Duke, Wake Forest, Davidson among NC’s most expensive colleges and universities

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina is home to some of the nation’s most highly ranked colleges and universities, and they have the cost to match.

The most expensive universities in the state, when considering the overall cost of attendance beyond just tuition and fees, have prices well above $70,000 a year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. And the price tag is rising.

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Take Duke University, for instance. The cost of attendance for fiscal year 2022 is almost $80,000. That’s not far below the most expensive school in the country — the University of Chicago at $84,126.

Duke’s estimated cost is up from $77,000 in 2020. But the private school in Durham, with an enrollment of 18,000, isn’t the most expensive school in the state. That title goes to Wake Forest University, where the cost of attendance is currently $79,886 — just slightly ahead of Duke.

Davidson College, about 23 miles north of Charlotte, ranked as the third most expensive school in North Carolina. Its cost of attendance is $73,200, up from $70,744 in 2020.

Check out the rest of the story and a searchable database here to see how other schools in the Charlotte area and across North Carolina compare to their counterparts nationwide.

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