The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Date: Feb 20 2008
Major: Public Policy (This Major's Salary over time)
I feel a need to say that I am from North Carolina, Charlotte to be exact, but coming to Chapel Hell was like stepping into a different world. A world of superficiality and unadulterated racial tension. The racial tension is not outward, no, not in the South…but it comes in waves. I am African-American and the way that I am looked at (anywhere from genuine curiosity to pure contempt) to the way that I am spoken to (it seems as though a sizeable number of the White students at UNC have never dealt with African-Americans or anyone who did not look/act/think just like them…I just want to spoken to like a person and approaching me with slang and street hand gestures is NOT impressive) to the way that I am often treated (as if I, and every other African-American at this school got in solely because of race) is really getting to my head. I have never felt so disheveled in my life…so out of place. And it's not that I don't think that I can cut it…it's becoming that I don't want to. I don't want to be a part of this plastic world of sugar-coating and condescension. I literally find it impossible to get up everyday because the walk from my dorm to class is like a walk over a mile of hot coals. The distance isn't bad, the hill from South Campus isn't even that bad, but the awkward looks and the way the people always seem very careful in how they treat me…I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE.

Academics here are…I honestly don't know how to describe them. The professors here, if you ever actually get a professor, are half-decent but many of them are condescending to their students and many of them don't really seem to know what they are talking about. The TAs are even worse about talking out of the side of their necks…but they speak so definitively about the subject matter until you ask them a question and that whole facade of knowledge crumbles. The Public Policy Analysis program feels completely disjointed and the intro course, the course in which you learn to put together a true Policy Memo, is ridiculous…the professor also teaches the Capstone course for the major so (somewhat understandably) that is where most of her attention lies. She is able to tell you that your memo is wrong but she can never really tell you what's wrong with it and/or how to fix it. Several other students and myself concluded that as she stopped returning first drafts she must have just stopped reading them. But don't get me wrong about her…I feel as though she was one of the few professors that I had that actually knew what she was talking about but the lack of attention at such a critical point in the Policy Analysis major is ludicrous.

Social Life here…I almost died from laughing at the person who said that all people do here is drink and smoke weed BECAUSE ITS TRUE. The partying made my second semester here fun because the first semester all I could do was sit in my dorm and lament my college choice. But by the end of my third semester I was partying every weekend, sometimes starting Wednesday or Thursday, and I have just recently come to the conclusion that there HAS to be more to life than this.

The town…I HATE CHAPEL HILL. I think that this town really exemplifies what the University stands for. Superficial notions of progressiveness while not doing anything too extreme to disturb the rather high average income of Chapel Hill. The naming of a building after Nelson Mandela and a gathering of socialites (mostly from Chapel Hill) to drink expensive wine and eat cute little finger foods while feeling a sense of accomplishment.

In short, I want to transfer to a University where people are alive. I swear everyone here is overly concerned with grades and future career ambitions and that's fine, but take a little time out to question and live and experience. Everyone here seems so complacent, even the activists who seem like most of what they do is purely for show. AND why are so many activists wearing shemaghs when they know absolutely nothing about the history or cultural significance of them.

I understand that I can not speak for everyone hear because most of my friends LOVE it hear…but this place is just not for me.

AND I MUST NOTE THAT RACIAL DIVERSITY DOES NOT ALWAYS ENTAIL IDEOLOGICAL OR ECONOMIC DIVERSITY. It doesn't matter that there are many races present on campus when so many of them seem so eager to please the majority.

Be sure you are choosing this school, AND ANY SCHOOL FOR THAT MATTER, for the right reasons. This school is WAY OVERHYPED and the madness has got to stop.