North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is the No. 1 public historically Black college or university in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2027 Best Colleges rankings released this week. FOX8 reported that A&T climbed 13 places in both the public-university and national-university lists, landing at No. 116 among public universities and No. 219 nationally.
The university has said out loud where it wants to go next: a top-100 public university and a top-200 national one. This year's numbers put both within reach. Chancellor James R. Martin II framed the ranking as progress in "high-demand disciplines that are vital to our state."
Across the Triad, Winston-Salem State University tied for 11th among all HBCUs, public and private.
Why a real estate team is writing about a college ranking
Because a university on the rise changes a city in ways you can see from the sidewalk.
Campus is a large, permanent anchor on the east side of Greensboro. A&T sits along East Market Street, a short drive from downtown, and shares Gateway Research Park with UNC Greensboro. Institutions like that don't relocate. Every year they bring faculty, staff, researchers and students who need somewhere to live, and a rising national profile makes recruiting all of them easier.
Rankings follow investment, and investment follows rankings. Moving up 13 places in one year doesn't happen without new programs, new hires and new buildings. Those show up as construction, as jobs, and as more people deciding to make Greensboro home for the long haul rather than four years.
Graduates who stay are buyers. A university that keeps getting stronger keeps more of its alumni in town. Ten years on, those are the first-time buyers looking at Greensboro's east side, downtown, and the neighborhoods in between.
None of this moves a list price next month. What it does is add to the reasons Greensboro keeps showing up on people's shortlists, and the demand behind that is what holds a market steady.
