class size,etc

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
1

<p>d got accepted oos and is seriously considering UNC CHapel Hill. Among others, she also applied to UCLA (no decision yet) UC San Diego (probable admittance) and UC Irvine (Admitted).</p>

<p>How big are the classes at UNC-CH. Will she get invited to do honors, and if so, will being in Honors mean that she will have smaller classes. Are classes taught by professors , and are the professors easily accessible. With freshman class-size of 6,000 --is it too easy to be "lost in the crowd"?</p>

<p>Although UCLA is among her top choices, the major drawback of UCLA is that UCLA is even bigger that UNC-CH. The big advantage of UCLA is that tuition is less expensive since D is in state. I am partial to d attending UNC so she can experience life away from Calif. </p>

<p>Any chance she might get Instate tuition? D is also accepted to Clemson, and clemson has offered her instate tuition.</p>

2

<p>momoffour:</p>

<p>The larger classes at UNC are mostly intro courses, required for specific majors. Also, the more popular majors (top 10?) will have larger classses. Once a student gets past the required intro classes, though, they are relatively small, sometimes 30 or less, or 20 or less. Some departments have very small classes, too.</p>

<p>Some kids come in with advanced credit (testing out of certain into level courses, through AP/IB or SAT credit. A student can be tested at UNC to test out of certain subjects, too.</p>

<p>TA vs Professor: A common urban myth, especially here on CC, is that public universities have TA's teaching all the classes. This is simply not true. Professors teach all classes. Large classes (and even some small classes that are foreign language classes) will have TA's in recitations. These are PhD candidates, and this is how they learn to teach. They are often quite excellent. In foreign languages, where the classes are usually small-- especially if an unusual language-- those classes might also have recitations with TA's, and they are usually native speakers of the language, too. </p>

<p>UNC-CH has ~16,000-17,000 undergraduates; that means that the freshman class is ~4000 or so students (not 6,000). The professors are easily accessible. That's another myth on CC; most people believe that professors are only accessible at LAC's. Professors are out there, accessible, and they all have office hours. My own child new professors as a freshman, and they knew her. Some have students over to their house for dinner. Also, students probably need to be somewhat proactive in getting to know professors, too, especially in those larger classes-- but this is easily done if one goes to the trouble.</p>

<p>Honors guarantees small classes. If she is not invited in as a freshman, she can apply for honors after one or two semesters. Even if she doesn't get in, she can register for honors classes, but they're usually filled up before then by honors students. Again, though, this is a fairly open honors program, so she can apply once she has completed a semester, and her GPA is high.</p>

<p>Regarding in-state tuition: If she wins a merit or athletic scholarship, she will be considered in-state for tuition purposes, but if she wins one of those, her tuition will be covered anyway. No way she will be granted in-state residency status, unless you move here, live for at least a year, and pay taxes, etc.</p>

3

<p>By the way, from the UNC website, here are the top 10 majors (which will likely have the largest classes). Also added the list of class sizes/percentage, etc. too (overall-- not just for these majors).</p>

<p>Top ten majors (in order of descending enrollment):
Biology
Business administration
Psychology
Journalism and mass communication
Political science
Communication studies
Economics
Exercise and Sport Science
English
History</p>

<p>50% of classes have 20 or fewer students
70% of classes have fewer than 30 students</p>

4

<p>I concur with all that Janie has stated. My son spent two years at a small U.~5000 undergrads, then transferred to UNC. Most of his classes have been the large ones as he is trying to knock off all the perspectives, etc first. While he misses the class interaction/discussion that he had at previous school, there are the recitations (though prof won't be there). He also has had no trouble meeting with professors, though it takes a little more effort at a large school than a smaller one. The only classes where a prof has not presided are the recitations and labs. This semester he has more "major" classes and the sizes have been smaller.</p>

5

<p>Despite the fact that UNC is a medium sized school, BARELY 5% of our classes have over 100 people in it. I'm a first year and I've found that to be true - I had been in one class that was around 400 people (Econ 101) but I asked the professor if I could switch to his honors section with 30 people and he let me, he didn't even ask if I was actually in honors. Now all my classes are 10-30 people.</p>

<p>For English, upper level Math, and languages classes, Carolina has caps. I believe it's 18 people for Math and English and 30 for language.</p>

<p>They're also big into having recitation sections for classes over 100 people. People sometimes cringe when they hear 'teaching assistants,' but I've loved ALL of mine. Recitations are led by teaching assistants, and that's where we go over what may have been confusing in the lecture. For languages, the recitations are placed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so you'll be in your language five days a week - which is ideal when you're learning a new language. In Chinese this semester, my recitation teacher is actually the same as my regular teacher, and in Japanese I am in love with my recitation teacher. Last semester I had recitation for Econ, and it was led by two girls who had done really well in Econ 101 and were now Econ majors. I found it pretty helpful, but halfway through the semester felt like I didn't need the help and stopped going and didn't receive any penalty for that.</p>

<p>Every one of my teachers have known my name, and that's saying something. Some of my friends have had larger classes, and even they don't think it's as bad as it's cracked up to be.</p>

<p>So honors. Let's talk about that for a bit. First off, honors is extremely selective, and if your daughter didn't receive a likely letter then it may turn out that she was not invited. This at first may seem awful - but worry not! Knowing what I now know, despite the fact that I made the right choice with UNC, I had let me getting into the honors program effect my decision too much. It is a nice program, for sure, but you can still enjoy a lot of the perks while not being in it. You can get into the classes pretty easily, and apply to get into it your second semester if your GPA is high enough. So if your daughter really wants in it (and I'd say that she should try to get in for the honors events and the study abroad programs) she can definitely apply.</p>

<p>Please please VISIT campus! That'll really help you all figure things out. From what I gather, UNC is very similar to the UC schools - I think both systems benefit greatly from being public.</p>

6

<p>janieblue (edit: and cloying, and others) gave really great answers above.</p>

<p>As others have said, the large classes are mostly introductory courses in popular majors. There are several ways to get around this: AP/IB credit and honors sections come to mind, but for courses not required for a major you could just take a different course --- more advanced ones will be a lot smaller. </p>

<p>All of my classes have been taught by professors with two exceptions: my French class was taught by a non-tenure-track instructor (not a TA; for what it's worth she was extremely talented at teaching) and this semester I'm taking a class about university policy from one of the university's Vice Chancellors (who has no academic appointment but has a doctorate).</p>

<p>The honors program only has spaces for ~200 first-year students, so admission is ridiculously competitive (there are around 20,000 applications for UNC admission each year) and sometimes seemingly arbitrary - and I say this being in the program. But you are able to apply to join once you are here, and you are able to take honors classes on a space-available basis even if you're not invited to the honors program.</p>

<p>If you want some of the tight-knit feel of a liberal arts college, parts (but not all) of that can be re-created somewhat through residential learning communities, student groups, etc. You can make Carolina feel a lot smaller while still having access to all of the opportunities it gives you.</p>

<p>North Carolina is very strict about residency and it's very unlikely that your daughter would qualify.</p>

7

<p>I am willing to live in NC for one year, get my license over there, voter registration,etc; however, in order for me to do that, i need to be an independent, not a dependet for instate residency. And to become independent, one has to be 24 years old.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your answers. If D2 got a likely letter, does that mean she is probably considered for honors?</p>

<p>Other questions, how easy / hard is it to make friends OOS. Reading other posts, it appears that many students know other students from their high school. </p>

<p>What is the weather like. What is the range in temperature.</p>

<p>Is there a better dorm for D to apply to --in terms of having a good mix with being able to study and also make friends?</p>

<p>Also D doesn't drink or is not a hard partier (speaking as her mom, hopefully that won't change when she's in college, either) --is UNC CH known as a partier or frat school, esp since it is such a great sports college. I've heard a lot of great things about UNC CH, but am trying to find out even more. </p>

<p>Not sure D will be able to visit, we visited as a family 2 years ago during spring break when d1 got accepted to UNC CH, however D1 got offered a full tuition at Baylor and decided to go there instead. </p>

<p>D2 liked what she saw 2 years ago when she visited, unfortunately we didn't go on a tour or anything , just walked around by ourselves.</p>

9

<p>UNC-CH has ~17,000 undergraduates. Only ~15% are involved in the Greek scene. The school is large enough that frats don't control the social scene.
Check the archives here, and you'll find recent posts that discuss this.</p>

<p>Most freshmen go on South campus, and I do think that it's more lively on South campus than on North campus, and perhaps a bit easier for freshmen to make friends. Older students tend to be on North campus, but definitely freshmen live there as well. North campus tends to be more quiet in general, though. Recent posts discuss this as well (how easy it is for OOS to make friends--sometimes easier on South campus as a freshman, because more freshmen are housed there). </p>

<p>Most all dorms on North campus have been renovated. Not all South campus dorms have been, and some don't have air conditioning. Again, check the recent archives. This has been discussed in some detail, I think.</p>

<p>NC is a fairly large state, and only a few NC high schools send large numbers to UNC each year (At most from any one high school, in any given year, would be 100-- and only a few high schools send that many). Again, there are ~17,000 undergraduates. Students from NC don't all know each other. They are hoping to meet new people as well. NC has grown tremendously in the last decade or so; lots of non-native North Carolinians (ie, transplants) live here now, so people are really from all over-- including from other countries. From my perspective (not as a student), I just don't see being out of state as a big deal. The U.S. is a pretty mobile society, so being from another state is just not all that unusual. Again, many in-state students who attend aren't even originally from NC. Many are, but they're all just people. Very friendly, very outgoing, and happy students. </p>

<p>Weather is hot, muggy, humid in the summers; nice in the fall; never very cold in the winters--rarely gets to freezing or below-- and nice in the spring. We've been in a drought for a while, so not much rain in the last year. Biggest threats are tornado and hurricane warnings/watches, but Chapel Hill is so far inland, hurricanes aren't that much of a problem. We have become kind of a tornado alley in recent years, though I don't think Chapel Hill has ever been hit-- at least not in recent memory.</p>