StudentsReview :: The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill - Extra Detail about the Comment
-or-
Search for Schools by Region
 

or within distance of city

Similar Schools
Duke University -- Durham, NC
University of Virginia -- Charlottesville, VA
Harvard University -- Cambridge, MA


  Who's got the Best?

Perceptual Rankings:
You Make 'Em.
We Post 'Em.
You Vote 'Em Up.
You Vote 'Em Down.
Aww yeah.


The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

How this student rated the school
Alumni Survey
Describes the student body as:

Describes the faculty as:

Male
Quite Bright
Lowest Rating
Highest Rating
Date: Sep 08 2013
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
Things I wish I knew before I went:

I recommend that any serious student find some way to get into seminar level classes as soon as possible. Either AP out or take some college courses somewhere else. The difference between the upper level courses and large freshman/sophomore courses is vast. I only found the great UNC my junior and senior year. I kept on looking for aid to transfer to University of Chicago (a very serious school) my first two years. I was shocked at the lack of academic intensity. Luckily, I found it when I got into high undergraduate/ graduate classes.

It helps to know what you want to do before you start-remember, you want to get into those upper level classes as soon as possible. Smaller and more expensive private colleges might give you a better search experience if you are undecided. But you have to pay!

Unless you are sure that you are stopping at a BA or BS or you want to be a businessman in North Carolina, don't join a fraternity. Although there are some good students in frats, I found them to be very Southern and somewhat anti-intellectual. Remember, I took a lot of math, statistics, economics, and physics classes and it seemed to me that the frat guys were either not in these classes or were filling out the low end of the curve. On the other hand, the rare smart frat guys I met had impressive resumes.

My guess is that statistically, the frats don't look mediocre since so many people leave. I remember at matriculation-

look to your left, look to your right, one of you will be gone.
The frat guys are probably happier and they stay (I wrote my honors thesis on sample selection bias).

Strangely, I didn't find the same thing for sororities, so if you are a serious student and female, go for it.

I taught at the University of Virginia and in comparison I noticed three big differences: 1) the top students were slightly better at UNC while the average student at UVA was better and 2) students crammed much harder at UNC toward to the end of the semester and played more the rest of the time (this may be related to 1) and 3) UNC if far more liberal than UVA.

As an aside, if you are a good crammer either by nature or due to poor habits, you will like it here better than other places. But this also may account for the 1/3 drop-out rate.

People are more modest here. Really. It is part of the fabric. My twin brother went to Duke and it was different, especially if you were poor. The women I met did not care that I came from a broke single mom family and lived in a trailer out near Chapel Hill Airport. My brother (on scholarship) at Duke had a country mouse feeling the whole time he was at Duke.

Ask a Question or add a response!
The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Compare UNC-Chapel HillSave UNC-Chapel Hill