Poets&Quants Top Business Schools

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School

#8

Contact our general manager with any questions. Profile updated: January 23, 2024.

Contact Information

Location:
Kenan-Flagler Undergraduate Business Program
Campus Box 3490, McColl Building
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3490
Admissions Office:
919-962-3235

Tuition & Fees In-State: $93,216*

Tuition & Fees Out-of-State: $250,568*

Average Salary: $66,616

International: 10%

Minority: 17%

First generation college students: 14%

When do students declare their majors: Sophomore Year

Acceptance Rate: 9%

Average SAT: 1,400

Average ACT: 31

Average GPA: 4.45

HS Class Top Ten: 86%**

*The total cost of the degree over four years for the most recent graduating class inclusive of school fees, room, board, or living expenses.

** HS Class Top Ten is the percent of the student population that graduated high school in the top ten percent of their class.

*** Please note that these statistics are provided for the business school major only whenever possible. If a school does not track these statistics separately, then the university-wide statistics are provided.

The Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill landed at No. 8 in this year’s 2023 rankings – climbing two places from last year’s No. 10 for the Class of 2022. As for the three methodological categories, the B-School landed at No. 10 overall in Career Outcomes, No. 11 in Admissions, and No. 7 in Academic Experience.

As for internships, 94% of the Class of 2023 secured at least one business-focused internship, and 98.11% of the class landed a full-time job by the time of graduation – up slightly from last year’s 97.80% for the Class of 2022.

The B-school had a slightly more exclusive acceptance rate of 8.50% as compared to last year’s 10%, and their average SAT score was 1400 – up ten points from last year’s 1390. As for compensation, the average starting salary for the Class of 2023 was $86,443.61. 

UNC Kenan-Flagler advertises its undergraduate business degree program as a “rigorous undergraduate business education with broad career applications.” And its impressive program offerings prove that. 

Undergraduate business majors at UNC Kenan-Flagler are required to complete 10 core courses, six business electives, and five electives outside of business. Additionally, the UNC Kenan-Flagler degree offers customization based on students’ interests and desired career trajectory. Business students can choose to complete up to two “Areas of Emphasis” (AOE) as part of their major ranging from fields such as consulting, entrepreneurship, investment banking, and more.

STUDENT TEAMS ACHIEVING RESULTS (STAR)

One of the cornerstone programs at UNC Kenan-Flagler is STAR, a program that matches teams of MBA and undergraduate business students with corporate partners to solve complex business challenges. Through the experiential course, students work on diverse teams on a real-life consulting project with a company or organization to solve a business problem and improve their performance. For many students, STAR offers an opportunity to experience collaborative teamwork in coming up with a business solution. 

“My team was assigned the only non-profit in that particular year’s suite of organizations, and this was a transformative way for me to understand how to work with people of different experience levels and address the unique challenges of mission-driven organizations,” one alum told us. “This helped inform my decision to join consulting, and to do so in a large company’s government practice so that I had the best of the private sector and public sector at my fingertips.”

Another unique program to Kenan-Flagler is the GLOBE program, an integrated and immersive 18-month curriculum where students gain first-hand exposure to foreign business operations and culture. 

The GLOBE program is essentially an 18-month study abroad program at partner universities: Chinese University of Hong Kong and Copenhagen Business School.

Students study in cohorts of around 54 students on all three campuses and study business with expertise from three business school’s faculties.

GLOBAL IMMERSION EXPERIENCE

In addition to the GLOBE program, UNC Kenan-Flagler offers other opportunities for undergraduate business students to travel the world and learn about business and culture firsthand. 

For many, this experience is through a Global Immersion Elective, where students can partake in an immersion program and complete an internship in the same summer. 

The Global Immersion Elective program offers students a series of courses in Chapel Hill and intense, all-day in-country programming where students learn about the forces and factors that shape business in the region. Students visit companies and meet with business and government leaders as well as local students to learn about the region’s culture, social and political characteristics and economic development factors. 

WELL PREPARED FOR THE WORLD OF WORK

Overall, the UNC Kenan-Flagler program is right for students looking to get a solid and rigorous business education with opportunities to explore a variety of career applications and interests through programs such as STAR and GLOBE®.

As North Carolina’s public flagship institution, graduates often fuel the economy with Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham in the top post-graduation destinations (along with New York and Atlanta). UNC Kenan-Flagler offers a solid undergraduate business education from a renowned public university.

Alumni say:

“I was involved in the Undergraduate Business Symposium, one of the US’s oldest and largest student-run career events. I was on the Core Committee (planning team) from 2019-2021, first as a Programming team member, then as the Project Manager and then as the Project Management Intern. That presented lots of unique challenges. I had unparalleled advising through our Career team, gaining not only leadership/career advising but also meeting key stakeholders in the university and helping them see the value of the event. In a full-circle moment, I actually got to come back as a recruiter this year. I can scarcely put into words how much this event meant and still means to me. It was probably the most formative experience of my undergraduate career.”

“I held an internship with the Undergraduate Business School Office and worked with the career team, the study abroad office, admissions and the academic team my senior year of college. It gave me irreplaceable connections with the staff that I still keep up with post graduation and let me start applying my ‘real world’ skills while still in school.”

“I was enrolled in the Consulting Skills and Frameworks Class that primarily consisted of us taking real-world problems that actual businesses would come in and seek our solutions on. The strategies, presentation skills, frameworks, and confidence in problem-solving abilities gained in this course all continue to serve me on a daily basis in my career.”

“One key experiential learning experience I engaged with was the STAR Program, which created opportunities for undergraduates and MBA students to work together on a real-life consulting project with companies and organizations over the course of the semester.”

“I was a member of the Kenan Scholars program, hosted at the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise. My cohort of peers shared the same values and interests as I did: applying business skills to complex challenges in the public and nonprofit sectors. The Kenan Scholars program gave me an outlet to truly explore what mattered most to me, through networking opportunities, seminar discussions, and even a funding internship experience abroad! I learned so much about myself during my two years.”

“I studied abroad for a semester in Pamplona, Spain through the Undergraduate Business Study Abroad Program. This was an unimaginable experience that improved my cultural understanding, Spanish language, and provided me with an experience that pushed me outside of my comfort zone, challenged me in numerous ways, and enabled me to learn from professors from across the globe.”