My son is torn between the two schools and is actually considering his bottom of his list safety school, if only because they offered him a partial scholarship, with their honors program.
Has anyone attended UNC Chapel Hill or NC State As A Computer Science Major that also looked at the other school…that can say why they may have picked one program over the other?
My friend started CS at UNC, transferred to NCSU. The program was simply better, according to him, and the advisors miles ahead, better internships, better connections in the industry. Any feedback you’ll receive is just anecdotal, not empirical. It is possible there are students who felt the opposite!
Well, there will always be people believe that everything that Carolina does is great. However, NCSU is a technical college and in that their strength lies. At the end of the day, all the top employers are looking to hire talent from NCSU and not Carolina. After all, that’s why we go to college. Amazon is a great example of that. So anyone that tell’s you that Carolina is better at Computer Science than NCSU is ill-informed.
I don’t feel as though Chapel Hill would be a poor choice…I question if it’s his best option. I know that certain sites rank Chapel Hill higher, while others rate State higher. Chapel Hill would allow for courses to be taken at Duke as well which is a plus…but there seems to be a lot more opportunities for internships & research through State, than at Chapel Hill. DS is not a fan of the additional engineering course needed at State, but does like the support that appears to be given by the advising staff for the CS department. Decisions, decisions, decisions how nice that he has the choice to choose 
He should pick the school he likes best as they are both great schools and programs. There are differences at the schools socially that might matter to some people though I’m sure there are plenty of people that would thrive at both.
@Dolemite yup, that’s how we feel & why his safety school is still in the running. The reason he’s considering his safety is for the Honors program which has a nice small community feel, with dorms, advisors, etc…
He’s waiting to see if he gets accepted into States Honors program & Villages & if he does I think he’ll choose State. Of vourse everyone invited to apply is qualified…so, flip of a coin if he gets in. If not, but gets into the Engineering Village I think he still might go with State.
Even without either option I think he might choose State, but it could turn him more towards Chapel Hill which is where he always thought he’d go. Or he could go with his Safety. Honestly at this point, I can see him throwing a dart at a list and calling it a day ok, not really snd I’m glad he’s taking the decision so seriously but I’ll be glad when this is done. This process is brutal.
NCSU has more strength and depth in many technical
disciplines, including this one.
NCSU is a top fifteen school for Silicon Valley employers (see below). Both are great schools, but different.
One of my sons did the NCSU Honors and enjoyed the experience being in the honors dorm, but eventually dropped that program to explore other non-curriculum experiences. You may also consider the Scholars village.
Scholars village will be in with honors this year. He applied for both honors & Scholars, should find out on Sunday if he gets in (fingers, toes & eyeballs crossed) :-0
Right or wrong (I don’t really believe there’s a wrong pick) my husband and I are on team State. DS wants to be team Chapel Hill, but I think he’s leaning towards State as well. He really likes the idea of being able to start as part of a community & as he’s always put academics ahead of everything else. His top choice is Honors Village at State, with Engineering Village as an acceptable 2nd choice. Otherwise he may go with his safety school, with the intention of transferring for his Masters.
DS got into Honors at NCSU! Beyond excited!! His twin will be Honors Carolina at Chapel Hill 
He’s actually visiting NCSU today- One of his friends at his High School, currently at State, offered to give them an inside tour. He’s been texting all morning, super-excited about everything. He just checked out one of the honors dorms, says they’re slightly smaller than the others he saw, but still, pretty roomy! for reference, the others we saw were GA Tech, William and Mary, and UVA.
CS is (to me at least) weird. Unlike other traditional engineering programs, such as ME/EE/CE, it is not always part of an engineering department. UNC is one of those that is stranger (as before, at least to me) still - you can get a BA in CS. So you really have to look at the course requirements, and talk to the schools, AND decide what you really want out of the degree.
So the decision is a little more than deciding on which campus you feel more like living there for 4 years.
@Essel mine was waitlisted…oh, well. The struggle to decide. continues
@ParentOf2022 - I’m partial to State, have been, ever since we visited last spring. They just seem more responsive, friendlier, more forthcoming. We were at the Admitted Students Day at State, and absolutely loved it! It was so reassuring to have directors of programs like UHP/USP, or LSFY present about their programs, answer questions patiently, take the time to respond to every student that wanted a minute. Hoping UNC will be similar, when we go on the 15th, though friends who’ve done it at UNC were underwhelmed!
What you describe has been the impression of many
others over recent years.
@Essel we went for a,UNC visit last Spring and we’re underwhelmed. Hoping admitted student day on the 15th will be better.
Please do not let student day define your decision. I heard many opinions that people were underwhelmed with admit day. That one day does not define the experience your children will get at UNC. Granted there are schools that will do it better but maybe UNC knows they don’t have to wow your child as the school experience will do it for them. Sign up for UNC stuff on social media and you will see what they do for the kids every day to keep the kids motivated while learning. Yesterday in the dining halls they had a circus theme, to late night breakfasts, to ice cream socials. Anything you can think of they do. So please just go to admitted day and see if your child can see themselves there. That is what we did and my son said he could not picture himself anywhere else.
@Nurse001 it was the computer science department information portion or lack of information that we were underwhelmed with. The school we like. Just not sure they have the better Computer Science Department.
I’m sure that Wake Forest does not have the best department, but DS is now considering them, as they have offered a huge last minute scholarship. We haven’t even visted, them. grrrrr, is it May 1st, yet? LOL
NCSU career services and career fairs are hard to top. Students from Duke and UNC come over in busse. My son is a freshman and landed a very well paying internship with P&G during his first month on campus at NCSU, thanks to the fall career fair. In the ENG 101 class, he had to write a resume, create a LinkedIN profile, work on an ‘elevator speech’ and attend the career fair. How awesome is that? required to do these things. Terrific experience. At the career fair, he walked up to the Proctor and Gamble table with his elevator speech down and started talking to the recruiter. Recruiter liked his stories about installing a subwoffer in his car and how he managed his Eagle Scout project. Said, take this online test, took the test and then about 8 tests/interviews later, they offered him the job. Eight weeks earlier, the only job experience he had was as a host at a Mexican restaurant. It was the preparation and the career fair that allowed that to happen. LOVE NCSU and can’t wait for my second son to start there this fall. Encourage your student to attend every career fair, esp as a freshman when there’s nothing on the line. Then they have a chance to understand how it all works before it really matters.
@neverindoubt that is awesome! My son is really leaning NC State. We are doing one more visit at Chapel Hill on Sunday and then he’ll need to really make a decision. Found out today that he got into the Engineering Village, so he’s excited about that. Still hopes to get off of the alternate list for honors…even if he does, he thinks he’d like to look into the option of staying in the Engineering Village first year and then honors 2nd year as living in the dorms isn’t mandatory for honors.
Is your son in CS? Does he have any tips, hints or tricks for an entering first year?
It broke my heart last year to see a good friend get accepted into NCSU and Carolina’s Computer Science programs and go to Carolina. Speaking from someone with that degree I really feel strongly that Carolina is the weaker program and not much better than a UNCC or EDU program. So my advice is don’t get bought up in the hoopla that UNC is a harder school to get in thus I have to drink of their koolaid and go there. Amazon and Apple are both #1 recruiters at NCSU for Computer Science…Raleigh is a contender to get the HQ2 and Apple is also looking at Raleigh. They ain’t be looking at Chapel Hill for technical staff.