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I think the “artsy” nature of UNCA has been greatly exaggerated. The town of Asheville is fairly hip and alternative (at least by southern standards), and this has rubbed off on the university. My sister attends UNCA and I am extremely familiar with Carolina, and the two have fairly similar student bodies, except UNCA is noticeably less diverse. </p>
<p>I’ve been pretty impressed with UNCA from what I’ve seen of the school. The campus is quite nice, and the core curriculum could give Chicago a run for its money in stringency. Courses tend to be small, and although I’ve heard complaints about the difficulty of getting into popular courses, professors tend to get rave reviews.</p>