<p>My son has heard from all of his schools except Emory. He has visited UNC Chapel HIll twice and was admitted OOS. He was just accepted to Northwestern but has not visited. We do not know about financial aid from Chapel Hill yet but with the money we are getting from NU, right now the cost is the same. My son is drawn to the Carolina weather over Northwestern. His area of interest is political science. He was accepted to his safeties - Delaware, Maryland and American with honors and money (expecially American - Presidential Scholarship) but he is now weighing Chapel Hill over NU. I know one is provate and one is public and that we are paying a lot more for Chapel Hill then in-state residents. One more thing - my son is not drawn to Greek life, which we heard was big at NU. Any thoughts? We do plan on visiting NU within the next couple of weeks.</p>
<p>NU greek scene is not a stereotypical one.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/480767-greek-life.html?highlight=northwestern+greek%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/480767-greek-life.html?highlight=northwestern+greek</a></p>
<p>Definitely visit both and then decide.</p>
<p>How do you reconsile the high cost of NU against UNC? My D is accepted to NU but we are not expecting any FinAid.</p>
<p>The OP is OOS and apparently NU has given them a pretty good FA package.</p>
<p>Hoping to get NU's financial statement tomorrow. Would they care that for the next four years we will also be supporting (R&B) my older daughter through med school?
Our other choice is UMD (honors program) with an $8K/yr scholarship.</p>
<p>The University of North Carolina is a terrific university and Chapel Hill is one of the great college towns in America. However, the prevailing culture is going to be very Southern. Not bad, but quite different from New Jersey. Does your son have any experience with the South? If not, NU might be a safer bet.</p>
<p>You act like the "south" is backwoods or something and that is ignorant in itself. Chapel Hill is a southern town by location but is very cultured. It is close to Raleigh and Durham has major and minor league sports close by.
CLIMATE wise, Chapel Hill is a mild winter in comparison. Travel by the most part is foot. Compared to a big city like Atlanta, Chapel Hill does not some of the good things I like but it also does not have the headache that big cities bring....no smog, no big traffic jams, no huge influx of people. The question becomes one of preference: Climate, environment, and people.....I give chapel Hill high marks on all three. We already know it has high marks as a university.</p>
<p>BTW, there are many students from maryland, nj and ny who go to carolina....and I would suggest your son getting on facebook and tracking them down. There is also a site for out of state students at ossa.unc.edu where you might can find people from your state or around there to talk to.</p>
<p>If your son wants a northern experience in the south....Emory has a lot of northern students. Big city, very small school, limited offerings from my experience....but an excellent reputation.</p>
<p>altmom,</p>
<p>Give me a break. Surely you know there is more to southern culture than the back woods. :)</p>
<p>EMM1's advice to the OP is sound. If you aren't aware of the cultural differences between the south and the north (or more accurately, between state that borders the mid-atlantic states and the true south compared to the midwest), that just shows your own world view. </p>
<p>Hint: it is much more than climate.</p>
<p>newmassdad, please expound. I'm curious. I've lived in NC now for almost 4 years (previous locales: Philly, Chicago, and Calif, after growing up in central IL). I admit that I was pretty much not sure what to expect when we moved down here (and was pleasantly surprised when my kids didn't have to carry their lunches to school in metal lunch pails, didn't have to wear bib overalls, and their teachers had ALL their teeth). </p>
<p>Although being a student at UNC-CH does offer the ability to have grits and sweet tea at every meal in the dorm, it's not nearly the "Deliverance" picture.... I'd be the first to admit that there are many parts of the Carolinas, especially away from the cities (I'm in Charlotte) that may not be a culture that someone from Manhattan may feel comfortable in, I do feel it necessarily to point out that there are a LOT of ways in which people can have very limited views. BTW, kids at UNC-CH wear flip-flops (instead of going barefoot), and they also wear North Face gear in the winter....just lighter versions than needed up North.</p>
<p>Now, excuse me while I go out and slop the hogs and make a trip to the outhouse.</p>
<p>APM,</p>
<p>You seem to equate a statement that "the south is different from the north" to be saying "the south is inferior to the north" Where the heck did this come from? who said anything about "deliverance" or "bib overalls" or lack of culture?</p>
<p>So pardon me if I just don't "get it". </p>
<p>Instead, please tell me why so few southern kids head north to college? Perhaps they don't like the culture? the weather? </p>
<p>There have been too many books, too many essays written about the differing cultures among different regions of the US for me to find it necessary to expound here.</p>
<p>I suggest, APM, that if you don't understand the differences, perhaps a trip to the public library would be in order. They do have those down south? :)</p>
<p>Oh yea, how many hogs? What kind? Hampshires?</p>
<p>As I made clear in my original post, I don't think that Southern culture is bad, less sophisticated, etc--just different (for the record, I lived in Little Rock for two years). The prevailing culture (customs, accepted modes of behavior, etc.) at Northwestern are a lot closer to that which the OP's son is used to. I think that is something to be considered.</p>
<p>I and many of my NC friends are former northerners. Really I don't see the difference between north and south. What I see in various places is the difference between large urbane cities and smaller towns---and that difference is there no matter what geographic region you are in.</p>
<p>Differences I saw readily--as posted above--sweet tea and grits (never had either until moving here) and much, much better weather.</p>
<p>I think the negative inference by some from EMM's original post was natural newmassdad. EMM said 'UNC and Chapel Hill are great, BUT it is Southern'. She qualified by saying it wasn't bad...but it is understandably hard to get past that original sentiment. </p>
<p>Regardless of intent, I would actually encourage someone toward different experiences, rather than sticking with what they know. But be forewarned, most of the oos kids my d has run into at UNC are 'Yankees'. ;) Seriously, most of her oos friends are from NJ, Wash DC, etc... </p>
<p>Regarding Greek life, UNC is remarkable in that the Greek scene does not dominate. Less than 20% of the campus goes Greek and what Greek scene there is is pretty open. My d just participated in Race for Life this weekend. Her team was made up of friends...some Greek, some not. She didn't want to pledge but that has not stopped her from making many good friends who are in sororities.</p>
<p>Btw...is it established that fewer Southern kids head North than Northern kids do South? I did not know this. We've always had quite a few of our high school students go oos to Northern or Midwestern schools. My d has had classmates go to Harvard, NYU, Northwestern, Dartmouth, West Point, Wash U, Case, Michigan, Colorado School of Mines, CU. (Also, Duke, UNC, Stanford....) In fact, MOST of the kids headed oos were headed North.</p>
<p>On the other side of ldmom's coin, I'm not sure how many Northern kids head south (and by "Northern," I mean north of Maryland). None of the kids at my school in metropolitan Boston applied anywhere south of D.C. (except for maybe one kid who applied somewhere in California). Maybe we're all just hoity-toity Yankees.</p>
<p>And not to brag, but let's face it: the South may have quite a few prestigious institutions, but not in the quantity and density of the North. I doubt that anywhere in the South could you find a place with as many acclaimed institutions as in the stretch of lands between Boston and New York.</p>
<p>Chapel Hill is hardly a bastion of the south.</p>
<p>My parents lived for six years in Lexington VA - with two universities in town (Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee) it was hardly a backwoods. And many professors and students were from other parts of the country. Nevertheless there are differences in culture. Southern hospitality is not just a phrase. Differences I have noticed: People tend to go more out of the way to make you feel welcome. Life tends to centers around churches more than in northeastern cities. You can find plenty of non-church going friends, but their tends to be more of an assumption that you are Christian and belong to a church. People tend to dress up more for special occasions. I'm sure there are other differences. None of this is written in stone. There is a range of behaviors. Big cities I think will feel less southern than the smaller towns. (And Lexington is pretty small.)</p>
<p>Thirty years ago I had a grant to photograph firehouses all across the country for a year. While there is a common Americaness that holds us all together, I was struck by the fact that the regional differences all over the country were greater than I would have expected. I spent months in various parts of the south, the north, the west, the mid-west and the northeast. I spent a lot of time with people from all walks of life including firemen, art historians, city officials, not to mention an assortment of relatives, friends of relatives and relatives of friends.</p>
<p>I agree that the south is different, but UNC is hardly the south. Its probably the most northern feeling southern school there is outside of Emory and Duke. Its liberal, diverse, with a highly influential faculty. You're not seeing tons of kids running to church on Sundays like you might in the deep south. Chapel Hill isn't Alabama or even Lexington, Va for that matter.</p>
<p>Agree zamzam...the Northeast is the mother lode of prestigious universities. BUT, you all have been at it a lot longer than the rest of the United States. After all, in the mid 1800s we were still busy booting that cross-dressing Santa Ana out of Texas. ;)</p>
<p>Btw...Rice University is another school that doesn't feel Southern or even Texan. Very diverse, but without any particular dominant geographic flavor imho.</p>
<p>graduated from Northwestern a few years ago. Northwestern was his first choice because of a specific department there. He really liked Northwestern and had a great social life. He was NOT in a fraternity -- actually was very anti-Greek. He had many friends who were not in fraternities or sororities. Evanston is a great college city.</p>