Winston-Salem State University acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

Winston-Salem State University, a public university in North Carolina, reports a 78% acceptance rate and sits in the accessible band. In practice that means it admits most qualified applicants, so a strong application is judged against an applicant pool that is already self-selected.

Use this page to see what Winston-Salem State University weighs, where it ranks among North Carolina 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 Winston-Salem State University with a 3.1 GPA and a 930 SAT?

About 94% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.1 unweighted GPA and a 930 SAT, the middle of Winston-Salem State University's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.4 GPA with a 1020 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/winston-salem-state-university.

There is no formula that guarantees a spot at Winston-Salem State University, but the applicants who get in tend to do the same four things. Here is what the numbers say each one looks like.

Winston-Salem State University admitted 6,357 of the 9,273 students who applied for fall 2023, which works out to 68.6%. 883 enrolled. Only about 14% 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. Winston-Salem State University enrolls about 4,170 undergraduates in total, 74% 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 Winston-Salem State University post SAT scores of 830 to 1020 in the middle 50%, with an average of 945. On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 15 to 20. A score above 1020 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 830 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. Winston-Salem 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.

The factors that carry the most weight at Winston-Salem State University are rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and standardized test scores. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Winston-Salem 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 Winston-Salem State University (tuition, fees, housing, food, books) is about $23,147 a year. Tuition and fees are $6,126 for NC residents and $16,782 for out-of-state students, a $10,656 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 $13,479 a year, and it ranges from $11,463 for families earning under $30,000 to $21,405 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 Winston-Salem State University students ten years after entry are $45,344 ($40,557 at the six-year mark). 47% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 77% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $25,000; 68% 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 38 North Carolina schools we track, Winston-Salem State University ranks #23 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like Duke University (6%) and Davidson College (13%) sit nearby, which makes North Carolina 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.

Applicants targeting Winston-Salem State University often weigh Eastern Kentucky University, Indiana University, and Jacksonville State University, which sit at a similar level. 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.