The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

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.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I am a bright student who had a tough family background and very little money. it turns out that unc was perfect for me. it is probably the lowest pressure elite public school i have found (i taught at the university of virginia, so i have some perspective).

it is a great place to be a pre-med. i took a ton of math and science classes and could never figure out who was pre-med. you just did the work and if you knew it, you scored well.

my twin brother went to duke and although a great school, it was much more of a grind.
i also felt that i was the best prepared student (at least mathematically) in my ph.d. program (economics).

dont' go if you are lazy. you may get a degree but you can take crappy classes and come out with an average education.

do go if you want to learn and not have to deal with a lot of grade/social pressure.not that unlike many southern schools, frats do not loom large.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000