The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
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The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill - Comments and Student Experiences | |||||||||||||||||||
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It was the first day of tryouts, a Monday. I woke up, and went to my class at 9:30 a.m. and then to my next one at 12:30 p.m. Tryouts started at 8:00 p.m. and lasted until 10:00 p.m. As I was going through my day, I wasn't feeling anxious or nervous about the first day of tryouts, but rather excited and ecstatic to be able to show them what I could do on the court. Before going to Fetzer Gym A, I decided it would be a good idea to get some of my homework and assignments are done since I knew I was going to be up late, so I went to Davis for about three hours. I was so focused and relaxed, which is surprising since I usually stress over getting my work done. But aside from this, it was finally time to head to the gym. As I walked in I heard a speaker blasting some R&B music and saw about thirty girls in the gym, already wearing their knee pads and getting their numbers from the President of club volleyball at UNC, Cait Grubbs. After setting my stuff on the ground and putting on my shoes, sleeves, and knee pads, I looked up only to see Cait standing above me to ask ?Are you, Katie Whitesell??. I said "yes" in the calmest manner, only to be thinking in my mind ?Oh my god she not only knows my name but she's heard about me!?. She gave me my number and before walking away said ?I can't wait to see you bring your energy and show your skills?.
After the three days of tryouts and waiting had passed, I finally got the email. My stomach dropped and my heart started beating out of my chest. I have never felt so nervous when it came to volleyball until receiving this email. I called my best friend and told her to come to my dorm so we could open it together. She got to my room in the next thirty minutes and she opened the email for me. ?We are so excited to offer you a spot on Team White. You showed so much energy and outstanding skills during tryouts. We hope you will accept our offer!?. My heart dropped and that feeling of anxiousness left my body. I was so happy I couldn't sit still. I emailed back and told them I would ?gladly accept the spot? and I knew at this time that my next four years at UNC were going to be the best of my life. I not only had academics to look forward to but that feeling of building a second family and home as well. It was now the first week of October and we started to have our first practices of the season. We practice every Monday and Wednesday from 8-10 pm in Fetzer Gym A, with about 4 or 5 tournaments each semester. After about 5 weeks had gone by of practicing twice a week and I started to become good, if not best friends with every girl on my team. We each came from different backgrounds, cultures, and were even interested in different things, but it was volleyball that brought us all together and made us so close. This was my new second family and the reason that Carolina started to feel at home. Before coming to college, I was the typical nervous freshman, scared to live in a dorm on my own and branch out to make new connections in such a diverse university. By making the club volleyball team as a freshman, I have been able to go to my classes and feel so relaxed just knowing that I can still play the sport I have always loved doing. I will always love this team and the new group of girls that I have become so close to and I would encourage others at or coming to UNC to try something new or something that will bring them happiness, even if they are unsure of the outcome because I promise, this is the best decision I ever made since getting to Carolina.
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.
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