If you pursue a degree in liberal arts, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #2 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 60 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Liberal Arts Schools in North Carolina ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 15,820 degrees in liberal arts annually.
Your choice of liberal arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for liberal arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Liberal Arts Schools in North Carolina list to help you make the college decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the liberal studies degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It's hard to beat North Carolina State University if you wish to pursue a degree in liberal arts. Located in the city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #122 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means NC State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 29 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at NC State in the most recent year we have data available.
Mitchell Community College is a great decision for students interested in a degree in liberal arts. Located in the fringe town of Statesville, Mitchell Community College is a public college with a small student population. A Best Colleges rank of #325 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Mitchell Community College is a great college overall.
There were roughly 275 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at Mitchell Community College in the most recent data year.
Alamance Community College is a good option for students pursuing a degree in liberal arts. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Graham, ACC is a public college with a small student population. A Best Colleges rank of #326 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means ACC is a great college overall.
There were about 258 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at ACC in the most recent data year.
Any student pursuing a degree in liberal arts has to check out University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Located in the small city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #38 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UNC Chapel Hill is a great university overall.
There were approximately 45 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at UNC Chapel Hill in the most recent year we have data available.
Surry Community College is a small public college located in the rural area of Dobson. A Best Colleges rank of #434 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Surry Community College is a great college overall.
There were roughly 194 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at Surry Community College in the most recent year we have data available.
Wake Technical Community College is a very large public college located in the suburb of Raleigh. A Best Colleges rank of #461 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Wake Technical Community College is a great college overall.
There were approximately 1429 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at Wake Technical Community College in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Charlotte, Central Piedmont Community College is a public college with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #572 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Central Piedmont Community College is a great college overall.
There were roughly 1485 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at Central Piedmont Community College in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of Dallas, Gaston College is a public college with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #491 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Gaston College is a great college overall.
There were roughly 350 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at Gaston College in the most recent data year.
Located in the rural area of Wentworth, RCC is a public college with a small student population. This college ranks 22nd out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were about 130 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at RCC in the most recent data year.
Randolph Community College is a small public college located in the town of Asheboro. A Best Colleges rank of #530 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Randolph Community College is a great college overall.
There were roughly 204 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at Randolph Community College in the most recent data year.
Located in the large suburb of Jamestown, Guilford Technical Community College is a public college with a large student population. This college ranks 24th out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were about 615 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at Guilford Technical Community College in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Greenville, ECU is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #275 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means ECU is a great university overall.
There were about 189 liberal arts students who graduated with this degree at ECU in the most recent year we have data available.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Liberal Arts Schools in North Carolina award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of liberal arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for liberal arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
