Choosing UNC over an Ivy??

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
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<p>Has this been done before?/Why did you choose Carolina?</p>

<p>I was admitted to both Cornell and UNC and am having a tough decision. As much as I would like to say that cost is not a factor in my decision, it is. What makes it difficult is that as a North Carolinian, I qualify for in-state tuition. On the other hand, Cornell is a fantastic school with (arguably) a much more valuable degree.</p>

<p>I'm looking for insight, especially from UNC students who passed up an Ivy (or two) to become a Carolina fan. Any suggestions?</p>

<p>Intended major: Mathematics (+econ?)</p>

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<p>It is done routinely, especially with middle class families who are not eligible for need-based grant money. I live in Chapel Hill (full of faculty kids). About half of the top grads from the local high schools go to the top privates, the other half to UNC. Schools that were turned down for UNC in my daughter’s class include Williams, Hopkins, Vassar, Stanford, Middlebury, Brown, Princeton,Chicago, Davidson, Duke, Columbia. I don’t know about the HYP, specifically. The kids that went to those schools are usually extremely wealthy or brilliant but of limited means. I don’t know of anyone who chose to go into debt for the prestige from D’s crowd. It is interesting how quickly the HPY t-shirts disappeared after decisions were made. There were initial tears from kids but everyone ended up doing well. My daughter chose not to go to UNC but that was because she elected for a liberal arts college with a healthy endowment that offered merit and need-based. Had that not been an option, she would have gone to UNC.</p>

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<p>I totally agree that the primary reason is financial and driven by the Ivy “need based” financial aid. Middleclass families typically don’t qualify and are facing 55K plus per year. If you are also anticipating future grad school expenses, you will need to save some money to be able to apply toward that. Frankly, to employers, grad school pedigree is much more critical than undergrad. </p>

<p>These issues are what did it for our family along with the fantastic environment at UNC (school spirit and athletics). BTW, have you ever been to Ithaca in the winter?? Brrrrrr!</p>

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<p>I’m going to unc over harvard and Wharton school of business at Penn… I’ve grown up a tar heel though</p>

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<p>Undoubtedly. My friends that were Moreheads turned down Yale/Caltech/Stanford/Brown etc. The upper 25th (not just scholarship students) at UNC usually has a sizable number of in-state students that are at UNC over other top privates.</p>

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<p>UNC, probably over any other state school, does a good job of keeping it’s top in-state students. Unc has it all for undergrad- ivy and other top schools will be there for grad school.</p>

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<p>Really… more so than UCLA and Berkeley?</p>

<p>OP - people do choose UNC over ivies, but it’s almost always because of money.</p>

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<p>I chose UNC over several ivies, mostly for a full scholarship. I had a good experience at UNC and have no regrets. I am in grad school and ended up getting into 2 of the top 3 programs in my field, so I really couldn’t have done any better than I did by going to one of the Ivies.</p>

<p>That said, if you’re looking for a job in a field like finance or consulting, you probably are better served going to an Ivy. But, depending on what field you are interested in, if you know you want to do grad school, it’s probably better to save the money during undergrad, as undergrad name really ends up not mattering much. </p>

<p>I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have.</p>

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<p>I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve met that turned down Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc to come to UNC. Most are in-state students, but some are out-of-staters here on scholarship. Like someone else already pointed out, they’re mostly financial reasons.</p>

<p>I myself turned Cornell and Notre Dame down in favor of coming here. UNC has a better overall atmosphere- I dare you to come here in the spring and not fall in love! School spirit- which was (is) very important to me- is unparalleled to any Ivy. Cornell also happens to have one of the highest suicide rates and it’s supposedly the hardest Ivy academic wise. I did summer session there and while it was crazy fun, it was also crazy hard. Some of my friends who ended up enrolling after say the academics continue to be ridiculous, especially the math and sciences. Obviously those are tough majors anywhere, but to me it sounds as if they’re even more difficult than the norm. A ‘C’ average, even from Cornell, won’t look good.</p>

<p>Finally, from what I hear, frats dominate a lot of the social scene. Don’t know if that is good or bad for you, but it’s worth pointing out. UNC is 15% Greek, which means it can be your entire life if you want it to, or it can mean nothing at all and it won’t hurt your social experience.</p>

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<p>So if you want to go to college to learn as much as you can, then you should choose Cornell?</p>

<p>Cornell doesn’t have a particularly high suicide rate, by the way.</p>

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<p>My bad, I meant highest suicide rate among Ivies.</p>

<p>And not necessarily. There’s a big difference between learning as much as you can and cramming a bunch of information, hoping you remember it by tomorrow’s test, then promptly forgetting it until finals. Memorizing and cramming does not equate learning. I actually despise this about some college classes- UNC ones included. I’ve had my fair share of “let’s see how much information we can shove down your throat this semester” classes and a handful of good “lets learn a lot at a fairly decent rate, but with emphasis on important things and we’ll slow down if we have to” classes. In no way were those easy, but definitely more enjoyable and flexible. In my case, the ones that stand out the most to me are African Studies and Psychology, respectively. I still remember a lot of what I learned from Psych, and I apply it almost every day. Ask me anything but basic info about Africa and I remember very little, even though I know we covered political leaders, history, culture, geography, and health. Even more interesting: I care more about African Studies than I do psychology, and I took that class most recently.</p>

<p>Obviously that is just one example, and I can’t speak for everyone but myself, but I’m just sharing what I know/think. Personally, I prefer enjoying and actually processing what I learn over stressing about it, hoping I can fit it all before next exam. Not that that doesn’t happen at every college, but I’ve been told Cornell is specially tough in that sense. It doesn’t mean it applies to all classes there either, but at the end of the day, it does have that reputation for a reason. </p>

<p>Just my two cents.</p>

<p>Also probably worth pointing out, standards for ‘tough’ in college tend to go up. No matter the school you go to, since you are (for the most part) surrounded by students that are similar to you academically speaking, ‘tough’ actually does mean tough. Not like, tough classes in high school most honors kids thought were actually pretty manageable. Heck, even at UNC, relatively ‘easy’ classes are still pretty ‘tough’. That also depends on your major, though, but it was definitely an eye opener from me. Going from the ‘this is a tough class’ and getting an A by working pretty hard, to ‘this is a tough class’ and working my butt off, harder than I ever have, to get a low B (perhaps that’s why the concept of extra extra though just makes me want to run away, ha. Been there, not fun). But yeah, just something to keep in mind.</p>