Norfolk State University acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

With an acceptance rate near 88%, Norfolk State University is an accessible public university in Virginia. Because it admits most qualified applicants, admission turns on the strength of your whole profile rather than any one number.

Use this page to see what Norfolk State University weighs, where it ranks among Virginia schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1020, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

What are my chances at Norfolk State University with a 3.1 GPA and a 930 SAT?

About 98% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.1 unweighted GPA and a 930 SAT, the middle of Norfolk State University's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.4 GPA with a 1030 SAT comes out near 98%. Courses, activities, essays and the application round move the number; the free calculator includes them.

Estimates, not guarantees. Get yours with your real courses and activities. Assistants and developers can fetch this table from the free API: /api/v1/colleges/norfolk-state-university.

Here is how to get into Norfolk State University, built from what its admitted class actually looks like and what the school says it weighs.

For the fall 2023 entering class, Norfolk State University received 10,211 applications and admitted 8,931, an acceptance rate of 87.5%. 1,503 enrolled. Only about 17% of admitted students enrolled, so the school admits several students for every seat it expects to fill, which is why its acceptance rate reads higher than its selectivity feels. Norfolk State University enrolls about 5,392 undergraduates in total, 68% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 15 to 1.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS 2023 admissions and enrollment.

Admitted students at Norfolk State University post SAT scores of 823 to 1030 in the middle 50%, with an average of 927. On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 16 to 22. A score above 1030 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 823 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. Norfolk State University is test-optional: scores are considered if you submit them but not required. Send a score at or above the middle of the admitted range; otherwise apply without one and let your transcript lead.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10.

In its review, Norfolk State University leans most on rigor of secondary school record and academic GPA. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Norfolk State University's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

The full sticker price at Norfolk State University (tuition, fees, housing, food, books) is about $26,633 a year. Tuition and fees are $10,180 for VA residents and $21,682 for out-of-state students, a $11,502 gap that makes residency the single biggest lever on cost. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $15,282 a year, and it ranges from $12,804 for families earning under $30,000 to $26,175 for families earning over $110,000. 65% of undergraduates receive a federal Pell Grant.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Net price is what students receiving aid paid after grants, by family income.

Median earnings for Norfolk State University students ten years after entry are $44,666 ($33,412 at the six-year mark). 39% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 73% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $29,000; 64% of undergraduates take federal loans.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Earnings cover students who received federal aid.

Among the 28 Virginia schools we track, Norfolk State University ranks #20 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like Washington and Lee University (14%) and University of Virginia (17%) sit nearby, which makes Virginia a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list. As a public university, residency matters: in-state applicants generally see meaningfully better odds than the headline rate suggests.

Build around Norfolk State University with peers at a comparable selectivity, such as Georgia Southern University, Illinois State University, and Oakland University. Running the same profile against each one in the free calculator is the fastest way to see where you are a reach, a match, or a likely.

Acceptance rate, application counts, admitted test ranges, cost, and outcomes reflect publicly reported federal data (U.S. Department of Education: IPEDS 2023 and the College Scorecard) and each school's Common Data Set; figures are rounded and lag the current cycle by one to two years, so confirm deadlines and policies on the school's own site. The typical-admit GPA and SAT are CollegeCalcAI's modeled estimates. Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.