<p>stillnadine, “affordable” is the tough part! Thank you for posting the info about those social/work programs just before school starts. I think that they sound like a wonderful way to settle in! I am also going to send a PM to you.</p>
<p>I second northeastmom - thanks, stillnadine for that info - it helps to hear that others have the same concerns and it’s not just me being neurotic (which I’m not). You and I sound very alike in our thoughts.</p>
<p>Question that maybe someone here could answer:</p>
<p>Why the low graduation rate and relatively low retention rate?</p>
<p>northeastmom - are you going by the UNCA fact book on their website?</p>
<p>I probably looked up the stats some time ago on USNews, but I don’t have the exact stats in front of me. I just looked up the retention rate on the CB website and it is a couple of percentage points higher than I thought, but still not great (79%). What does their factbook say? They have not mailed anything to me yet, since son is junior and he might not be on their mailing list yet.</p>
<p>you can see the fact book online at their website - when you say CB do you mean College Board?</p>
<p>You ask a very good question. I wonder if some students use UNCA as an entry into UNC-CH, as a transfer, and that affects the retention number. </p>
<p>NEM-- we received less “stuff” from UNCA than any other school, I think, even though we took official tours during the summer and attended the fall open house. Nearly everything we’ve recieved is printed using wind-powered energy on recycled paper. It took me a while to realize that colleges that sent you lots of stuff want you to apply but not necessarily attend their school. If you want specific information from UNCA, I’d e-mail or call. The admissions people have been very nice to work with.</p>
<p>JaneAusten, yes, I did mean the Collegeboard.</p>
<p>Stillnadine, thank you. Frankly I am happy if my son does not get glossy brochures and give away gift items. All that means is that families with a child who attends will pay a lot more for all of that marketing expense. I wonder how many brochures and t-shirts are given away before a student decides to apply, and to attend. You do have a point. I am sure that there are a percentage of students who are using Asheville as a stepping stone to admission at UNC-CH. I hope that is all it is, but how does a transfer show up in the graduation rate vs. dropping or flunking out?</p>
<p>Our family took a trip to UNC Asheville for an “Admitted Students” day on April 10. We were really impressed with the school. We really couldn’t find anything to complain about at all, other than the fact that we had some rain that day.</p>
<p>The whole “vibe” of the school was the same as we got from other VERY PRICEY liberal arts schools like Sarah Lawrence, Bard, and Quinnipiac. We were also able to get a tour of three diffrerent dorms by an acquaintance, not a student tour guide. The dorms are much nicer than schools costing $50,000+ a year. The student/instructor ratio is about 15:1. Also, they don’t have TAs.</p>
<p>The school is also located in a very artsy city (Asheville) with plenty of great shops, restaurants, clubs, etc. The on-campus food was fine and there was a real selection. Asheville is located in mountainous Western NC and the surrounding areas outside of Asheville look like travel brochures. Asheville is about two hours from a major banking center (Charlotte, NC).</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a smaller (3500 or there about) liberal arts school, you owe it to yourself to seriously look at UNC Asheville. The “all-in” cost for in-state is about $15,000 a year. Out-of-state is about $20,000 a year. After seeing the campus first hand, I think one needs to seriously justify to themselves what those “designer” liberal arts schools are really offering. Is a 6:1 ratio that much better than a 15:1? Is it worth the additional $30K a year? What will that “elite” college diploma really get you?</p>
<p>Bankroll - thanks for your post and I’m so glad your visit was so positive. I totally agree with you about private LACs. UNC Asheville is like many schools we visited ie Skidmore - and I even think it’s prettier and a fraction of the cost.</p>
<p>Nice reports! It sounds like they wonderful facilities. Is anyone concerned about the retention rate and graduation rate? If anyone knows, what was the graduation for the last 2 years? I had checked it out a long time ago, but I know longer recall what it is. I do remember thinking it was kind of low.</p>
<p>The link below leads you to UNC Asheville’s “factbooks” going back a number of years. That information (retention & graduation rates) is included in those “factbooks”.</p>
<p>[UNC</a> Asheville – Institutional Research](<a href=“http://www.unca.edu/ir/factbook/]UNC”>http://www.unca.edu/ir/factbook/)</p>
<p>Is anyone here definitely going to UNC-A? If not, what other schools are you looking at?</p>
<p>I, myself, have no idea. I’m deciding between four schools (UNC-A, Guilford, Carolina, and Indiana U of PA) and they’re all perfectly even.</p>
<p>My S is going to UNCA. When you say Carolina, which school do you mean? If you mean USC or UNC-CH, those schools are very different from UNCA. They are large, research oriented universities with a big time sports focus. </p>
<p>We visited Guilford and yes, it is a lot like UNCA. I think one of the biggest differences was the location. S liked the city of Asheville and the surrounding mountains better. I liked Guilford’s Quaker approach to learning, my s not so much.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Indiana U as schools in cold, snowy places were ruled out early. Asheville gets snow but winter is much more mild there.</p>
<p>I know it’s a big decision but with enough information and thought, you’ll be able to figure out which college is right for you.</p>
<p>froggie3:</p>
<p>I have to agree with ‘stillnadine’. The schools you’ve applied to are really very different schools. </p>
<p>I don’t want to sound too “parent-like” but at this point you really should have made that one basic decision as to whether you wanted to go to a smaller liberal arts college/university or to a larger university. Make that one decision and your next choice (which one to accept) will be much easier.</p>
<p>stillnadine, Congratulations on your son’s decision!</p>
<p>I spoke with someone in admissions about the graduation rate. They told me that several factors count against them and make their figures look low. One is that they have the 3/2 engineering program so some % of kids never complete 4 years at UNC-A. Second, they seem to have quite a few part time students who take much longer to graduate.</p>
<p>Is this a big commuter campus? I was told that about 30-35% of students move off campus after freshman year and live within a mile of the school. Where is the rest of the student body? Are they commuting mostly from home?</p>
<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I am a current hs senior and have decided to attend UNCA next year. In response to a few of your worries about the low percentage of students from out of state: I am from Maryland, and prior to visiting UNCA was concerned about this as well. However, I came to realize that just because most of students at UNCA are from NC, it does not take away from diversity. In fact, out of all of the liberal arts schools that I considered (Colorado College, Whitman) which boast a high percentage of students from out of state, UNCA had the greatest diversity of types of people. In other words, it would be very hard to come up with a stereotype for the “type” of student at UNCA, whereas it would not be too difficult at these other schools. Beyond types of people, I sensed a great deal of socioeconomic diversity stemming from the low cost–something I definitely did not see at the pricy liberal arts schools. I can understand why the lack of geographic diversity would be an initial concern, but upon spending time on campus, I quickly got over it.
In response to the commuting students: The sizeable percentage of commuting students is due to 2 big things:
- Students who move off of campus after freshman year and live nearby.
- The 30% of students who attend who are “non-traditional” who commute from home.
I was at first worried about this as well, but after spending the night on campus, I noticed that there was still as much happening as on any other campus I’ve stayed overnight on. </p>
<p>In conclusion, UNCA is awesome on so many levels. I started the college process thinking I could only be happy at a $50,000 designer school with flashy advertising and state of the art facilities, but upon visiting UNCA, was completely changed. Hope I answered all of your questions!</p>
<p>clckwrk13 - thank you so much for your post. It was great to read all you wrote, particularly coming from a student rather than a parent. You seem to have seen and felt all the things that made me think Asheville was so great. It was good to hear your views on the OOS question. My d never did an overnight but you’ve confirmed what I’ve heard from other connections that the campus does not empty out in the evening or at the weekends and that’s important.</p>
<p>I know my schools are diverse. I prefer a small liberal arts environment, hence Guilford and UNC-A, but IUP has a residential honors program that will give me the small environment with all the perks of a larger school. By Carolina, I meant Chapel Hill - I don’t really love the school but I would be fine there and every time I think I about declining the offer, something always stops me. </p>
<p>I’ve visited all of them (stayed overnight at IUP and Carolina) and would be happy at any of them - that’s why the decision is so hard. Every time I think a #1 choice starts to emerge, I look at it from a different angle and change my mind. (I live in NC. IUP might actually be my #1, but it’s also much farther away than the other three and that’s certainly a factor.)</p>
<p>Congrats to stillnadine’s son and clckwrk13 for making a decision! Es muy dificil.</p>
<p>Hi everyone, I don’t have a kid at UNCA but do have S’s at two different NC state schools.
We are native NC’ers. Here is the interesting part. As someone mentioned NC is a very diverse state from one long end to the other. Thousands of transplants from other parts of the country move in every year.<br>
Ex…S1 's three roommates…one born in NY, one born in Conn…both moved here in mid. or elem. sch. Third roommate is from Chicago (family still there). Not a roomie but one of S’s best friends is a student from Iowa.
S2’s three roommates…one born in NY, one born in Fla. (both moved here in mid. sch.) and one from Maryland (family still resides there).</p>
<p>So at two different state u’s, three of four roommates are not native NC’ers.<br>
I hadn’t really thought about it until reading this thread. Thought you might be interested as far as the diversity thing goes.</p>