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?
I don’t think UCLA is significantly more prestigious than UNC at all, lol. Acceptance rates don’t tell everything.
The Pacific Coast/California has a very high Asian population in general if that’s important to you; however, I doubt you’ll really encounter significant racism at UNC. College towns, even in the South, tend to be liberal.
You are not going to run into people you know at UNC frequently, lol. This really shouldn’t be a big factor in your decision. My high school routinely sends 150+ kids to UVA each year and it’s never an issue.
If you want to go to a professional school after, you should probably spend less on undergrad, unless money is not a problem at all for your parents. I would vote for UNC, just because not a lot of families can easily afford to cover both undergrad and grad.
Looks to me that you love everything in UCLA more, except the cost. So you (or your parents) need to evaluate whether the difference in cost worth attending UCLA or not!
Come to UCLA!
I’m trying to raise $1million/year for the UCs, which I can do if I can get 20 OOS kids to enroll. I think they give me a t-shirt 
Sure, there’s nothing special in it for you. The same large classes, impersonal atmosphere, lack of an assigned faculty advisor, etc. that you can get at any public. You’ll be paying the price of a private college that would give smaller classes and personal attention. But its UCLA!! Your pals in HS will be impressed!
Yeah, never happens at other colleges. See http://dailybruin.com/2015/06/01/submission-block-should-hold-town-hall-to-address-racism-on-campus/
I hope you and your family will help me on this fundraising campaign. Send in that SIR today!!
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!
I’d choose UNC.
Paying so much money for a large public university when you have an equally prestigious and strong university in North Carolina makes no sense. If you’re really drawn to LA, see if UNC has a “study away” program that allows you to spend a semester on another campus/at another college in the US?
The odds of your seeing a classmates are virtually nil with 18,000 undergrads on campus.
Choose a living-learning community they aren’t likely to choose (wellness floor, substance free floor, Chinese House - sorry no general “Asian” community…)
http://housing.unc.edu/residence-halls/residential-learning-program
http://housing.unc.edu/residence-life/residential-learning-programs/chinese-house.html