<p>hi im a student at NC and im probably going to go to UNC. i got into duke and UNC but UNC has a lot more advantages for me such as cheaper costs and better spirit and atmosphere.
I live only like 20-30 minutes from UNC and i was wondering if dorming is mandatory 1st year. I can save a lot of money by just driving to chapel hill every day for classes or getting rides from friends.
Thanks</p>
<p>HI unc2013</p>
<p>Why did you give up duke? I am in the same boat and am having a hard time deciding if I want to give up Duke. I am Carolina scholar at UNC and with the financial aid given by Duke I think it would be affordable. Is UNC comparable in every way - challenges, academics??</p>
<p>many reasons.
first off i want to go to Med school to do Oncology. Initially i applied to Johns hopkins for regular decision, and if i got in i was definitely going to go there. unfortunately i got waitlisted. My motivation for that school basically went down. JHU had some really unusual decisions. one of my friends got into stanford but waitlisted at jhu.
anyways, i got into Duke and UNC. both in my top 3. JHu being the 1st, and me not being sure about 2 and 3. Well, after visiting both universities i realized how much better the campus is at UNC. duke has the prestige but I dont think my brain is worth 50k*4 years for undergraduate. it probably is for graduate and med school but for now id prefer to go to a cheaper school that has basically the same biology course as Duke. Prestige is not worth an extra 200k dollars. I got around 10k each year for UNC so thats basically close to a full ride. Im also a huge tar heels fan and i kind of hate the blue devils since i moved to NC about 10 years ago so that was a big factor.
My cousin also went to UNC undergrad and said he had the best experience there. He said freshman year that the classes were big but later in sophomore and junior and senior year, he had the chance to work alongside the professors in research and make a relationship with them. He had been accepted into UNC duke and Yale, but he chose to skip the prestige bs and go with UNC. He made a great choice. Hes currently at Johns hopkins medical school. the best in the nation by far. hes currently doing neurology.
Any1 know the answer to the dorm question?</p>
<p>I don’t think dorming is mandatory, but I’m not sure. I would recommend living in a dorm though, even with the extra costs. That’s how you will make a lot of friends. Being off campus freshman year could be hard on you socially.</p>
<p>It’s not mandatory but I would reaaaaallly strongly recommend against that. Most people make some of their best friends with the people they live with.</p>