<p>My Daughter and I just toured UNC Chapel Hill this weekend. She is an out of state accepted student into the Honors program, which we are very happy about. She absolutely loved the school, the people and the programs offered. There was so much excellent information but we focused a lot on the school and the programs. After returning home, we realized that there are still some additional questions that can be answered by current or past students.</p>
<p>We listened to all the activities offered on campus, but what do the students do outside of the school? We toured Franklin street but realize that there has to be more.</p>
<p>To put it in perspective, my D is considering University of Chicago, Boston University and McGill in Montreal. All at cities that have a lot going on outside of the campus. She likes to ski, go to the movies, plays and concerts, eat out and have a place to shop with friends. She is not a partier and gets intimidated by large drinking parties. She want to get a job to offset her personal expenses. She is also looking that will have internship opportunities available to her. UNC actually seems to have internship abroad opportunities that sound very interesting.</p>
<p>Also, does a student need a car to get around outside of the university area? Does the school provide shuttles to nearby malls? </p>
<p>So, in a nutshell:
What do students do outside of the school?
Is a car necessary?
Is it easy to get a job as a student?
Are there local internship opportunities?</p>
<p>We know here main focus will be on campus but considering that she will be there four year, we know that there has to be more. Can you help us get an idea of Life a UNC?</p>
<p>So, in terms of what you have to do off campus, UNC may not have as much to offer as Chicago, Boston, and Montreal. However, there is plenty to do even in a relatively small area like Chapel Hill/Raleigh. The music scene in the area is unbelievable. Cat’s Cradle has concerts all the time, and the local bars have acts pretty often as well, along with open mike nights too. UNC has world class performers in Memorial Hall, along with plays. </p>
<p>The Varsity Theater reopened, and shows movies for $3, old ones like Mary Poppins and new ones like Avatar. The food on Franklin can’t be beat either. Especially with Franklin going all the way to Carborro. As far as shopping goes, the Chapel Hill buses do go to a couple of the local malls, but the best mall is in South Point, which you need a car for, or be willing to pay to go on the bus. As far as skiing goes, NC doesn’t exactly have the best skiing in the world, but you are a couple of hours away from both the beach and the mountains. There are opportunities to go rock-climbing, hiking, and kayaking through the rec center through out the year.</p>
<p>A car is definitely not necessary. I’ve been on campus for almost two years now, and have never felt the need for a car of my own. You meet people with cars, and you can become a member of zipcar, a program that lets you rent cars by the hour.</p>
<p>It is fairly easy to get a job around here if you look hard enough, along with internship opportunities. Especially study abroad. 40% of students here end up studying abroad.</p>
<p>As far as student life, I may be biased as a UNC student, but I definitely don’t feel limited by what activities I am offered here. I can completely understand where your daughter is coming from. I have not been to a party in my time here, and I feel like I’ve managed to have a pretty good social life.</p>
South Point mall occasionally, along with road trips to the mountains and the beach. But to be honest, there is not much to do outside of the Chapel Hill / Franklin street bubble. As said above, if concerts are her thing, Cat’s Cradle is down the street in Carrboro. Life at UNC will be much different than life in any of those other schools she’s looking at. Chapel Hill is THE typical college town. As much as I love UNC, if a college town is not what she’s looking for, this might not be the place to come.</p>
<p>Is a car necessary?
No, but it is nice. I’d say most people don’t have them until their later years. I don’t have mine and I’ve gotten along just fine. </p>
<p>Is it easy to get a job as a student?
As far as I know, yes. </p>
<p>Are there local internship opportunities?
I’m sure there are, but UNC also does a great job at hooking students up with internships in other parts of the country (DC, NYC, Charlotte) and abroad (South Africa, Asia).</p>
<p>Well, first I think it’s necessary to note that we don’t really NEED an environment outside of the school to have a ton of cool things happening all the time. I always say on the tours that I give that if I were to sign up to every listserv on campus I’d probably get about a thousand emails a day, at least - I truly am not exaggerating. Student groups do things on the weekends all the time. For instance, I play violin in Charanga Carolina (a salsa ensemble) and we had a performance last Friday night and will have another next Saturday. Whenever we perform the latin community always shows up and dances their hearts out. I absolutely love it. Meanwhile, my boyfriend does a lot of work with Vinyl Records, which is student run record label (with its own studio) that puts out new releases all the time and has events it hypes up or sponsors all the time on the weekends.</p>
<p>I’m big on city life (I was in Beijing last Spring and absolutely loved its pace) but Carolina has never disappointed me. The campus is always bustling but Carrboro, the town adjacent to Chapel Hill, is always such a nice escape, with coffee shops and restaurants etc etc etc. FOR INSTANCE like five minutes from writing this post I’m walking with my friend to an authentic Chinese restaurant.</p>
<p>Is a car necessary?
Nope. I’m a junior and don’t have one and don’t plan on having one next year. We have a free bus system that I make use of a lot. It’s nice to have a bike, though.</p>
<p>Is it easy to get a job as a student?
Yes. The Student Union is ALWAYS hiring, and places like the Pita Pit on Franklin will take anybody (sorry Pita Pit… it’s true). I found some temp work through our career services this summer and worked from my laptop.</p>
<p>Are there local internship opportunities?
Yes. Also easily found through career services, though I recommend to first years that they start bonding with their professors immediately and then get the hook up from them. That’s probably pretty universal to whatever school your daughter ends up attending.</p>
<p>If you or your daughter have any questions feel free to PM me! Good luck in the decision process - she has some great choices. :)</p>
<p>As the parent of a Carolina grad I have often been asked about the pros and cons of Carolina. All I can say is that the ONLY downside is that once there, they NEVER want to leave the place. He and his friends were never lacking for things to do and even when he was without a car took weekend trips to the beach or mountains with friends from Carolina.</p>
<p>We live in Dallas and it was nearly impossible to get my son to come home on breaks. He and most all of his close friends remained in CH for almost three months AFTER they graduated. He is now a second year Med student in one of the top ten cities in the US and has been back to Chapel Hill three times since graduation including a week ago when after being stuck at the ATL airport when it closed due to snow, he and four other former Tar Heels who had never met before, but all in the same boat, rented an SUV and drove through the nite from ATL to Chapel Hill arriving at 7AM the next morning due to an accident outside ATL.</p>
<p>UNC and Chapel Hill offer what might be the perfect balance of academics and social life. Without trying to sound strange, they fall in love with Carolina…in a recent conversation with my son he was telling us about talking to someone about UNC and he said it’s hard to describe how they all feel about the place…his comment was “it’s Carolina dad, what more can I say?”</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this famous quote from UNC alum Charles Kuralt but it says it all…</p>
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<p>– Charles Kuralt '55 on the occasion of UNC-CH’s bicentennial celebration in Kenan Stadium, 1993</p>
<p>wow, what great feedback. It certainly sounds that there is a lot to do and that the students that have gone there really enjoy it. We got a very positive impression during our visit. We experienced the friendliness of the students and staff and overheard intellectual conversations. We also noticed great school spirit that was not so obvious at other schools. </p>
<p>Edad, what a great quote. Thank you for sharing it and your son’s experience.</p>
<p>I was glad to read this thread as my son was also accepted into the Honors program. I have read on another site that you can be just a number at UNC. Do you have any thoughts on that? Is is easy to make friends? I got the sense it was a friendly environment, but I wondered how it works when so many upper classmen move off campus.</p>
<p>I have never felt like a number at UNC. I’m out-of-state, but that definitely does not define my experience here in any sense, other than griping that goes on when tuition and fees increase every year. The big lecture classes can be intimidating, but all the professors are welcoming in office hours, and you just have to make the effort to build that relationship with your professors outside of class.</p>
<p>As far as upperclassmen moving off campus, they usually live with their friends that they have made during their first two years here.</p>
<p>I think you certainly CAN be just a number at UNC, but you certainly needn’t be. If you prefer being anonymous–just going to class and hanging out in your room, you can do that, and you probably won’t get to know many people and won’t get much personal attention. As long as you seek out things to do–join activities, go to office hours, do social things, you won’t feel like a number at all. I’ve noticed that there are lots of smaller “networks” of people that tend to hang out together within the larger student population (e.g. the greek crowd, athletes, student government, artsy folks, etc.) and I think that makes it feel like you’re part of a smaller school within a school.</p>
<p>Also, people tend to move off campus once they already have established groups of friends. If anything, people’s social lives tend to be MORE active once they leave campus (this was the case for me, at least)</p>
<p>To further expound on what luxlibertas said, I do agree that if one really wants to be anonymous, take large classes and be a number they can do that. On the other hand, if one wants smaller classes, the ability to forge meaningful relationships with professors, do research as early as freshman year and yet have all the resources that a major research university offers one can easily do that as well.</p>
<p>I would also assume that anyone offered honors classes will also be entering with some AP credit. My S entered with 43 hours and was technically a junior by the end of freshman year although he did not declare junior status until his third year at UNC. He took Honors classes for two and a half years (it gets a little tougher to schedule them once you get deeply into your majors) and due to all the AP credit was in small classes for most of his time at UNC. Two honors classes he took first semester freshman year helped him decide on his majors. In fact he only had 3 or 4 classes in four years with over 100 students and one was a very popular elective course he chose to take. Once entrenched in his majors he had classes with as few as 8 people in them and most were 10-15 students.</p>
<p>Big lecture classes can and do happen everywhere. Freshman year my S was in a calculus class that followed the equivalent of AP BC calc and the class had 60 kids and was taught by full professor. One of his friends from HS was at Wharton taking the same class at the same time; it had close to 300 students in it and was taught by a TA. One needs to be careful about generalizing about private vs public even Ivy class sizes.</p>
<p>He moved off campus for his last two years to a duplex on Church St two block off Rosemary St and was actually closer to most classes than when he lived on south campus.</p>
<p>As others have said the friendships made the first two years actually blossom once off campus because they often end up in close proximity to one another and then meet friends of friends etc…or as in his case, with several circles of friends who lived in different neighborhoods who were defined by where they lived… i.e .“the Carrboro girls,” they had plenty of opportunities for varying social activities and weren’t locked into only one thing that “everyone” was going to do.</p>
<p>lia_b and bury</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions please feel free to PM me.</p>