree efficiency between rural and non-rural students.
• Low-income undergraduate student enrollments [PDF]
  • By fall 2021, NC State will enroll 4,925 low-income students, a 6.5% increase over 2015 levels (300 additional low-income students over a base of 4,625).
• Low-income undergraduate completions [PDF]
  • By 2021-22, NC State will produce 1,681 low-income graduates, an increase of 6.5% (102 additional low-income completions over a base of 1,579).

Professional Licensure Exam Scores

Several academic programs at NC State encourage or require their students to participate in professional licensure exams relevant to their field and specific professions. This table [PDF] provides information about and results for NC State students completing licensure exams for several undergraduate programs and NC State’s professional program in the College of Veterinary Medicine, as listed below.

• College of Engineering: Fundamentals of Engineering Exam
• College of Education: PRAXIS
• Poole College of Management: Accounting Licensing Exam
• College of Veterinary Medicine: North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE)