UNC-CH or UW-Madison?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Greetings all:</p>

<p>I'll be as brief as possible, and please know that I greatly appreciate any information and insight that can aid me in making a decision.</p>

<p>Background: I currently attend a small, public LAC in the Northeast which, while ranked highly and supposedly fairly selective, is simply not my cup of tea. I feel as though I am in high school again, and the student body, while overwhelmingly comprised of good, friendly people, is simply not conducive to my academic success and contentment. I also feel restricted by a distinct lack of opportunities because of the college's extremely limited budget and moderate absence of prestige (few people have heard of it, even in this area).</p>

<p>I am currently a Poli. Sci. major, but I have recently entertained the possibility of venturing into another area which very much interests me: the Nutritional and Food Sciences.</p>

<p>I applied to a few schools as a transfer student and have been accepted to Texas-Austin, Maryland-College Park, Wisconsin-Madison, and UNC-Chapel Hill. That said, I have narrowed it down to Wisconsin-Madison and UNC-Chapel Hill for several reasons, but the choice between the two institutions seems difficult because while each has its own distinct qualities, they both are similar in many ways.</p>

<p>UW-Madison: Great academics; lots of opportunities; good location; large Nutritional Sciences program and a Food Sciences program as well; many majors from which I can choose; cold weather (love it, hehe); perhaps a bit too large, though.</p>

<p>UNC-Chapel Hill: Great academics; lots of opportunities; awesome location (NC seems great); highly regarded Public Health program, but no Food Science program specifically; smaller than Wisconsin; moderate weather.</p>

<p>Being out-of-state for all of these schools, both universities are comparable in price, with UNC being slightly less expensive. And while I intend to explore my new major, I am still very much open to changing again. (It took entering college for me to become indecisive about my major and future, which is, I suppose, the case for many people.)</p>

<p>Question at hand: Which university would you attend, and for what reasons?</p>

<p>I thank you all for taking the time to read my post, and I look forward to your responses.</p>

2

<p>I would attend UW-Madison, it is very very strong in the social sciences and they have a stellar faculty. They are top ten in poli sci in the country. Further, on a personal level I would prefer Madison's cool college town vibe to the south.</p>

<p>NRC</a> Rankings in Political Science</p>

3

<p>The important question is: which do YOU like more? </p>

<p>You seem to like UNC better, using words like awesome, and describing UW as being too big. Go to UNC. It never hurts to save a bit of money while you're at it, and I think they rank higher as an overall school anyway. </p>

<p>(The major thing shouldn't be an issue..public health is similar enough to nutritional science that you'll be doing the same kind of work...and you can choose to focus on the more nutritional side if you wish.)</p>

4

<p>I appreciate the responses thus far.</p>

<p>Today I received a transfer credit evaluation from UNC, which is better than what Maryland and Texas were giving me, but I've not received my evaluation from Wisconsin yet.</p>

<p>The problem with the "which do YOU like more" line of thinking is that I really like them both a whole lot. UNC does seem to have the better overall reputation, but Wisconsin ranks highly in just about every major (in top 10 in many), reflecting its wide variety of options and opportunities. That's not to say UNC ranks absurdly lower--it does not--but I'm not sure whether or not this is reason enough to go to one institution over the other.</p>

<p>I am interested in hearing what other people may have to say on this matter, and I again thank you all for taking the time to respond.</p>

5

<p>UNC's slightly higher overall rank is based mostly on how hard it is to get into from OOS which is really not a comparable measure since UNC takes a much smaller percentage from OOS than UW. Otherwise many rankings will give an edge to UW but not enough to worry about. The overall undergrad student bodies are pretty even in quality. Actuall I was just in Chapel Hill yesterday and it's a very nice school. The town is smaller but adequate and nice enough. Maybe it could come down to football vs basketball.</p>

6

<p>^ Or powder blue and red? I mean seriously, what self-respecting football team wears powder blue?</p>

<p>When I was a transfer student at Berkeley, there was a dorm dedicated to just transfer students. This helped tremendously in meeting fellow upper-division students who were experiencing the same things I was. Plus, not having to bunk with freshmen was a plus...Perhaps you should look to see if UNC and UW have these types of programs for transfer students...if one campus does while the other doesn't, it could help sway your decision.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>