Durham vs Chapel Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to undergrad at UNC and grad school at Duke so have lived in both places. Durham is a larger city than Chapel Hill...I think the student population is larger than the town otherwise. It was great while I was in college, but I think as an adult it would be annoying. Downtown Durham and Chapel Hill/Carrboro are absolutely walkable, but I think considering schools you will likely not be living downtown in either place.

Anyway, I like Carrboro a lot, but would not want to be commuting from Carrboro to Durham every day...just annoying traffic. Durham has changed so much lately and is a much more interesting, lively city. I would pick Durham, but think bc of schools you likely might end up in the county rather than city. Also consider Hillsboro, why not?

In terms of why is Duke rich and Durham less so, while UNC is public and Chapel Hill is wealthy. Well...Chapel Hill basically exists because of the university and dominates the town. Downtown Chapel Hill is right off campus and walkable. Meanwhile when Duke was built the university bought huge areas of land all around it, so it's more of an isolated island. Meanwhile Durham is a bigger city that existed long before Duke came on the scene. The university tends to operate like an island and is not very involved in the city around it. Also, not many people from Durham or NC n general go to Duke. But UNC is dominated by in-state students. UNC IS Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill IS UNC.

Funny. I have quite a few friends who went to Duke and stayed in Durham.

[Anonymous]

If you have kids, I would stay in the Chapel Hill school district. Downtown Durham is a fun place to hang out, but not necessarily where I would want to raise a kid.

[Anonymous]

Live in the RTP area - it's central to Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. Obviously, you have to choose which city to live in, but the choices are not downtown Durham, downtown Chapel hill, etc, unless you really want to live downtown (there are areas near RTP in Durham, for example). This area also seems to be where a lot of the develop for new housing is.

I will also plug Hillsborough as a very charming city, but I don't know anything about the schools.