…Or if Dr. Goodnight promises you a job at SAS. By the way, Dr. Goodnight is a proud NC State graduate in Statistics…BS, MS, PhD. He is as you should know co-founder and CEO of SAS which is one of the most admired companies in the world. If you can get a job with them, you will enjoy your life in the Triangle area. Dr. Goodnight is also the richest North Carolinian and if SAS were to ever go public, he would easily be one of the 10 or 20 richest people in the world…not that he isn’t rich already. The current COO of Apple is Jeff William…an NC State graduate and probably next in line to be CEO of Apple.
I’m going to bump this thread with some new info. I went to an admitted students event at NC State recently and really liked the campus feel, and I liked the engineering department a lot. Furthermore, I just found out I was admitted to the Honors program, which I found really respectable after a session at State. Also, UNC’s BME only has bioinstrumentaion as a concentration whereas State has that along with Biomaterials and Biomechanics. Also, it seemed more diverse than UNC. I did, however, get a laptop grant from UNC, and I love the feel there also. Of course, I also can’t ignore it’s name recognition. The main problem is a see myself at both campuses, and both are logically good decisions. Any more thoughts and opinions are appreciated.
Wow - I didn’t realize State was considered so inferior to Chapel Hill. While Chapel Hill has more of a Wow factor, State by far has the edge in Engineering. I know from my D’s private high school, far more students go on to State than to UNC even when they are admitted into both schools. The ones who go to State are usually engineering or certain sciences. The ones who go to Chapel Hill are often humanities or social sciences or bio majors looking to get into the med school.
I have to say, having worked on Centennial campus and working for a company that takes a lot of programming interns from State, there are a lot of good reasons to choose State. (personally I choose neither, being a Duke fan)
@InigioMontoya I’ve always been a Duke fan as well but it never worked out in my favor. Since you seem experienced with State, would you mind sharing your thoughts on some of it’s pros and cons?
I know quite a few current students at State, and since I work in IT I work with a number of State grads. I don’t know too many current Chapel Hill students, although I have worked with a number of grads when I was in marketing. Even 30 years ago when I moved to NC, State was the school to go to for hiring computer science majors.
Most of the students I know at State are majoring in Engineering, CS, or some form of Math. D’s boyfriend is an applied math major and is incredibly passionate about the school. He and his friends have all had great internships and most of them already have job offers for when they graduate in May (many with companies where they interned). If you were looking at any of those majors, I wouldn’t hesitate to say State would be the better choice especially with regard to internships that can work with your class schedule.
I checked our school’s Naviance stats, and we send more kids to each of State, USC, and UNC-Charlotte than to Chapel Hill. We have a great acceptance record at Chapel Hill, but a low enrollment rate, mostly because so many of the top students these days want to (or think they want to) study engineering. UNC-Charlotte is rapidly growing, in part due to now being the backup engineering school for kids who didn’t get into State’s engineering program. Just a few years ago I never would have expected so many kids to turn down Chapel Hill - it always seemed like the holy grail of NC. It’s not because Chapel Hill isn’t still an outstanding institution - it’s purely the lack of an engineering school. As I mentioned up-thread, students going for other majors do choose Chapel Hill over State (unless their family legacy is red instead of blue).
Biomedical engineering is a different situation, since it is a joint program. There are hospitals and medical facilities close to State’s campus, but having a med school right there at UNC is a plus and could make for easier internship schedules.
Have you toured both campuses, especially the biomedical facilities? Also - you sound sure of what you want, but sometimes students start in a program and decide it’s not the right fit for them. Which school would give you the most flexibility if you wanted to change majors? What would be some other majors that might interest you and which school offers them?
Take some time and make some lists and start ranking your pros and cons as far as priority.And realize whichever choice you make it will be a good one. You are in a very fortunate position. Best of luck to you!
@InigoMontoya Thank you so much! Your post is incredibly helpful.