Tell me about UNC - Chapel Hill, from an out of state perspective
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Anonymous
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Increasingly hearing about Chapel Hill in the same sentences as Ann Arbor and Berkeley and Charlottsville.
DD has put it on her list. Is Chapel Hill really in the same ballpark as the top public universities? What's life like for a student from outside of NC (or the south). Does the name/reputation have enough cachet outside of the south? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| Another lax bro Greek party school? |
Anonymous
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I looked at UNC for graduate school. It is a lovely town. The University has some very highly ranked programs. It was just ranked 30th in National Universities by US News and World Report. (For reference, Berkeley is #20, UVA is #23, and UM is #28.) They definitely consider themself to be a top school (they were kind of condescending about my alma mater, another well regarded state school when I interviewed there.)
It's virtually impossible to establish NC residency if you're an out of state student, so you will pay out of state rates the entirety of your time there. The 2 days I spent there, the Southern pace drove me nuts (not so much the University folks, but the other locals I interacted with). I'm originally from NY and the slow pace of everything (service, speaking, etc) was not for me. This is totally me being an impatient, type A kind of person though---I imagine for other personalities this is quite lovely! |
Anonymous
| UNC is on par with Michigan - just outside the top 25 and a notch below the very top publics: UVA, UCLA and Cal Berkley. Plainly the best public option for someone in NC. For someone from this area, however, UVA may be just as easy to get into and possibly less expensive (if you live in VA). |
Anonymous
| That may be true in the rankings but I think Michigan has a stronger national reputation. UNC is an excellent school, below UVA, Michigan, Berkeley but I think in the category of public schools at the next tier. It is a very strong research school so some of its reputation (like all such schools) is driven by excellent grad programs that Undergrads might only have a tangential benefit from. The one thing I think is worth exploring is what percentage of the school is from NC -- it may not matter to your child but this used to be one of the highest by state mandate (and incredibly cheap state tution). That may have changed but I think one should expect it to have a very strong NC culture, not a bad thing at all, but also not everyone's cup of tea, pun intended. |
Anonymous
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Michigan has way stronger GLOBAL reputation. It def has a stronger national rep, but it is way stronger than UNC for international reputation (a lot of this is due to power of the grad school).
I believe Michigan could actually be easier to get into than UNC for OOS because Michigan takes a higher percentage of OOS students than UNC. Berkeley might be easier to get into as well OOS than UNC due to UC push to bring in full-freight paying OOS students due to budget issues. UNC is very good school nevertheless - great journalism program. I do think due to the school's charter or something, they have to have a higher IN-state population compared to Cal, UM, and UVA. |
Anonymous
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Good thing that Michigan has that global reputation because the region it is located in is an economic basket case. Sure, Michigan will put you on the inside track for all those jobs in the Midwest, especially Detroit, but UNC is a stronger name in the south - where jobs are available.
I spend a lot of time in Asian and Europe and I don't think either school has real strong name recognition in either region, but I don't doubt that Michigan is more well known. In Asia it's mainly Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT and the top California schools Stanford, Cal, UCLA and USC. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Ok. But Michigan has a STRONG alum presence (in terms of numbers) in this area, NYC and the West Coast. To imply that UM grads are linted to Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland etc, is misleading. Sure a lot of grads end up in those places, but most end up outside the Midwest - just by looking at my Alumni Association numbers. |
Anonymous
| Totally different school than Michigan. Not good in the stem areas. Michigan has like a million nobels. Unc has Michael Jordan . They just got caught forging classes and degrees for athletes for the last 20 years. Those other schools would never fake academics like that . Other students take those classes too and got degrees . Look up any invention or large contributing creation by a Unc grad and get back to me.... I will never hear a response. Easy school. |
Anonymous
Said the Dook grad, obsv. |
Anonymous
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UNC - CH has no Engineering school and not reputed Law school. Law and Engineering are strengths of U of Michigan, U of Calif. Berkely , thus, more reputation nationally.
UNC - CH has terrific science, arts, pharmacy, medical programs ( in top 5) |
Anonymous
| For VA residents, it's not worth it. Now, if you get a scholarship (they have some nice ones like Robertson or Morehead-Cain), then yes, it's a great school in a great location. |
Anonymous
| I went to UNC OOS, I am from Virginia. Loved it 100%. I made tons of friends and got a great education. I chose it over UVA and William and Mary. |