North Carolina

North Carolina, located in the southeastern part of the United States, was one of the original Thirteen Colonies settled by the British, originally known simply as Carolina. It is the location of the first successful powered heavier-than-air flight by the Wright brothers at Kill Devil Hills on the outer banks of the North Carolina coast in 1903.

Today, it is a fast-growing state with an increasingly diverse economy and population numbering nearly 9 million people. Historically, North Carolina has been a rural state, but over the last 30 years the state has undergone rapid urbanization.

Today the residents of North Carolina live primarily in urban and suburban areas. Major urban centers feature diverse and rapidly-growing populations fueled largely by immigrants from Latin America, India and Southeast Asia.

Industry and Business

The information and biotechnology industries have been steadily on the rise since the creation of Research Triangle Park (RTP) located between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill during the l950s. Beginning in the 1980s, Charlotte's banking industry entered a period of rapid growth, creating what is now the second largest banking center in the United States (after New York). The North Carolina Research Campus, recently introduced in Kannapolis, promises to enrich and bolster North Carolina the way the RTP changed the Raleigh-Durham region. Similarly, in downtown Winston-Salem, the Piedmont Triad Research Park is undergoing an expansion.

Things to do in North Carolina

Three distinct geographic areas - the mountains, the central piedmont and the coast - make North Carolina a popular tourist destination. Home to the highest mountain peaks east of the Mississippi, the mountains of North Carolina provide outstanding winter and summer activities as well as an amazing season of fall foliage.

Learn more about North Carolina by visiting: www.visitnc.com

The Piedmont has more golf courses than can be listed, miles of hiking and biking trails to explore, lakes with largemouth bass waiting to be hooked, minor league baseball games to take in and much more. The coastal area features quiet historical towns and the tallest dunes on the East Coast where the waves of the Atlantic and sandy beaches invite surfers, sailors, fishermen, wildlife lovers and sun worshippers alike.

Graduate Education in North Carolina

North Carolina has a rich heritage of academic excellence. Chartered in 1789, The University of North Carolina (UNC) was the first public university in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century. Today, UNC is a multi-campus university composed of 17 constituent institutions, 16 of which are public educational institutions granting baccalaureate degrees and graduate degrees. Situated throughout the state, from the mountains to the coast, UNC campuses are as diverse as its terrain and people.

Research

The wealth of educational and research opportunities available to graduate students include arts and sciences, fine and applied arts, business, music, education, engineering, library and informational sciences, agricultural sciences, health sciences, medicine (including dentistry, nursing and veterinary medicine), the law, government and public policy, natural resources, physical and mathematical sciences, and more available.