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College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Student Access Initiative

Helping qualified students find their path to CALS.

Gaining access or acceptance to a 4-year undergraduate degree — especially for young people from rural and farming communities — is harder now than it ever has been. We hear this message loud and clear from our alumni, friends and stakeholders.

Through our Student Access Initiative, we are tackling this challenge head-on. We are growing existing programs and developing paths to meet the needs of different students who are applying to our college.

Helping Students. Helping Agriculture.

NC State College of Agriculture and LIfe Sciences student Collin Blalock sits on the back of a tractor with in a field. He is surrounded by bushels of produce.

The USDA forecasts annual demand for college graduates in the agriculture and food industries at 57,900. American agricultural colleges are only producing 35,400 graduates a year.

Demand for CALS grads is at an all-time high.

In fact, we need to increase the number of graduates in our 4-year degree programs by 1.5 to 2 percent a year and add 90 students to our 2-year degree programs to meet the needs of our state.

So what are we doing to help? We’re adding programs and helping students find their path to CALS.

Traditional Freshman Admission

The most competitive path for students is traditional freshman admission. NC State receives more than 25,000 applications a year, roughly 10,000 more than just six years ago. 14,748 – or 44 percent – were accepted to NC State. 40 percent of those accepted were from rural North Carolina, and 1,312 were accepted to CALS. We strongly encourage all applicants to apply for freshman admission by October 15 for priority consideration.

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Spring Semester Admission

This new program is largely targeting our under-enrolled degree programs in the crop and soil sciences, horticulture, plant biology, poultry science and others. Students who apply to CALS during the fall of their senior year may be accepted for spring admission and start classes the spring following high school graduation. The fall semester provides opportunities for internships, community college courses, or to gain work experience.

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Hands-on, 2-Year Degrees

We recognize not all students need or want a 4-year degree to start their career in agriculture. NC Stateu2019s highly acclaimed Agricultural Institute (AGI) provides career-ready students a hands-on technical education through a variety of 2-year associate degrees. Students benefit from direct access to the resources and opportunities of a major land-grant institution and still have the ability to transfer to our 4-year degree programs if desired.

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Community College Partnerships

We are expanding our community college partnerships, increasing the number of community colleges with 1+3 and 2+2 admissions paths to CALS. We provide personalized advising support for students while they are at community colleges to ensure a smooth transition to NC State.

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STEAM Program

The invitation-only STEAM program is also helping rural students realize their dream of attending NC State after completing all program requirements. It’s not important where you start, but where you finish, and our transfer students finish strong – often out-performing many of our traditional 4-year students.

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