UNC-Ch vs WF vs NCSU

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi Everyone, so I'm trying to decide between attending UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, or NC State for Business. The cost of all three will come out to pretty much the same amount, so finances won't be an issue with my decision. Also, I'm graduating highschool with a decent amount of college credits, so I should be able to skip a lot of those huge introductory classes at the bigger schools.</p>

<p>For UNC I've been accepted to the Honors College and to the Assured Admition Program for the Business school. I would still have to apply to the Business school in WF my sophomore year there. I'm accepted to the Business School at NC State.</p>

<p>I'm wondering what the biggest differences are between the different campuses, as well as any information you guys feel would be relevant to this decision. I'd also like to know which school you would pick and why, if you found yourself in similar circumstances. I'd be very grateful for any insights/perspective you guys can bring to the table.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>If you got accepted to Chapel Hill, I don’t know why you are looking at other colleges. Honors seals the deal. UNC is 3x better.</p>

3

<p>Wow, 3x better? Haha that’s pretty specific.</p>

<p>What makes UNC so much better, in your opinion?</p>

4

<p>We are talking about UNC and NC State. First of all, UNC no honors is 2x better than NCSU non honors. Then honors at UNC adds 1x. </p>

<p>"What makes UNC so much better, in your opinion? "</p>

<p>Look at the reputation,faculty, campus life rating, graduation rate, rankings, incoming freshman stats, everything points to UNC. NC State is viewed as a place for UNC rejects. The only place where NC State comes close to UNC is for biomedical engineering. For all other majors, UNC is definitely superior.</p>

<p>No reason AT ALL to pay more and attend wake forest if you got accepted to UNC with honors. Save the money</p>

5

<p>I’d go with UNC unless you really like Wake Forest more. (They are pretty close but the honors college and auto accept to Kenan-Flagler are hard to turn down).</p>

6

<p>I have to say that I’m leaning more towards UNC. Out of all of them NC State is my last pick, I applied there more as a safety school than a legitimate option. </p>

<p>However, I think that WF does a decent job of holding its own against UNC. I’m sort of hoping that someone might tell me something horrible about Wake or something amazing about UNC that could seal the deal.</p>

7

<p>Is there something you’re not telling us?</p>

<p>Just that UNC CH does seems the obvious choice here. </p>

<ul>
<li>It’s reputation and ranking both in undergrad and grad business are a solid 1-2 tiers above Wake (this is not a subtle difference)</li>
<li>Recruitment for grads is measurably stronger</li>
<li>Chapel Hill/the Triangle vs Winston Salem for social/internship opportunities is night/day</li>
<li>Honors College + assured admit to business at UNC vs need to apply to bus major at Wake are two major pluses for UNC</li>
<li>CH with great campus, school spirit, devoted alums, D1 sports…</li>
</ul>

<p>Having said that, Wake is a solid choice and its smaller, more intimate size might be a deciding factor for some. Still hard to argue with all the +'s in CH’s column. Agree NCSU should be behind UNC and probably Wake, but still holds strong rep in region. As far as XtremePower’s comments (are you a HS student???), “The only place where NC State comes close to UNC is for biomedical engineering” - actually, Biomed Eng is a joint program between NCSU and UNC CH, I guess that’s why they “come close.” NCSU is not only the Biomed program leader but is superior to UNC in essentially all other engineering fields - by default. You see, UNC CH has no other engineering offerings other than comp e and a small materials section. North Carolina splits its state flagships between CH and NCSU with the latter the go-to place for engineering, agriculture, veterinary med, textiles and design.</p>

8

<p>Partial as I am to UNC, I strongly take issue with the statement that NC State is a school for UNC rejects. I’ve known a number of students who have either chosen State over Carolina or have not applied to Carolina when they would have been strong applicants there. This is for several reasons: 1. Choice of major (engineering or design school); 2. Fan loyalty (which is not insignificant in NC); 3. Just plain liked State better (thought it offered a better education for what they wanted to study or it was a better fit).</p>

<p>OP: I’ve been on all three campuses extensively and know quite a bit about them. Just looking at the business schools and honors college opportunity, I would go with UNC. However, what about fit? Have you been on any of the campuses?</p>

<p>Chapel Hill is the quintessential college town. It has a more liberal/artsy vibe, although there are students from all parts of the political spectrum. UNC has a beautiful campus, and the students are overall very friendly and down to earth. The undergrads are mostly from NC, but the campus feels diverse as far as races, religions, income levels, and rural/urban. The gender distribution is roughly 58/42 female/male.</p>

<p>Raleigh is a city that offers a lot of cultural opportunities – museums, concerts, and festivals. State isn’t as liberal overall as Carolina, but there is a good mix of political positions on campus. The campus isn’t as beautiful as UNC’s, but Centennial Campus is new and high-tech, and the just-opened Hunt library is wonderful (aside from the fact that you can’t wander the stacks, but it is the engineering library after all, and they think the robot retrieval system is cool :)). It also has friendly, down to earth students, mostly from NC but fairly diverse. The gender distribution is roughly 45/55 female/male</p>

<p>Wake Forest has its own, beautifully landscaped campus. It’s got more of the “matchy” feel to the buildings, which some people like and others don’t. Around 74% of the students are from out of state, and the students are overall more conservative than the students at UNC and State – although, again, you can find your place. Greek life is far more prominent at Wake Forest – around 50% of students, compared to around 17% at UNC and even less at NC State. Wake Forest is roughly 52/48 female/male.</p>

<p>Personally, I like large universities because of the many choices of clubs and sports. Although Wake is smaller and doesn’t have as many choices, it does have a big university feel because of its Division I athletics and professional schools.</p>

<p>Best to you, OP. You have three good choices.</p>

9

<p>How lucky you are to have a situation where you really can’t go wrong! Congratulations.</p>

<p>We visited UNC-CH and WF. D loved the scale of Wake’s campus and the small classes as well as the abroad programs. It combined the intimate feel of a LAC with all the big athletics & resources of a university. Winston-Salem is not the college town that CH is but has a definite artsy vibe with good restaurants and plenty of opportunities for internships. Smaller business community but strong town-gown connections. D decided UNC-CH was just “too big” for her. Admission to the honors program and assured admit to business program at UNC-CH does make that appealing for you. </p>

<p>Agree it comes down to fit. What were your impressions when you visited (assume you live in NC)? How do you feel about Greek life? Will you have a car on campus (think that would be helpful at WF)? How are your AP credits treated (this can vary widely)? Are there particular courses you find attractive? Are there particular distribution requirements that limit your elective choices? What extracurricular activities do you see yourself doing in college? If you “drill down”, you may find one school comes out on top for you.</p>

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<p>wbwa: The only info that might really make a difference is that although both schools will cost about the same, I need to pay about 5k more out of pocket for UNC than WF. I’m sure I can come up with the money, but it’s something to consider. Personally I’v been leaning towards UNC more so than WF for a few different reasons. I feel like my college credits will transfer better, it seems like UNC’s academics are just as good as Wake’s without having the crippling workload, although the two schools have comparable prestige in state I think that WF’s brand recognition is probably much worse than UNC’s once one leaves NC. I know that recruitment and rankings are better for UNC, but I wasn’t aware that the differences between the two schools was that significant. You’ve made a lot of good points, though. Thank you.</p>

<p>Marsian: Yes, I’m an NC resident and have visited all three campuses. To tell you the truth I liked the look/feel of NC State a good deal less than UNC or WF. Honestly, State is running a distant third in this race. Maybe Im just not a big fan of brick. As far as the size difference between UNC and WF, I honestly don’t know which one I would prefer. I come from a pretty small highschool, so both seem big by comparison. However, I’m a pretty extroverted guy so I doubt that I would mind having UNC’s relatively larger campus. I like the fact that the gender ratio is skewed in the guys’ favor at UNC, and although I’m more conservative on the political spectrum I don’t mind going somewhere with a more diverse/liberal culture.</p>

<p>yaupon: I definitely like the intimateness of Wake and the attention that it can afford to pay it’s individual students because of its size. However, between smaller honors program classes and the fact that I’ll be skipping some of the bigger introductory classes due to my transfer credits, I don’t think that attending UNC will condemn me to being just a face in the crowd. As far as visiting the campuses, both seemed pretty and modern although neither had any particular emotional impact on me.</p>