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News Story
Beginning next year, graduates of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics will be guaranteed admission at UNC System schools.
The new policy, approved at last month’s meeting of the UNC Board of Governors, will apply to all Science and Math students applying for first time admission beginning with the Fall 2022 semester. The only exception to the new policy will be the North Carolina School of the Arts, where all students will still need to audition in order to be admitted.
UNC Board of Governors Chairman Randy Ramsey called the move “long overdue” for the UNC system’s 17th campus, where high school juniors and seniors participate in residential and online programs tuition-free. The program, headquartered at its campus in Durham, was the first public, residential high school specializing in science and math. Next fall, the school will open a second campus in Morganton.
This week, we take a by-the-numbers look at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and its students.
41 – years since the school, unique in the UNC System, opened in 1980
150 – high school juniors admitted in the school’s first class
680 – residential students now attending the school
14 – years the school has been part of the UNC System
13 – years the school has offered virtual courses that allow students to earn certificates of completion in School of Science and Mathematics programs while continuing to attend their local high schools
11,000 – number of alumni of the school, most still living and working in North Carolina
94 – number of North Carolina’s 100 counties with students enrolled in a program, either as residents or online
49 – percent of students identified as female in the school’s class of 2021
51 – percent identified as male
46 – percent of students identified as white in the school’s class of 2021
28 – percent identified as being of Asian descent
9 – percent identified as African American or Black
5.3 – percent identified as Hispanic or Latinx
6 – percent identified as being of “two or more races” or “unknown”
0.3 – percent identified as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander or as American Indian/Alaskan Native
76 – number of U.S. colleges and universities that graduates of the school’s class of 2021 will be attending
(Sources: UNC System, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics)
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