Elizabeth City
State University
Public College in Elizabeth City, NC. Six-year graduation rate 44%. Median 10-year earnings $40,026.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $40,026, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Six-year completion sits at 44%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Median debt at graduation is $21,463, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree. On economic mobility, 3.9% of students travel from the bottom income quintile to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
An acceptance rate of 64% puts Elizabeth City State University on the accessible end — a realistic target for a broad range of applicants. 5,489 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Only 12% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 3% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, and test-optional applicants are not represented in them.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | 470–560 | 12 (3%) |
| SAT Math | 450–520 | |
| ACT Composite | 16–22 | 45 (11%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Elizabeth City State University →Academics
44% graduate within six years — average, but that average still hides a large group who do not. Retention of 77% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. 28% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. The student-faculty ratio is 19:1 — typical, which in practice means large lectures early and smaller classes in the major.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,863 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $6,483 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $4,246 while those at $110k+ pay $15,663. 83% of students receive grant aid, averaging $8,998 — common but not automatic. 59% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 346 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $4,246 |
| $30–48k | $4,538 |
| $48–75k | $5,354 |
| $75–110k | $10,205 |
| $110k+ | $15,663 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,105 of these 1,863 students, totalling $6,711,152 — an average of $6,073 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Pasquotank County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)