Recently started looking at NC for college and chapel hill seems to be the most popular UNC… are the academics/atmosphere significantly different here from the other UNCs?
UNC Chapel Hill is regarded as the best public college in NC. It is well regarded among the elite privates in NC too (Duke, Davidson, Wake Forest). UNC CH is miles ahead in terms of opportunity, academics, research, you name it, than every other NC public school (with the exception of NC State; however, UNC CH is a better school than NC State).
The UNC system appears to have schools that run the full spectrum in terms of academics. Some are geared toward to high achievers others more for the average student. I suspect that at any given UNC school you will find a subset of high achieving students.
NC State is a far better school for engineering since UNC-CH does not have an engineering program except for Biomedical Engineering.