University of
North Carolina Wilmington
Public Research University in Wilmington, NC. Six-year graduation rate 71%. Median 10-year earnings $54,967.
Students who entered University of North Carolina Wilmington land at a median of $54,967 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Completion is a strength: 71% of students finish within six years. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $19,500, neither a bargain nor a burden.
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
- ! Mobility score 0.7 — limited economic uplift documented
Admissions
University of North Carolina Wilmington accepts 64% of applicants, which makes it accessible to most students who meet the baseline requirements. With 20,393 applications received, this is a school operating at national scale. 21% of those admitted enroll, which is unremarkable in either direction. The score bands below rest on the 5% of enrolled first-years who submitted an SAT score — a self-selected group, and not a cutoff.
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 | 620–680 | 138 (5%) |
| SAT Math | 610–660 | |
| ACT Composite | 24–29 | 342 (12%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at University of North Carolina Wilmington →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 71% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. 88% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. Transfer-out runs to 22% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 17:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 14,176 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $18,976 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $10,778 at the $0–30k band to $25,573 at $110k+. 49% get grants, which means the net price above will not apply to most applicants. 37% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 2,694 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 | $10,778 |
| $30–48k | $12,572 |
| $48–75k | $17,378 |
| $75–110k | $24,046 |
| $110k+ | $25,573 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 5,236 of these 14,176 students, totalling $33,429,163 — an average of $6,384 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (New Hanover 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)