<p>Hi,
My daughter has been looking mostly at colleges in the northeast such as Boston College and Columbia University. She wants to study English and Creative Writing with Philosophy thrown in for fun. Anyhow, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill just caught my attention for two reasons. I found some articles that rate the creative writing program top notch and the tuition is lower than some of the other colleges she has looked at. For those who have already visited this college, I would love to hear your input about it. What did you like/dislike or hear about it.</p>
<p>Furthermore, we own a second home (condo) in NC, I wonder if that can qualify for in-state tuition?</p>
<p>lia_b: The Creative Writing program at UNC-CH is really excellent, though it does not offer a major (BFA)-- only a minor, but the instructors are really good (and wonderful-- published-- writers themselves). UNC-Greensboro, part of the UNC 16-campus system, also has an amazing creative writing program which does offer its own major. UNC-G is, of course, not the flagship, nor is it nearly as selective/difficult to gain admittance (especially for an out-of-state student), but their Creative Writing Dept is top-notch-- also filled with very successful writers/instructors.</p>
<p>The second home would work for you only if you lived there consistently-- at least 6 months out of every year. I think your daughter would have to be living there, too, though. UNC-CH does offer some fine merit scholarships (which are all full-freight for OOS students), and their financial aid is also very good.</p>
<p>I should add that NCSU, located in Raleigh (also part of the 16 campus UNC system)-- while not known for their creative writing program (more known for engineering and sciences), they also have a very fine creative writing program, housed within the English Lit Dept. They definitely offer the MFA in creative writing there, but I don't think an undergraduate major-- though not 100% sure about the major. The MFA, though, means they're pretty serious about it. UNC-Wilmington also offers the MFA in creative writing, though also not sure about an undergraduate major there.</p>
<p>UNC Chapel Hill is a very popular choice for students where I live in Maryland.</p>
<p>It is also very hard to get into from out of state. A student who could get accepted at Boston College might not be able to get into UNC-CH from out of state (but a student who could get accepted at Columbia would probably have no problem).</p>
<p>Of the about 100 kids in the graduating class from my daughter's IB program last year, eight went to UNC-CH, making it the second most popular choice after our own state university. These were all highly qualified kids.</p>
<p>People really seem to love this university. Good academics and a friendly atmosphere. Also, Chapel Hill is a much nicer community than Durham, the home of nearby Duke University.</p>
<p>We just returned from a week of visiting Wake Forest,UNC,Duke,College of William and Mary and UVA.
We were not at all impressed with the students we met or interacted with at UNC and the campus was only okay looking. The admission officer seemed to care less about the audience we were in when he discovered that 80% of us were OOS people. The OOS admit rate is less than 20%. He then showed a really poorly scripted and cheesy "candid" video of 4 current students. None of them seemed very focused,articulate or inspiring. Our student tour guide barely knew where the main library was, admitted she had never been in it and couldn't calculate how many free pages of printing she was eligible for each year based on 3 or 4 cents per page. She assured us she could not ever need that much stuff printed anyway (that was really scary!) The town of Chapel Hill is quite charming but still did not seem to be as safe an area overall as the other schools.
UVA on the other hand will admit up to 1/3 OOS, the campus is absolutely gorgeous, students we met just seemd to have it more together than the ones we met at UNC. Much more poised,articulate. English department at UVA is pretty top notch and the graduate program in English is possibly top 5 in the US. Daughter was able to spend the night with a freshmen host through the Monroe society( totally student run organization). Our tour guide there was engaging,witty,offered to give us his email for him to look at college essays! The admission director spent a huge amount of time emphasizing the importance of your essay in admissions decisions. If you have a child who is a gifted writer and wants to major in English, UVA seems to be a place that appreciates good communication skills.
Wake Forest(private) also impressed us, and College of William and Mary(public,smaller than UVA) really looked good to us. We absolutely hated Duke and Durham, which is next to Chapel Hill, is a pretty rough area.
At least the entire campus at UNC is smoke free effective January, 2008. I do applaud them for doing that in a state funded by so much tobacco money! School spirit and pride is of course really high since we were there right before the NCAA tourney started. This was the biggest school we have looked at so far and it really was too big for us. UVA has a smaller campus and about 1,000 or so fewer students per class and that made it seem a better fit from a size standpoint for us.
UNC does not do the Common Application and they charge at bit more than a lot of other schools- $70 to apply. We definitely crossed UNC and Duke off our list after last week, but are happily adding the other 3 to our list.</p>
<p>hope4freeride, just a small comment on your last sentence, which may help in the college search/selection process for your D. Keep in mind that it is primarily "her" list, not yours. Assuming you'll be funding the college experience, of course you should have input into what she's considering. However, you'll save yourself some unnecessary stress if you do keep reminding yourself that it's going to be HER experience. I had to keep reminding myself that when D1 was in the throes of the college search and decision process. D2 will be a senior next year, and hopefully I'll be applying many of the things I "learned" the first time around with her sister. All of the schools you have listed thus far will be awesome for your D.</p>
<p>Although UVA admits more OOS students than UNC, our experience is that it's just as difficult (if not more difficult) to get in UVA from OOS. Our son loved both schools, but decided to apply to only one of them - and was rejected :( with very high GPA/test scores, lots of AP courses and excellent ECs. Our very competitive local high school didn't have one acceptance to UVA (but three to UNC - all Ivy-caliber kids). Wake Forest is easier to get into but VERY expensive. We loved the UNC campus - and had a good tour guide and an excellent admissions session. So I guess it varies by personal taste and the staff that is there on any particular day.</p>
<p>Hope4freeride (and I'm not sure you should count on one, at least based on the class of 2008's experience;)), our very worst admissions tour was at a school that I otherwise liked very much and that my son applied to. She was clearly new at the job.</p>
<p>I second astrophysicsmom's reminder that it's your daughter's experience. Among my S's friends who are awaiting admissions decisions right now, the most miserable and indecisive are those whose application choices were determined and/or heavily influenced by their parents. They're wiser than we think.</p>
<p>Back on topic: My S jumped into the OOS lottery at UNC this year but was not successful, even though he was an excellent candidate who fit the OOS profile pretty well. Just be aware that it's a big reach.</p>
<p>Wow, I'm feeling so experienced here as our college admissions journey comes to an end!</p>
<p>Daughter felt the same way about UNC as her father and I did and we ALL continued to laugh all week about our experience at UNC. She does not want to apply and I applaud that, as it will mean one less applicant in the huge pool of people who really like UNC. Different strokes,I say. The same goes for Duke, which was much worse for her than UNC.
Please don't lecture how it is HER experience as yes, we are paying the bills and why would I want her to go to a school that I know would be wrong for her? She has some great schools in mind that all of us like and believe would be a good fit for her, and I will continue to guide her as I see fit.</p>