<p>I'm glad my previous post could be helpful to some of you. chocoholic brought up some good questions that deserve some answers so I'll take a shot at those -- and by the way don't worry about the tone of your message. It's important to ask good questions when you are trying to make such a big decision. </p>
<p>In any case, here is my best shot at some answers:
1. Yes I am from Colorado (Boulder)
2. The only requirement of the honors program is that students must take at least two honors classes per year, which is fairly easy as a freshman, but gets a little harder in the later years. There actually aren't that many honors classes offered each semester. Just to give you an idea, the list of Fall 2005 honors classes can be found at this link: <a href="http://www.honors.unc.edu/fall.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.honors.unc.edu/fall.html</a>. Some of them are just seminar sections of classes that are usually taught as lectures. For example, last semester I had the class Environment and Society, which has ordinarily around 150 students (but does break into small recitations), and my honors section had 15 and was taught by the same professor (a great teacher by the way -- I'd recommend the class in either form). In any case, it was a great opportunity to discuss the material more in depth. Other honors classes are unique to the honors program and can be quite interesting. I'm in an honors freshman literature class this semester, and I took an honors freshman seminar on university policy last fall, both of which are great classes. </p>
<p>But overall most of your classes will not be honors. Although honors students tend to be very engaged and high achieving, the non-honors classes have also been great in my experience. Again, the take-home message I would like to send is that there isn't much of a feeling of elitism and exclusivity that differentiates honors students from others. Honors students don't walk around with big signs on them either, and it doesn't come up much in conversation in my experience. </p>
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<li><p>I don't believe that you are capped at two honors courses per semester, although you can only sign up for two during the priority registration time. Later you can add more I believe if you are interested.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, as an oos on scholarship I am not paying a whole lot to go here, so I can't really speak from experience on the value of regular oos tuition. I will say that like the guide books tell you, UNC gives a lot of bang for the buck. In my case, UNC was the only public school I applied to so the difference was particularly noticeable. I know that the decision is different for every student, but I would say that for most people, there is not a $15000 between UNC and any other private school you could possibly consider. I did get accepted to Harvard and Yale, and a lot of people back home (and on these message boards, incidentally) thought I was crazy for turning down either of those for the money. Almost a year through my Carolina experience, I have absolutely no regrets. I am challenged in all my classes, and there is a vibrant, diverse, passionate student body to complement the great academics. If you are looking at other quality state schools, I have less of a baseline to help you out with comparisons, so it will have to suffice for me to continue to tell you how much I love Carolina. Come visit if you don't believe me!</p></li>
<li><p>Good question about the mix of my friends. As far as in-state vs. oos, I have more instate friends than oos (there are many more of the former so the odds are better in general, right?). For better or for worse, people from as far away as Colorado are somewhat of a rare breed around here, so it gave me a bit of leverage when trying to find friends during the first weeks of school, so lots of in-staters took pity on me and became my friend. I will say that most of my friends are either scholars or in the honors program, but that isn't because we self-segregate at all. It just so happens that these two programs give many opportunities to see the same people at lots of different events early in the year, so it's only natural that we would be come friends. In addition, since the honors program is relatively small, I have been in up to three classes with the same people already in my second semester here, so that will naturally make us closer. Like I said, we don't walk around with signs saying "scholar" and "honors", so most people don't know and don't care to find out. I also have met many people who aren't in either program who are wonderful and with whom I am very close. </p></li>
<li><p>I did get accepted to H and Y, incidentally, although I received no financial aid for either and the thought of going into $160,000 of debt rather repulsed me, as you might imagine. I don't think I'm missing out on too much stuff by doing my undergrad at UNC, although I can't have the satisfaction of "dropping the H-bomb" as the Harvard kids refer to telling people their alma mater. Oh well, there's always grad school, right?</p></li>
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<p>Sorry for the long-winded reply, I hope it helps. Feel free to ask any more questions, but be warned that I may continue to pontificate as I deem necessary ;) Again, best of luck to all of you as you hear your admit decisions and make those agonizing choices of which matric card to send back.</p>