North Carolina State University

NC State is North Carolina's public land-grant research university in Raleigh, at the heart of the Research Triangle alongside Cisco, IBM, SAS and Lenovo, with over 38,000 students including some 5,000 international students from 129 countries. It is unusually selective for a large public university, with a reported acceptance rate near 39.5%, and is best known for engineering, computer science, design and business. Its funding position requires deliberate action and is candidly limited: 'A limited number of competitive merit-based scholarships are available to international students. Admitted students who wish to be considered for scholarship opportunities must submit an application via PackASSIST.' Consideration is not automatic, unlike at WVU or George Mason. NC State's document rules are also strict: transcripts must arrive sealed, direct from the issuing institution.