Frequently Asked Questions
North Carolina taxpayers generously support the University. In fact, our state appropriation from the legislature is 31 percent, one of the highest in the nation on a per capita basis.
But private gifts allow Carolina to offer students, faculty and staff more than just the basics. They also help make Carolina competitive with the nation's best universities -- public and private.
Scholarships are a prime example: private funds provide many more scholarships than do state funds. Private funds also are the source of many of our endowed professorships, teaching awards and special acquisition funds for the libraries. For example, last year, donors gave $7.1 million to undergraduate scholarship programs.
We are raising money to strengthen the University: student aid, the library, the staff and faculty, the curriculum, our computer and technical abilities, and our buildings.
Private gifts make a difference in the life of the University every day. Different people would point to different examples: the door opened to a Carolina education by a scholarship, the salary supplement awarded as an incentive to an exceptional professor, or the cash a Russian-speaking librarian used on the streets of Moscow to buy important books for the library after the Soviet Union collapsed. Private gifts are helping put Carolina on a strong financial foundation for its third century of service to the state and nation.
Absolutely. You can give to any school, department, program or special fund that you want. You can be confident that the University will use your gifts for designated purposes only.
Tuition levels throughout the state system are set by the state legislature. The tradition of low tuition at Carolina goes back to the state constitution, which states: "The General Assembly shall provide that the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense" (North Carolina Constitutional and Statutory Provisions with Respect to Higher Education, Institute of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1988).
In 1998, tuition and fees were about $2,200 a year for an in-state student, $11,400 for an out-of-state student. Despite low in-state tuition, one-third of all Carolina undergraduates receive need-based financial aid.
Carolina is fortunate to be an institution of world-renowned academic stature that also excels in athletics. Both academics and athletics receive generous support from donors who clearly recognize the importance of maintaining and enhancing Carolina's margin of excellence.
Of the $145 million raised in fiscal year 1999 from gifts and private grants to the University, $131.7 million -- 91 percent -- was directed to academics. Donations to athletics accounted for $13.3 million of the 1999 total.