It’s all relative, I suppose. With 19,000 undergrads, Carolina is larger than Syracuse but smaller than USC – and significantly smaller than some of the other top publics like UT Austin (41,000 undergrads) and Michigan, Berkeley, and UCLA (31,000 undergrads).
My main point was that it is harder to get into UNC-Chapel Hill from OOS.
UNC-CH does have a healthy grad student population, too, so the whole university is around 30K, which is a good bit bigger than the given examples of Syracuse, Tulane, or Northwestern. But it would help narrow things down if @parent1973 posted a size range beyond nothing under 5000. Is there a max @parent1973?
For myself, I see the sizes as being sort of XS, S, M, L, XL, maybe XXL. There aren’t many Ms on my personal scale (5000-10,000ish or even 12-13,000). Lots of Ls and lots of Ss. There are a few like UT Austin, Michigan, Ohio State that are XL or XXL.
I mean Chapel Hill.
I’m not looking for a debate, so I’ll just present the facts as I know them.
What you or I think of as mid-size is irrelevant. The OP set the parameters: not under 5K and similar to Tulane and Syracuse. Syracuse is the larger of the two at about 15 K undergrads, so I was thinking of anything in the range of 5-20K as being in the neighborhood they’re looking for. Last year UNC-CH had 19K undergrads. I assumed that the OP was trying to avoid monstrous Big Ten type universities. As flagships go, UNC-CH is on the smaller side.
UNC and UVA are in the same range for out of state admissions. Most recent I’ve seen is 14% for UNC and 17% for UVA. These numbers fluctuate and in any given year one can be a little harder than the other. I believe that UVA has a statutory minimum number of in-state admits, essentially creating a cap on out of state admissions, and it’s enrollment is a little lower. I’m not aware of a similar in-state minimum at UNC-CH. For these reasons, I always think of UVA as a little more of a roll of the dice. But as a practical matter they’re similar.
I’m not sure why you’re nitpicking over size and your definitions over what is XS, S, M, L, XL. The only thing that is relevant is what size campus this student feels comfortable on.
With grad students, Syracuse has about 22K, but for all practical purposes SUNY-ESF is part of the Syracuse academic community and a virtual extension of the SU campus. So, total enrollment is about 24K. When we get to that size, I frankly don’t see a big difference between 24K and 30K. But again, I don’t think it matters what I think. This student is in the best position to decide what kind of environment she’s most comfortable in.
You make a very good point that UNC-CH and UVA are hard admits OOS, but if the OP is including Northwestern as a reach and is looking to brainstorm about what else is out there in the range of Northwestern, Tulane, and Syracuse, then UNC and UVA are certainly worth including in the mix because otherwise they check all the boxes she is looking for.
There is one option in Wisconsin, and it is in Milwaukee:
Marquette U
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I put too many schools on the list above - because I missed the school spirit - I thought it was not school spirit. If you can’t get into UNC/UVA, then Miami of Ohio - which is sort of like a larger, easier to get into William & Mary can work - D1 sports, campus, not in a city.
U Del - likely too large.
Butler
Cornell
U Dayton
Lehigh and Nova.
UVM
To me, these all meet the desire.
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I think you’ve got that mixed up.
UNC-CH’s restriction on OOS students is well known and much tighter than UVA’s which I believe has a little flex in it. UNC’s is mandated by state law and allows no wiggle room. That is one reason I said I thought it might be a harder admit from OOS, although they are both very selective universities. UNC-CH only admits 18% of its student body from OOS. By state law it has to have 82% of its students be NC residents.
UVA has about 70% VA residents and 30% out of state and international last I checked. Happy to be corrected on that if it has changed recently.
Last figures I saw estimated around 13%-14%of OOS applicants were accepted at UNC-CH. I think it is a very hard admit for most out of state students.
I also don’t think it has ever been described by anyone as mid-sized, but if @parent1973’s DD is open to a larger school it might be worth throwing the ol’ hat in the ring.
Yes, you’re right. UNC-CH does have a government mandated hard cap on out of state admissions. I can’t find any such mandate by the Virginia legislature although they do have a publicly stated admissions policy to give preference in admissions to Virginia residents. As a practical matter, out of state admissions at the 2 schools are very similar.
With regard to whether it has ever been described as mid sized, who cares? You need to look past the heading of this thread and read what the original post actually said . . .”
“Looking for mid-large size . . .”
Regardless, I have no idea why you are pursuing this pedantic argument. What’s your point? That I shouldn’t have suggested UNC? Why not? The OP is brainstorming. Simply looking for suggestions of schools to add to their list of possible schools to consider. The student is free to include suggested schools on her list ot not.
I also have no idea why you have repeatedly targeted my post. Other posts have suggested schools below the specified minimum of 5000. The upper limit was left vague, yet you ignored those other posts below the minimum and decided to repeatedly argue the point about UNC being too large. Other criteria were “sports and school spirit”. A number of posts have suggested schools where sports are not a big part of the campus culture and others which are not particularly known for “school spirit”. Yet you ignored those as well.
I frankly don’t get why you’re harping on this. I told you that I wasn’t looking for a debate when I re-posted, yet you’re choosing to pursue an argument on this point. What gives?
@Bill_Marsh, not sure what you’re talking about?? I’m just trying to be factual. I live in Chapel Hill and my spouse works at UNC-CH and I’m an alum so I wanted to correct some incorrect info that was posted about it. I’m just trying to be helpful and post about the schools I know the most about.
UNC-CH and UVA (my niece attended) are both very hard admits for OOS and while they both have great school spirit I think some other schools in the region would meet the criteria listed including “good academics, but not too serious” better.
Elon and College of Charleston, that are more mid-size (in line with the given examples) and I asked for more info on the top cap on size. I think they both have pretty good school spirit. CoC is in a city, but a medium-sized city, not a huge urban center. Elon is in a very small city and has a campus that people love. She would be likely to get good merit at CoC. Elon is not too generous, but she might get some there too.
Her stats are great! I think she has a shot at UNC Chapel Hill if she wants to give it a go. It’s just definitely going to be a reach.