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Chartered in 1789, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the first state university in the Nation to admit students, and the only one to award degrees in the 18th century. The University has grown from two faculty members and 41 students in 1795 to 4,085 member faculty and 31,539 students, 11,796 of whom are engaged in graduate and professional studies. Now in its third century, Carolina’s offerings include 78 bachelors, 113 masters and 66 doctoral degree programs.

Today the campus is undergoing an unprecedented physical transformation made possible, in part, by North Carolinians’ overwhelming approval of the $3.1 billion bond referendum for higher education. Approved in November 2000, this was the nation’s largest higher education bond package ever passed. Carolina is listed prominently in several of the national publications that regularly publish rankings, in categories ranging from academic quality to affordability, diversity to public service, and for its national presence.

The University anchors one corner of the “Research Triangle” and benefits from a unique conglomeration of technologically sophisticated electronics, computer, and biomedical research companies and to the two other major universities in the area: Duke University and North Carolina State University.