<p>Is UNC at Chapel Hill prestigious?</p>
<p>(Sorry for being shallow)</p>
<p>Is the sky Carolina blue?</p>
<p>I’m sorry for asking such a stupid question but I don’t live in the US and I’d like to have an idea of what people in the USA think of it.</p>
<p>Carolina is well regarded as one of the best public universities in the country (top 5)… and it’s consistently rated one of the best values among all universities (public and private) by every ranking system I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>Here’s the “About UNC” site with some key rankings: [Compendium</a> of Key Facts - UNC Chapel Hill News Services](<a href=“http://www.unc.edu/news/compendium.shtml#rankings]Compendium”>http://www.unc.edu/news/compendium.shtml#rankings)
And wiki, of course: [University</a> of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_North_Carolina_at_Chapel_Hill]University”>University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>UNC is not only an excellent research university, but it is also well-known for stellar academics, service and community/worldwide outreach, as well as sports, school spirit, and high turnover rate of prestigious award-winning alumni and current students.
Lots of famous grads too - Michael Jordan, Ami Vitale (search her up if you don’t know), Thomas Wolfe, Andy Griffith, Anoop Desai (!!), John & Elizabeth Edwards, James K. Polk…
The fact it is featured here on CC is indicative of its renown. It’s right on the same discussion board as Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT. Similar level of prestige, without the “that’s a really expensive school” stigma attached. [though out-of-state is a little pricey - but Carolina Covenant is very generous! And merit money is good!]</p>
<p>Well known? For its athletics, yes. Prestigious and a “top university” academically? I guess that would depend on your definition. However, please know that UNC-CH is not ranked among the US News Top 25 Universities in the country and it’s not ranked among the top 100 universities in the world. I do realize that not everyone has standards and some people can’t go to the best, so for those people, there are schools like UNC-CH…</p>
<p>(And no, I’m not being “shallow” - just stating the facts!)</p>
<p>Duke haters sippin’ on some haterade. There are plenty of discussion boards on here expressing how many UNC students turned down Duke for obvious reasons. </p>
<p>I spoke with a Brown University graduate the other day - he is currently completing a graduate degree in Chemistry at UNC and cites his biggest reason behind his choice is the fact the students are given so many research and participation opportunities that even Brown did not offer. The Marine Science department chair, a Yale graduate, also turned down job offers at Stanford, Harvard, and various places in Florida because the opportunities at UNC are much better. </p>
<p>Not US News top 25, but top 30 and only by 4 points (69 versus 73).
The rankings are based on “peer assessment, retention [of freshmen returning], faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate, and alumni giving.” It would seem the fact UNC is bound by public funding and regulations the results would be skewed - all but 3 of the “top 25” are private universities.
If you are referring to the topuniversities.com rankings for world universities - it is important to take methodology into account when looking at rankings. That particular ranking is based on surveys. That means whoever decided they had free time were the folks who filled out the forms. If you refer to the site I linked to above, plenty of other researchers have named UNC at top university on many levels. </p>
<p>And so, OP, it is your call on how you feel about UNC. I know you’ve said elsewhere you love the beach and sun - we don’t have much beach within an hour’s drive of UNC, but Chapel Hill is a gorgeous campus and city!</p>
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<p>I’d hold off on bragging on those Edwards folks if I were you…</p>
<p>DukeAlumnus2003 got it right followed by the wordy Tarheel spin from jen89.</p>
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<p>This coming from someone who recently graduated from the State University of New Jersey-Durham campus. Ivies didn’t want you? That’s all right, no need to feel bad. Ivies aren’t for everyone-just ask all of the UNC students who turned down “higher-ranked” schools for the best school in the nation-the University of National Champions.</p>
<p>^^^ totally agree!!</p>
<p>“Well known? For its athletics, yes. Prestigious and a “top university” academically? I guess that would depend on your definition. However, please know that UNC-CH is not ranked among the US News Top 25 Universities in the country and it’s not ranked among the top 100 universities in the world. I do realize that not everyone has standards and some people can’t go to the best, so for those people, there are schools like UNC-CH…”</p>
<p>Your statement is not completely factual, as your opinion composes most of it. UNC-CH is ranked #30, so I don’t understand how you could act like there’s such a large gap. It’s a great university.</p>
<p>DukeAlumnus is a perfect example of why I hate Duke so much. It has little to do with the fact that we are rivals, but it does have everything to do with how arrogant and smug a lot of their students are. The funny thing is that DA2003 probably doesn’t think there is anything wrong with his post, the smarmy condescension just comes so naturally to him.</p>
<p>I would almost understand if it was coming from someone who went to Harvard or Princeton, but come on, you went to Duke. It’s an elite school, yes but don’t try to act like you are among the best even though you got waitlisted at the real elite schools. </p>
<p>BTW… A lot of my friends turned down Duke and better schools to go to UNC, a school that apparently doesn’t have “standards”.</p>
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lol…dude u r funny as hell! but at the same time…u just proved ur noobness.</p>
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Top 100 universities…according to who? Every ranking I can find has UNC in the top 100 universities in the world…By the way, all of the world rankings I can find have UNC and Duke neck and neck, with some even putting UNC ahead of Duke.
By putting quotation marks around the words “top universities”, you are implying that UNC is very far removed from being a top university, and also very far removed from being a top 25 university according to US News and World Report. Although UNC is ranked at #30 this year, it has been ranked in the top 25 in the past, and with US News changing their methodology every year, it’s hard to really know exactly where each university is. Am I saying that UNC is hard and fast, a top 25 university? No. I am, however, refuting the data you’re using to make your claims, as one of your citations is just plain false and the other is very nebulous.</p>
<p>And implying that those that go to UNC do not have standards? Here’s a list of schools that my closest friends and I at UNC turned down: Emory, Notre Dame, Davidson, Chicago, Brown, Dartmouth, Wake Forest, and Tufts, as well as your alma mater, Duke.</p>
<p>^ Adding to that list, Yale and Williams.</p>
<p>I actually know two people from Wake Forest and Emory respectively who are transferring to Carolina this year because they realized they’d made the wrong decision…</p>
<p>add Gtown to that list:)</p>
<p>^^yeah actually one of my roommates for next year transferred from georgetown!</p>
<p>Hey guys I am going to Duke and got into UNC and I just wanted to say that DukeAlumnus2003 is not representative at all. They are both great schools.</p>
<p>In Duke’s defense against people who hate it on this thread: I also want to add that people don’t go to Duke just because they got rejected from an even more elite school. Duke is number 8 in the nation; there’s not much more room above it, and it is ranked better than HALF the ivies. Also,. the vast majority of students there aren’t pretentious at all and I really love both Duke and Carolina.</p>
<p>Anyway, Carolina is great too. Don’t bash Duke just because DukeAlumnus is a pretentious prick. Duke is one of the top 10 schools in the nation and better than half the ivies, and Carolina is one of the best and most prestigious public schools in the nation. </p>
<p>I am proud that both of them are in North Carolina. Just wanted to say something :).</p>
<p>“I do realize that not everyone has standards and some people can’t go to the best, so for those people, there are schools like UNC-CH…”</p>
<p>oh btw—not everyone has the money to afford Duke</p>
<p>and as far as standards, character is one of my standards</p>
<p>not everyone has the character to be respectful of others</p>