<p>Jeez. I forgot to give eadad credit for his post that I quoted in #15.</p>
<p>Another enthusiastic vote for taking the scholarship. To have received such an award, I have no doubt you are a talented, motivated student who will find success with either path.</p>
<p>OP: I sent you a PM. Take the scholarship.</p>
<p>The difference between the two schools may not be as great as you think, prestige-wise.</p>
<p>There is a pecking order among state universities. UNC is one of top five.</p>
<p>There is also a pecking order within the Ivy League and its non-Northeastern equivalents (e.g., Stanford, Duke). Brown is NOT at the top.</p>
<p>So what you’re comparing is a “lower Ivy” with one of the top state schools. Is the difference really that huge?</p>
<p>Your parents’ income must be fairly high, and I am wondering if you have siblings. If you are an only child, then perhaps this it is very possible for your parents to support either choice.</p>
<p>I would also ask what your area of interests might be, and if you have looked at the department courses in each school. UNC would have distribution requirements: Brown does not, a major difference that many students are drawn to at Brown.</p>
<p>My son went to Brown. I wanted him to go to our state U.'s honor program. Financial aid at Brown at that time (5 years ago) was not as good as at other Ivies. He worked as a teaching assistant, and some other jobs on campus, and also got great summer internships through the “Brown mafia.” He ended up paying at least half of his own way, just because of these opportunities at Brown.</p>
<p>The same may be available at UNC, but he was incredibly happy with his Brown experience.</p>
<p>Before he enrolled, I met with financial aid and said that we did not want to say “Yes” to him, and then have to take him out for financial reasons. At that time, I asked if it would be smarter to spend the money on grad school, and they told me not to worry about grad school, that he would get a fellowship or a stipend of some sort, and it would not be a financial burden.</p>
<p>I can’t even convey my son’s enthusiasm for Brown. He absolutely loved it.</p>
<p>Hey compmom and others if you all want a little more information I feel nervous about writing exact numbers but my mother is a physician who owns her own private clinic & my father is an engineer who heads his department and gas worked 20+ years at the company.
I have one brother age of 16 interested in engineering so we will pay for college simultaneously for two years. </p>
<p>The very last thing I am concerned about is prestige.</p>
<p>I am visiting both campuses in two weeks.</p>
<p>I appreciate your comments!</p>
<p>Someone of D1’s year received full merit from Duke and full pay to Yale. He went with Yale. In this kid’s situation, paying the tuition wasn’t a hardship and that bit more of prestige was worth the money.</p>
<p>Every family’s finance is different and priorities are also different. I would have a conversation with your parents about how they feel about paying full fare.</p>
<p>We were in a similar situation few years back (tiering wise maybe wider than OP’s case). With our family situation paying full fare wasn’t a “why not” situation, but it wasn’t going to drastically change our family life style either. We said yes to Ivy because D1 agreed to “chip” in $10,000 on her own. It was a sign to us on how much she wanted to go to her current school. We did offer her other financial incentive if she would take the full ride and she wasn’t tempted.</p>
<p>No brainer. UNC-CH!</p>
<p>You may have “choices” because of your parents strong careers. But as a Robertson grad if you work hard…you will likely be able to return to an Ivy or a comparable great institution for Grad school. We know Brown has its own special vibe and culture and that it is hard to give up a culture that seems like a great fit. Every college has its own beautiful zones and character that you won’t find elsewhere.</p>
<p>Your parents will be accountable in many (not all…but many) graduate schools for a fair share towards some graduate school educations. We were uber dumb about this. Maybe your parents can handle helping you out. We blew top dollar on Duke for undergrad (son Bleeds Blue…don’t get me wrong) and basically we can’t help now for grad school much since we also have a new son in college…who took a merit scholarship at Vandy and turned down other top admissions to schools where we were full pay. </p>
<p>He had his heart set on a college I won’t name where he was admitted that was very congruent with his personality and outlooks…but he decided to BE that college’s vibe at Vandy and to make it happen there for himself…and he has done so and found plenty of great mentors and friends.</p>
<p>Now that I see that our VA med, law and MBA programs in our public flagship consider our sons to be “not emancipated till they are 28”…the scales fell from our eyes.<br>
Granted there are many ways to do grad school sans parents! Many ways. But some paths are considered Family Joint Responsibility paths. Have your eyes open. As another poster put it…professional graduate school programs do not underwrite as much as hard core science graduate schools do. </p>
<p>The Southern culture is quite amiable in many respects…compare Chapel Hill to the great college towns of America…it has a great vibe and an extensive alum network. Robertsons will be an amazing array of background stories.
good luck on your final trips and how lovely that you have earned these choices.</p>
<p>Put me in the UNC-Robertson camp.</p>
<p>“my parents are reluctant…”</p>
<p>UNC and congrats on a wonderful, wonderful honor.</p>
<p>Our family works together as a unit with everyone making the best decision for the unit. It appears you can help your entire family unit by accepting this great honor with all of you in mind.</p>
<p>For many people $100,000 is quite a bit of money to be able to save.</p>
<p>Do not want to guilt trip you here. I am just being very honest.</p>
<p>Our son turned down Ivy and others for a full ride at PSU.PSU offered great perks that the Ivy etc did not. Is off to his phd at some very nice choices (including fellowship at Yale).</p>
<p>Okie doke I get the overall comsensus. I am just a scholarship finalist so I will keep this all in mind!</p>
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<p>This ticks me off. It is possible to make the point that there are smart kids at UNC Chapel Hill without denigrating Brown students. How would you like it if this were turned around and someone said, “The UNC kids in your major may be smart, but they are the intellectually lazy types who didn’t choose to challenge themselves academically in HS and who couldn’t pull top SATs because they preferred to party than prep.”? I’m sure a storm of protest would ensue.</p>
<p>Brown is a special school. Nevertheless, if the OP gets this scholarship, I think she should go for it. For the record.</p>
<p>My daughter was just accepted to Brown, and she did not “over practice” her SATs by any means. She actually only prepped for the math section, her weaker area. She also took five AP classes, which is the maximum allowed by her school.</p>
<p>They are both wonderful schools and the OPs decision should be based on his impressions after his upcoming visits and what works for his family finances.</p>
<p>People should try to avoid this sort of “reverse snobbism” of characterizing the public choice as somehow preferable or more honorable than the perceived elite school. It comes off as sour grapes.</p>
<p>Brown is certainly not for everyone but if you are a fit there and can afford then go. Don’t take loans to go there.</p>
<p>You’d be an idiot if you chose Brown over UNC.</p>
<p>OP, you have a lot in common with my D…minus the CC account and the finalist status for the scholarship. I mentioned this thread to my D when she mentioned the Black “Dukie” in a recent episode of “Americas Next Top Model”, or something like that. Feel free to PM .</p>
<p>OP, you would be a fool IMO to pick ANY IVY over UNC/W scholarship!</p>
<p>*People should try to avoid this sort of “reverse snobbism” of characterizing the public choice as somehow preferable or more honorable than the perceived elite school. *</p>
<p>You’re probably referring to my post. My point wasn’t suggesting that Brown students aren’t smart or that the public choice is more honorable. My point was in reference to the OP’s concern that his classmates at UNC-CH wouldn’t be as smart as the ones at Brown (I’m guessing the OP’s assumption is based on the test scores of Brown students.) </p>
<p>While your D may have only studied the math section, it’s naive to think that many ivy-hopefuls don’t take SAT prep classes, etc, in order to better their chances of acceptance to these schools that have very low acceptance rates. </p>
<p>UNC-CH has 18,000 undergrads and is a public, so of course its mid 50s range is going to be lower than Brown’s. But, that doesn’t mean that the OP isn’t going to surrounded by smart students at UNC - especially in his chosen major.</p>
<p>Consolation - I agree with your sentiment.</p>
<p>However, it is worthwhile to point out that just as there may be “dumb kids” at Chapel Hill, the same can be said for Brown.</p>
<p>Every school has its smart people, its not so smart people. </p>
<p>Students who are prone to be disillusioned with their peers - especually peers at one of the best flagship state unis in the nation - may have been equally disillusioned by their peers at Brown.</p>
<p>For example, I know a guy who went to UChicago and was totally heartbroken. </p>
<p>Brown is indeed a “special” school, but it is not THAT special. “Peer group” is played up so much, especially at private high schools or very competitive publics, that it gives people a very inaccurate fantasy in their head of what college is really like.</p>
<p>I think that is all the poster was saying. Albeit…somewhat less tastefully :P.</p>