Can someone tell me about the vibes from either of these schools? Racial diversity, social life, ect
UNCA is smaller, the liberal arts campus of the UNC system and, from an LGBT perspective, diverse. UNCW is much more your typical large state university.
Both UNCW and UNCA have a much calmer atmosphere to them compared to some other schools in the UNC system. I base this of my expierence as a student at Wilmington and from what I’ve heard of asheville, since Ive never been there personally. Wilmington isn’t as diverse as some other schools in the state but it has been a big push recently to try to increase it. It’s funny though to say that, because I’ve met a lot of people who are very different from me in terms of race, religion, and political views but that’s just my expierence, I’m sure others haven’t had the same.
As for social life, Wilmington is very big into the beach as you’d expect. People here are extremely friendly, and there are a lot of different clubs on campus that allow you to meet so many different people. It’s not hard to become friendly with people in your classes at all, and you’ll see people you know on campus all the time since the academics are all along chancellor’s. The vibe is calm and happy, except for when mid terms and finals come around. That was probably the big reason I came here, I liked the relaxing vibe. It’s easy to remind myself that I need to relax at this school.
I don’t want to speak on behalf of UNCA since all I know is hearsay and I’ve never even toured the campus, but I know a lot of people that love it! I don’t think you could go wrong at either as long as both have the major you want.
Ditto on everything @SandyScrubs said. I also feel Wilmington is definitely better than Asheville academically. Although I’ve never been to Asheville, I’m sure the vibe is very different over there.