yes, we met in undergrad, and my Med degree is from Duke as well.
@1923girls Iād also like to understand a little more about the area just outside the gated campus at Wake. I understand that some students do live off campus. I think a lot of parties happen outside those gates too and kids take Uber to get to them so there must be a neighborhood fairly close by.
@homerdog and @momtogkc The gates werenāt there when I was a student but my husband worked there for several years in the admission office and I think those are there because they ācanā put them up versus the āneedā to put them up. The surrounding area/homes around campus were usually where the frats lived and yes, had their off campus parties. There are no true frat or sorority houses on campus- instead they have sections of dorms and therefore, highly monitored. This is one of the things I loved about Wake. Both my husband and I were part of the Greek system but it didnāt define us because we didnāt live, eat, breathe that environment. Because the campus is smaller, there is no big bar scene on campus. Plenty of opportunities to be āsocialā but no outside bar patrons.
momtogkc mentioned Reynolda Village which is a very quaint area and the gardens there are spectacular. That was a normal walking path for a lot of students and several events usually took place there. Iām partial to it because thatās where we got engaged!
Itās not the school for everyone but both my husband and I loved it, have long lasting memories, friendships and solid careers from that experience. And for us, thatās what we want for our kids.
Holy cow ā way to scare people away from applying to WF. But maybe that was the intent?
I agree, just yuck.
I do wish I understood more about why Wake feels like it needs to be gated with someone on duty to let students and visitors in. I donāt know of many other campuses that have that. Regardless, I think itās a good match in many ways for D and I feel like we need to see it. She did interview so is invited for a visit but, at this point, I donāt want to fly down there to get a one hour tour and then have her not get accepted. We will just hope they allow admitted students to visit if she gets in and then visit in the spring. 
Interesting to read about how OOS high schools have fared at UNC-CH. I canāt access Naviance anymore for D17/S19ās high school which is a smallish private high school in MD. However, S19ās best friend as well as one other female classmate both got in to UNC-CH (about 110 kids in their graduating class). Both are white, upper middle class kids. S19ās friend ended up choosing Notre Dame. He didnāt like that the majority of kids are from North Carolina-he decided he wanted a school where kids came from all over. However, the girl did decide to go and loves it so far.
@momtogkc I enjoyed reading about your college road trip. Even though you were not able to have on campus tours everywhere you went, it sounds like it helped give the girls a good feel for the different campuses.
@momtogkc what a great, whirlwind road trip and thank you for the detailed recap! Did you stay in hotels? You may have already covered that but I missed it. My D21 is applying to W&M so I was grateful to read your review.
I checked Naviance and it looks like weāve had 6 apply and 1 admitted to UNC in the last three years. It is not on Dās list.
@momtogkc I would definitely consider letting WF admissions know about that guardās comment even now. I am sure the school would be quite upset that someone interfacing with prospective applicants and their families would make a remark of that nature. He may need some diversity training at the very least.
Also, I hear you about D23 not liking Nola. S21 liked Audubon Park, City Park and the Garden District, but was overwhelmed by the French Quarter (we stayed off of Bourbon Street). Tulane would not be a good match for him and he wants to be closer to home anyway, so husband and I will just vacation in Nola after D17 graduates (as we have been doing for more than 20 years anyway). We tried to talk S21 into going back up to Boston to see Northeastern since it is his first choice and he is still contemplating ED (against my better judgment), but now he is so inundated with school work that he feels he canāt take the time. He will just have to rely on the online sessions and his memory of the school four years ago. So, maybe a Pittsburgh trip in the spring, and Boston if he gets into Northeastern (still working on convincing him to take his chances and apply EA knowing he will most likely be deferred to RD, which is fine). Still not nearly as fun as your whirlwind trip!
@4kids4us
D is in public school in suburbs. it looks like UNC CH accepts 1-2 kids from her school every year and typically around 7-14 apply each year. D loves the school (we did unofficial tour last fall before covid), but is worried that she already knows 5 other kids applying just from her friend group. will see what happens. she just finished the supplemental essays last night!
@momtogkc Thanks for such a great trip recap! I wonder if we saw the same security guard when we visited WF this summer. He didnāt say anything inappropriate to us but was jokey in an odd way as he asked where we were from and turned us away. Just a strange vibe. He did tell us we could park across from the other entrance and walk on to campus to look around briefly, since there were no students or faculty there at that time. Iām glad we did, even though it was totally empty. It didnāt make S21ās list, but D23 absolutely loved it!
I wish weād spent more time walking around UNC Chapel Hill because it seems like so many people love it and we obviously missed a big part of campus. We parked by the bookstore and walked around a bit but neither kid was feeling it. According to Naviance, only 1-2 kids are accepted from our (public, Northeast) high school each year, out of 15-25 applications.
UNC Chapel Hill is one of the schools that sends lots of mail to S21, I wonder why they market so much out of state? I never heard of anyone around here applying.
Error in my post 9443, sorry: I meant 27 accepted out of 69 who applied to UNCCH (out of state).
wow just wow. I have to really wonder why the suburban Chicago high schools donāt do well with admissions at UNC-CH when other OOS high schools do!
Probably has nothing to do with being a Chicago Suburb. Our suburban NJ school has sent more kids to Princeton than to UNC-CH. What are the stats of the kids getting rejected?
High. Perfect scores. All rigor. Those kids getting into places like Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell are rejected from UNC.
Thanks for your reviews, @momtogkc ! It was especially helpful to hear about Richmond which has climbed D21ās list due to itās size (her top school is probably W&M, but she is also drawn to smaller schools for the guarantee of small class sizes). She does prefer walking off campus right into a ācute townā . . . We are planning to go down to Richmond in two weekends and will report back. D21 is still leaning towards ED, so we feel like we need to see a couple schools in person to be sure.
As far as UNC Chapel Hill, I think we are not on the list of most-favored high schools! About 20 kids apply every year, and in the past 10 years, seven kids have been accepted. Five of the seven had SATās over 1540. At least one was an outstanding athlete. All applied EA. We have better luck with UVA which takes two or three students every year.
Our HS is about 20% admit rate to UNC, but itās very rare that anyone enrolls. Duke on the other hand gets about 2 enrolls a year, and I think thatās the impact of ED.
^this is why solid data and something like Naviance is so valuable when trying to help our kids find a place.
wow, @homerdog , I am surprised. It is so different. Our UNCCH admits have great stats, lots of overlap with top kidsā¦butā¦the overall avg SAT/Gpa for the admits is definitely a notch lower than IVY/duke/vandy etc.
Gosh, @momtogkc, you have me blushing over here as a UNC alum and since itās my hometown. 
Funny thing about having such a beautiful campus and quintessential college town nearby is that when I take my kids to see other colleges they are not easily impressed!
Very hard to beat the look and feel of the UNC campus, though weāve visited a few that measure up!
The countryās oldest public university, its original 10 buildings are from late 1700s and early 1800s. The upper and lower quads are amazing, one anchored by South Hall and the other by majestic Wilson Library. Thereās a on campus arboretum, outdoor amphitheater. I could go on!
And I agree that for a big school (18k undergrad these days?) the campus is amazingly compact and walkable. This was nice as a student b/c youād run into people all the time ā just didnāt feel as big as it is, if that makes sense.
Franklin St. which is immediately adjacent has everything a student would want/need in terms of coffee shops, restaurants, even an urban Target now. A lot of nice off campus student housing within easy walk or bike ride has been developed the last 10 years.
Anyway, if itās on anyoneās list, Iām happy to answer questions!
Yup. Our top public in NJ has < 3% acceptance rate at UNC and a 5% at UVA. On the otherhand Harvard is 9%, Princeton 5%, Yale 4% and even Stanford is 12%.