Hey, I’m having trouble deciding between UCLA and UNC. I wanna go to a good professional school after college, and I feel like UNC has a better acceptance rate to top schools, whereas UCLA’s is pretty low. But UCLA has more prestige (17% acceptance rate compared to 31%). I’m also Asian American, and I feel like this might be a problem at UNC, which is only 15% Asian (and I hear a lot about it being racially segregated). UCLA is about 16k more expensive for me (including living costs and everything else), and UNC would give me a lot more AP credit (I’ve finished most of my GE requirements at UNC). I don’t really like UNC because it is in-state for me and I feel like I’d run into people from my school a lot. Also, west coast culture is interesting to me (though I think I’d ideally like to work in the north east in the future). I’d also like to major in English or Psychology (maybe both?) and get involved in the school newspaper. I also know some pretty rad roommates at UCLA that i’d like to hang out with, and I don’t really know many people that I actually like from UNC lol. What do you think?
First,
Not sure where your getting your admission stats about UNC.
Last year UNC received 31,953 applications of which 9,510 where admitted, that puts the admissions rate a 29.7%
This years app pool went up by substantially to 35,821 application, putting UNC-Chapel Hill’s admission rate at 26.5%.
http://uncnews.unc.edu/2016/02/04/the-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill-offers-early-action-admission-to-6948/
The admission for out of state at UNC is roughly 17%. It’s one of of the most competitive schools to get into OOS.
Second,
Comparing UCLA’s admissions rate to UNC-Chapel Hill doesn’t make sense.
(1) UCLA is on the west cost and in California, the largest state in the USA.
(2) UCLA is a much much larger school (30k undergrads vs 18k undergrads at UNC)
(2) The number of elite west coast universities is substantially smaller to the number of elite universities on the east coast. Hence schools such as Stanford/UCB/UCLA/USC can enjoy a sub 17% admission rate pretty easily.
(3) Massive immigration in to California from south of the border and Asia.
UNC’s current admissions rate (26%) is very comparable to universities such UVA (29%), Emory (27%) and CMU (23%) which are all peer universities on the east coast.
UCLA is a great university and if your heart is set on it then you should go there. But deciding to go to which school based on admission rate statistics is pure silly!
UCLA, like other UC’s and prestigious universities in the West Coast, definitely has a much larger Asian population that UNC. Many Asians tend to hang out with other Asians, more so with the foreign born Asians than the American born Asians. If you live in the dorms, you’ll meet lots of people, both Asians and non Asians. Also, there is a broad range of clubs/organizations and activities you can join to meet other students. Academically, UCLA is highly regarded in the West Coast and around the US or the world.
Also, you might want to go to the University of Southern California Forum discussion. The person is trying to decide whether to attend USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley or UNC. There are some pros and cons for these schools.