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Community-college Pell-grant share in North Carolina

Community colleges in North Carolina ranked by Pell-grant share — the percentage of undergraduates who received a federal Pell Grant in the most recent reporting year. Pell share is a useful proxy for the share of the student body from lower-income households and for the institution's experience serving students who depend heavily on need-based federal aid.

  1. Louisburg CollegeLouisburg, NC70%
  2. Bladen Community CollegeDublin, NC69%
  3. Sampson Community CollegeClinton, NC53%
  4. Galen Health Institutes-AshevilleAsheville, NC52%
  5. Johnson & Wales University-CharlotteCharlotte, NC52%
  6. Cleveland Community CollegeShelby, NC52%
  7. Robeson Community CollegeLumberton, NC50%
  8. NASCAR Technical InstituteMooresville, NC49%
  9. South University-High PointHigh Point, NC46%
  10. Western Piedmont Community CollegeMorganton, NC45%
  11. Rockingham Community CollegeWentworth, NC44%
  12. Guilford Technical Community CollegeJamestown, NC43%
  13. Craven Community CollegeNew Bern, NC43%
  14. Southeastern Community CollegeWhiteville, NC40%
  15. Forsyth Technical Community CollegeWinston-Salem, NC39%
  16. Pitt Community CollegeWinterville, NC39%
  17. Carolinas College of Health SciencesCharlotte, NC33%
  18. Coastal Carolina Community CollegeJacksonville, NC32%
  19. Roanoke-Chowan Community CollegeAhoskie, NC32%
  20. Durham Technical Community CollegeDurham, NC31%
  21. Wilson Community CollegeWilson, NC31%
  22. Vance-Granville Community CollegeHenderson, NC31%
  23. Brunswick Community CollegeBolivia, NC31%
  24. Piedmont Community CollegeRoxboro, NC31%
  25. Caldwell Community College and Technical InstituteHudson, NC31%
  26. Halifax Community CollegeWeldon, NC31%
  27. Haywood Community CollegeClyde, NC29%
  28. Tri-County Community CollegeMurphy, NC29%
  29. Cabarrus College of Health SciencesConcord, NC29%
  30. Sandhills Community CollegePinehurst, NC28%
  31. Catawba Valley Community CollegeHickory, NC28%
  32. McDowell Technical Community CollegeMarion, NC27%
  33. Central Carolina Community CollegeSanford, NC26%
  34. Mayland Community CollegeSpruce Pine, NC25%
  35. Cape Fear Community CollegeWilmington, NC18%
  36. South Piedmont Community CollegePolkton, NC17%
  37. College of the AlbemarleElizabeth City, NC17%

How to interpret Pell share

The federal Pell Grant is the largest need-based grant program in U.S. higher education. Eligibility is determined by the FAFSA and is based primarily on family income and assets relative to the cost of attendance. A community college with a high Pell-grant share is, by construction, an institution whose student body skews toward lower-income households. That is not a quality signal in either direction on its own — many of the strongest community-college transfer pipelines in North Carolina run through institutions with high Pell shares — but it does indicate where institutional services such as emergency aid, child-care subsidies, food pantries, and need-based scholarships are most likely to be developed and well-resourced.

If you are eligible for the Pell Grant, the practical implication is that several of the community colleges on this list will be tuition-free for you after the grant is applied, with state aid and institutional aid often covering most of the remaining cost of attendance. File the FAFSA as early as possible in the academic year — it determines eligibility for all major federal need-based programs, and many state aid programs in North Carolina use the FAFSA as their qualifying application as well.