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Several national publications regularly publish rankings that listed Carolina prominently in categories ranging from academic quality to affordability to diversity to engagement to international presence. Recent highlights include:

1st among the 100 best U.S. public colleges and universities that offer the best combination of top-flight academics and affordable costs as ranked by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. 1st for seven consecutive times since Kiplinger’s began these periodic surveys in 1998. Kiplinger’s analysis stressed academic quality, as well as cost and financial aid offerings, and cited the success of the Carolina Covenant program, which provides a debt-free education to qualified low-income students and is a national model. Carolina’s policies protect affordability and offer an outstanding education.

5th best public university in U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 “Best Colleges” guidebook for the seventh consecutive year. 1st among public campuses for the third consecutive year. 9th overall in “Great Schools, Great Prices,” based on academic quality and the net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid.  Kenan-Flagler Business School’s undergraduate business degree program 5^th.

One of 6 public universities ranking in the top 25 for all nine measures used in “The Top American Research Universities,” produced in 2007 by The Center for Measuring University Performance at Arizona State University. Evaluates top research universities with at least $20 million in annual federal research funding using quantitative measures such as endowment assets, private giving, faculty awards, doctorates granted and SAT/ACT range. In the seven years of these studies, UNC is one of four universities (with Berkeley, UCLA and Michigan) in the top 25 on all nine measures.

Among 25 ‘New Ivy” campuses in the 2007 Kaplan/Newsweek “How to Get into College Guide.” Includes schools with first-rate academic programs fueling their rise in national stature. Based on admissions statistics and interviews with administrators, students, faculty and alumni. Reported Newsweek: ‘If a moviemaker needs an idyllic setting for a film about college life, Chapel Hill might just take the prize.”

A "best value" among 81 schools chosen for “America’s Best Value Colleges, 2006 Edition”  by The Princeton Review/Random House for outstanding academics, relatively low costs and generous financial aid packages. 2nd appearance in a row for UNC.

3^rd among major U.S. universities in the percentage of African-American students in the 2007 first-year class, according to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. Carolina had held the No. 1 spot for six of the previous eight years. Black students made up 11.1 percent of the entering class in 2007.

4^th among top public research universities recording the highest rate of undergraduates studying abroad in 2005-2006, according to a report published by the Institute of International Education.

4^th among large U.S. colleges and universities for the number of alumni volunteering for the Peace Corps in 2007 – up four slots from the previous year. Eighty-one undergraduate and four graduate UNC alumni are representing the United States abroad. Since the inception of the Peace Corps, 1,012 Carolina alumni have joined its ranks, making UNC the 25th largest producer of volunteers all time.

6^th largest contributor of graduating seniors to Teach for America in 2007. Thirty-seven Carolina seniors matriculated into Teach for America, the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates and professionals of all academic majors and career interests who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity.

1^st among urban and regional planning, philosophy, and Slavic languages/literatures, 2^nd for toxicology and natural resources/conservation; and 3^rd for materials sciences and engineering, linguistics and sociology, according to a 2007 report covered in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Based on a Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index developed by Academic Analytics, a company owned in part by the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Programs graded based on factors such as faculty publications and citations, awards, honors and research grants awarded. Seventeen other Carolina Ph.D. programs ranked in the top 10.

 3^rd best department of city and regional planning in the United States and Canada and 1st in the South, according to Planetizen’s 2007 Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs. Based on data submitted by schools and a mail survey of planning educators and professionals. Published in a resource guide for prospective students that lists 94 programs and ranks the top schools and field specialties

Degree programs or specialty areas from several schools and the College of Arts and Sciences appeared prominently in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report's “America's Best Graduate Schools”  issue. Highlights included:  School of Pharmacy, 2^nd for Pharm.D. program; School of Medicine, tied for 2^nd overall for primary care, 19^th for research; School of Public Health, tied for 10^th in environmental/environmental health; School of Social Work, tied for 8^th for master’s degree program; School of Government, master’s of public administration program, tied for 14^th; Kenan-Flagler Business School's master of business administration degree program, 19^th, and College of Arts and Sciences, computer science doctoral program tied for 20^th overall.

Kenan-Flagler Business School ranked 12th in BusinessWeek magazine’s list of the best undergraduate business programs. It also was ranked 2^nd on return on investment for public universities and 9^th in rigor based on how many hours students report they spend on class work each week. It received grades of A for teaching quality, A+ for facilities and services, and A for job placement, based on students’ responses

Kenan-Flagler appeared in several other best MBA program lists: The Wall Street Journal, 6^th based on a survey of corporate recruiters and tied for 7^th among “most improved schools;” BusinessWeek (17^th); The Princeton Review and Forbes.com, 1^st for fostering entrepreneurship campuswide; BusinessWeek, executive MBA program, 10^th; Financial Times, customized executive education programs 12^th in the world.

Fortune Small Business magazine ranked Carolina as one of America’s best colleges for entrepreneurs for MBA, undergraduate and double major programs.

The School of Law ranked 23^rd  in a survey of U.S. law schools by Vault Inc., a career information company, about which law schools best prepare their graduates to be successful in a firm environment. Based on surveys of nearly 400 hiring partners, hiring committee members, associate interviewers and recruiting professionals across the country.

STACK magazine ranked Tar Heel athletics No. 1 based on academics, athletic opportunity and overall performance. Carolina topped the magazine’s first-ever list of the nation’s premier academic and NCAA football, basketball and other Division I sports programs. Combining the best in athletics with the best in academia, the magazine’s “Elite 50” list was announced in 2007.

Forbes magazine concluded in 2008 that the men’s Tar Heel basketball team was the most valuable in the country. The magazine put the value of the Tar Heels at $26 million, just ahead of the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. The valuation was based on the amount of money that basketball programs contribute to their universities’ academic programs and athletic programs, their conferences and their local communities.