UNC Charlotte sees a shift: More students and more from outside Mecklenburg County

More and more, Mecklenburg County’s largest university is a destination for students from outside of the county.

Two years ago, for the first time, less than 30% of UNC Charlotte’s 30,000 total students were from here. And for the past three years, Wake County has sent more first-time undergraduate students to campus than has Mecklenburg County.

The shift has led to a more geographically diverse university, said Claire Kirby, associate provost for enrollment management at UNC Charlotte. It also leads to a livelier campus, as a smaller percentage of students have the option of living at home and commuting.

“The more diverse the student population in terms of where they’re coming from, the more enriching the experience is for all students,” Kirby said. “Even the commuters live across the street in a lot of cases.”

The university grew steadily in the past decade, UNC System data show. Its student enrollment jumped 11% between 2014 and 2023, a higher percentage than UNC Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, the only schools in the state with more total students.

Such an increase isn’t guaranteed. Four campuses in the state’s 16-school system lost enrollment in the past decade, data show.

Enrollment at East Carolina University dropped 2.6%, according to UNC System records. It dropped 4.8% at UNC Greensboro, 8.5% Winston-Salem State University and nearly 24% at UNC Asheville between 2014 and 2023.

Enrollment declines at UNC Asheville contributed to a nearly $6 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2023-24, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. The shortfall was a factor in the university’s decision to cut four academic departments.

From Raleigh to Charlotte

Before Alex Suehle began her freshman year at UNC Charlotte this month, she assumed many of the students she’d get to know would be from Mecklenburg County, Suehle told The Charlotte Observer.

Then she met her suitemates, who are from the North Carolina mountains and the beach, respectively. And she met her roommate, who, like Suehle, is from Raleigh.

“We really have the whole state covered in our own little suite,” she said.

Suehle said she knows of about 10 students from her high school, Athens Drive Magnet High School, who attend UNC Charlotte. And she notices others from Wake County, some walking across campus in shirts saying Apex or Cary, towns west of Raleigh.

The number of UNC Charlotte students from Wake jumped 120%, to more than 3,700, between 2014 and 2023, according to an Observer analysis. 2024 data will be released later this month.

No other county sent more first-time undergraduate students to UNC Charlotte than Wake County between 2021 and 2023. Not even Mecklenburg.

One of those students was Kalen Milton, a junior from Raleigh.

Milton quickly realized how many students “pipeline” into UNC Charlotte from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. But something else caught his attention, he said.

“It also surprised me how many people are from Wake County,” said Milton, a sports writer for the Niner Times, the college newspaper. “I really didn’t know know much about the school until I got a tour of it. That’s when I got to know how big the school really is.”

UNC Charlotte receives roughly 22,000 freshman applications each fall, university records show. In 2023, it accepted about 80% of applicants with about a fifth — or 4,500 students — enrolling.

Last year, fewer than 7,500 UNC Charlotte students were from Mecklenburg. That’s a 9% decrease since 2014, according to UNC System data.

Students from North Carolina’s most populous counties, including Wake, have increased in recent years.

Enrollment of students from Guilford County is up 12%. It’s up 9% from Union and about 8% from Cabarrus.

“It’s been exiting to be a part of that growth,” said Kirby, the associate provost for enrollment management.