<p>Why would you ever think about going to the University of Northern Colorado, when you could hit up one of the Ivies? You must really love ORVs and the environment.</p>
<p>My credit hours are from AP Exams and Dual Enrollment at NC State University. From my AP Exams Junior year I have enough to get advance standing at Harvard, so I would be assured to graduate in 3 years there. I probably wouldn't be able to graduate in 3 years from Wharton.</p>
<p>UNC is low quality. People will kill me for saying this but I've taken classes there as a high school student, talked to a LOT of students in the honors program there (3 dozen kids go there every year from my school), etc. The quality of education is just not there when you compare to elites. The students aren't as smart (not trying to diss them...UNC is great and the people are REALLY nice) as they are at top privates and a class of 17,000 is a little different from a class of 1700. Keep that in mind. You are better off seeking a scholarship elsewhere. I don't think you should take money concerns to this much of an extreme--if all you wanted was to save money, then you would go to a community college. I'm not comparing UNC to a community college--I'm just saying, spending a couple thousand dollars more to go to a school better than UNC is WAY worth it.</p>
<p>But, this whole post should basically be disregarded because I turned down half-tuition at UNC for that other school, which costs 46K a year ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
UNC is low quality. People will kill me for saying this
[/quote]
Probably. I found very little difference between my classes at Duke and at UNC, except that my UNC classes were a bit bigger. Certainly Duke and most of the Ivies don't offer things like Hittite and Old Irish.</p>
<p>I agree with Warblersrule, I took similar undergraduate classes at Cornell and at Michigan (similar to UNC) and I saw no difference in the quality of instruction or curriculum. </p>
<p>"...UNC is great and the people are REALLY nice) as they are at top privates and a class of 17,000 is a little different from a class of 1700..."</p>
<p>What elite research university (other than Caltech and Rice) has fewer than 1,700 undergrad? Hell, which ones have fewer than 4,000 undergrads. Most of them have 6,000+ undergrads.</p>
<p>^Though neither number is exact, the brilliant young b4nnd20 is apparently comparing the size of the freshman class at Duke with the entire undergraduate population at UNC. Some of his other statements reflect the same degree of insight.</p>
<p>Bn4, I assume "that other school" you attend is Duke? My daughter, a UNC-CH student (also accepted to Duke and <em>chose</em> UNC) has also taken classes at Duke and will do so again in the fall. While all her classes were somewhat smaller at Duke (though she has had some equally small classes at UNC), she saw no difference in the quality of the teaching nor in the caliber of student. They were equally impressive. She liked the classes there very much, but no difference at all in student participation, quality of class discussion, faculty, and general "smarts" of the students. </p>
<p>Of course, if b4nnd20 is any indication, perhaps the typical Duke student is a little more arrogant? Hopefully, he/she isn't typical. </p>
<p>Agree about the difference between a school of 17,000 and one at 1700. (Such an astute observation there, bn4.) Yep, that's a big difference. But which Ivy has 1700 students?</p>
<p>Well, jack, no Ivy League has fewer than 4,000 undergrads. Chicago, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Princeton and Rice are the only elite research universities with fewer than 6,000 undergrads.</p>
<p>Alexandre: That's what I thought. So I don't get bn4's comment, but I think tyr (post #26) explained bn4's rather convoluted way of thinking. Thanks.</p>
<p>b4 - Okay, so you are currently a high school student (?) who has taken classes at UNC (through the Friday Center?), who has NOT yet attended any OTHER elite school, but you have 'talked to some people'...yet you somehow feel qualified to offer advice?</p>
<p>Btw...money may not be an issue to a high school student, but I bet that student's parent might disagree ;). </p>
<p>To the OP - My d will be a sophomore at UNC next year and is spending this summer interning at a private equity startup. This week, she is spending some 'mentoring' days at the bank that funded the startup (traunches to $1 billion btw). I can assure you those partners have very high regard for a business degree from UNC-CH....but I can ask her to talk to them about what they consider to be most important for a career in investment banking or with a private equity firm. I'll report back... :)</p>
<p>b4nnd will be a freshman at Duke. She turned down 1/2 tuition @ UNC.</p>
<p>A current high school student who took courses part-time at the UNC Friday Center? That, in itself, is fairly unusual. Those courses are usually for older "non-traditional" students. I have no doubt they are terrific, but not a great comparison study, since I doubt you see any full-time UNC students there.<br>
Certainly, Duke is a great school (as is UNC), but b4nnd's rhetoric sounds like someone who is simply trying to justify the cost differential.</p>
<p>This is kind of a bad discussion...on the one hand you have me, a Duke student, arguing with jack/ldmom/etc, who are all UNC parents. I don't see this getting anywhere.</p>
<p>Also, by 1700, I meant class size. 3800 is UNC's freshman class if I'm not wrong. 1680 is Harvard's (and Duke's, approximately).</p>
<p>UNC has 3500 freshman class.</p>
<p>I'd say my two biggest dislikes about UNC at this point are
1. Recruiting
2. Student Body</p>
<p>Recruiting doesn't look nearly as bad as I'd expected it to be, but it's going to be an uphill battle for me to get where I want to be.
Student Body.....so many unintelligent people have gotten into UNC in-state on mainly academic merit without any special "hook" and UNC is required to be 81.5% in-state students. They clearly have amazing students, but I don't think I'd be happy with the intellectual level of the majority.</p>
<p>well then...who has a class size of "17,000"? </p>
<p>b4...b4 you go to Duke, you need to know the whole UNC/Duke rivalry thing is really a non-event. ;)</p>
<p>Of course, I'm actually a UNC Bball fan and that isn't going to change anytime soon, sorry Coach Kreepy.</p>
<p>jbruner - the 2007 overall (in and oos) acceptance rate at UNC is 33% which is lower than UChicago, JHU, Cal and a few other highly selectives. And how does someone who is intellectually superior have an 'uphill battle' getting where they want to be?</p>
<p>Recruiters mainly visit the elites.</p>
<p>The top of UNC students can compete with any Ivy League graduate. The problem is that a large majority wouldnt have a prayer of getting in. There was a post re number of students who scored above 700 on SAT. UNC was at the very low end of the spectrum.</p>
<p>The problem with a large school if you are a top student is that you are literally surrounded by thousands of kids that are not your peer group. That can lead to a very different intellectal experience than Dartmouth or Princeton.</p>
<p>That doesnt mean you cant create a good education, just that it will be a very different experience.</p>