I would appreciate your kind advice/opinion on which school I should choose to pursue my undergraduate degree in chemistry.
Currently, I’m really keen on UNC Chapel Hill for its great undergraduate college experience and not to mention its highly ranked chemistry department. However, I’m afraid that I’m missing out on the other two colleges, and that because I’m biased on UNC that I’m blocking all the other aspects of the other colleges that may be better than UNC.
I’d like to pursue undergraduate research, but I don’t have much involvement in any research projects in high school. I’m afraid that if I attend more competitive colleges like UIUC that I won’t be able to be given a chance to pursue it.
I’m also looking for a place where I get to do things outside of the classroom. I don’t want to be trapped in an institution where I’ll be stuck in my room studying because I’m struggling academically.
I would really appreciate if you could provide some insights on which college I should choose if you were in my shoes. Thank you!
UNC is about half the size of the other two institutions, but it’s a national leader in federal (esp. NIH) funding. Combining those factors, I think you’d have less competition for research at UNC.
UNC is big but it’s pretty compact in design with good a great ‘nerve center’ that builds a great sense of connection.
I don’t know the other campuses at all so I can’t comment.
If cost is not a big difference, I’d say UNC b/c it’s smaller and has an edge on national brand.
Bias in the college selection process is a good thing! It is okay to like one of the schools you’ve been accepted to more than all of the others; in fact, that’s a key success metric for actually choosing one. If you like UNC the best then you should go there. It’s an excellent university and you like the social life, too.
UW and UIUC are also both great places. You really can’t go wrong going to any of them. All three will have opportunities for extra-curricular activities and a social life. Whether or not you stuck in your room kind of depends more on you than the university itself, but I don’t think you have to make that choice at any of these places.
@AlmostThere2018, UW-Madison and UIUC are much bigger in large part because they have more departments and offer more majors. For example, UNC doesn’t have an engineering school while UIUC and UW-Madison do.
If you look at College Navigator, here are the number of bachelor’s degrees given out in general chemistry by each school in a year:
UNC: 150
UIUC: 138
UW-Madison: 58
Run the numbers here: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/awardletter.phtml All of these are fine institutions. You really can choose based on price if you need to, and on weather, or distance from home, or whatever other random preference if money isn’t an issue.