So I just received my acceptance for UNC after being placed on the waitlist. In all honesty, I never expected to be admitted and now I find myself in a dilemna. I LOVE Appalachian State. I firmly believe it is improving everyday and the faculty truly care about their students success. My parents think it is dumb to turn down Chapel Hill and I would have to agree. My sister is a graduate from UNC and it has opened a lot of doors for her. On the other hand, there are many cons to this situation.
PROS to transferring:
would look great in resumes
I love the traditions and school spirit unc has
one of the best business schools in the country
better nightlife
CONS to tranferring:
I would have to drop my sorority ( at app it costs about $400 a semester with at UNC it’d around $2100 a semester)
At App I am on track to graduate in three years instead of four AND I have the ability to receive my MBA in four years.
If I transfer I would lose so many credits that I would be considered a freshman instead of a junior (like my credits at App)
more expensive
not certain if I will be admitted to the business school
If anyone could give me honest input it would help. Everyone in my life seems to be biased one way or another and it would interesting to get some outside perspective!!! Thanks!
I have gone through the transfer tables unc provides and a lot of my courses will not transfer over. Additionally I came into school with 18 hrs of AP credits that are not valid at chapel hill
You love App State, it seems you have great friends in your sorority, you would lose both AP credits and credits you have already taken, you will have to apply to the business school at UNC, etc. Sounds to me that staying at App State may be best for you now, although UNC may be a more prestigious university. Unless you are so excited to go UNC and dreamed about it your whole life, App State may be best. Employers in NC and the surrounding areas know App State well, so wouldn’t think that would hurt you. If you are looking at working in someplace like New York or outside the area, the UNC prestige will take you farther. Good luck with your decision.
Yeah it totally comes down to how much you value graduating from a top 20 business school. I was in the same situation transfering from app and chose UNC, because I have no real desire to stay within North Carolina and felt like a degree from such a regional school could be limiting outside of NC, if thats not a worry than stay at App, if its a big concern to you then I would transfer.
My initial reaction was to advise you to consider staying at Appalachian State due to your accelerated standing & due to your happiness. But then I read your prior posts & realized that you were not admitted to the honors college at Appalachian State. And then I realized that the opportunities for a graduating business major from App State are quite different than for a graduating business major at UNC Keenan-Flagler.
Still stuck as your total COA for all three years at Appalachian State should be about $48,000 with $32,000 remaining for your final two years. The remaining 3 years at UNC should cost about $66,000 total. A $34,000 difference & a year longer in undergraduate school.
The extra year could be spent working and preparing for the GMAT or GRE for MBA school. Plus, you would have saved about $34,000 which could be used toward your graduate degree.
Then I reread your initial post in this thread & the answer became clear. Because you are not certain that you will be admitted to UNC’s business school, and because you want to study business, and because an undergraduate degree in business is valuable when seeking employment, I suggest that you consider staying at Appalachian State where everything is going well for you.
P.S. Also, instead of an MBA, many with undergraduate degrees in business just pursue a one year specialty masters degree in a business specialty. You will have both the time & money for such a degree if you remain at App State.
Hey congrats on your hard work - although I really truly believe you should pick UNC. UNC Chapel Hill is extremely renowned and its name goes very far in the world of academia. More doors will be open for you down the line, especially out of North Carolina. Yes, cost might be more, and you might have to reroute your social life, but a prestigious degree from UNC Chapel Hill is far superior than App State in all circumstances. Your degree will stick with you for the rest of your life. If you eventually move out of North Carolina, no one will know App State but a majority of people will take notice of your degree from UNC.
But OP has mentioned that she may be interested in earning an MBA. One’s graduate degree granting university is almost always more important than one’s undergraduate degree school.
One’s happiness & earning high grades is also quite important.
Assuming you really do want to go to UNC and the main reason is the business school, then other things come to mind. Have you taken the prereqs to the business school and do they transfer over? What are you grades in the prereqs and when would you be able to apply to the business school and if you got in, would you be able to complete the degree in 4 years? What is your overall GPA? What leadership positions do you have? What are you doing during the summer? You don’t need to answer these questions here, but they are important to get into the business school, which is very competitive. I do know one of my kid’s friends who transferred from South Carolina to UNC and wanted the business school. A combination of UNC forcing students to finish in 4 years and the competitive nature of the getting in the business school made it impossible for them to complete the prereqs to get in the business school and they ended up doing an Economics major. Would you be happy at UNC if you didn’t get in the business school, or would you wish you stayed at App? All questions you need to answer.
App State won’t hurt you in NC and the surrounding areas. About 350 people per year graduate from UNC Kenan-Flagler and probably 60-70% go to NYC or ATL or somewhere else, so there are not many UNC grads chasing the jobs in NC. Not sure what area of business you are interested in either, but for accounting, UNC doesn’t really have an undergraduate program. Those that do accounting at UNC end up in the Masters program. If you look at the Big 4 accounting firms, App State is perfectly fine and heavily recruited.
So, @fancypants2019 makes some good points that UNC is more prestigious and has a better business school, but there is a lot more to look at to see if UNC is worth it at this point. I know a lot of people from the App States, ECU’s, NC State’s, UNC Charlotte’s of the world who have done very well in the business world in NC. Good luck!
@jdogNC based on UNC’s latest employment report for undergrad, 31% stayed in NC, followed by 26% in the NE and 13% mid-atlantic…they are all over the place on the east. I agree, there are different circumstances that OP needs to do some introspection around, but I am simply talking from experience that a UNC degree is more valuable than an App State degree any day of the week. It might not be a personal best choice for OP but I am simply talking from a public perception standpoint. The world outside NC does not know App state but they know UNC and that matters.
To everyone that has commented on this thread - thank you so much for your thorough and thoughtful responses! I am still uncertain about where I will end up, but I am taking a trip up to UNC to meet this an advisor this Friday! Thank you again and I will be sure to post an update when I make my decision.