<p>Does anyone understand why UNC Chapel Hill was not listed on this year's Princeton Review's Top 10 Best Values? Hasn't it been listed in previous years? Has something changed in their financial aid/merit scholarship program?</p>
<p>Those Princeton Review rankings are a joke. Don't worry about them.</p>
<p>UNC has historically been on the Forbes and annually tops the Kiplinger's 10 Ten Values which both carry far more weight than the Princeton Review.</p>
<p>i think their costs rose slightly for 08-09..that's prob why..room and board increased a few thousand...but their still a great value</p>
<p>room and board did not increase a few thousand, and the "board" thing is a piece of crap. Noone gets a full meal plan, and the very few that do end up switching their mind.</p>
<p>UNC is THE best value for education in America, noone can deny that. Even you Duke fans should admit that.</p>
<p>For around $44-48 grand a year, you can graduate from 4 years of Carolina in-state. And for a public university, carolina gives a LOT of debt-free aid.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies.
ns347 - Why doesn't anyone get a full meal plan? Is the food not great, or do you just end up eating off campus a lot?</p>
<p>you get really really tired of the food. but i'm still keeping mine sophomore year.</p>
<p>Princeton Review's top 10 Best Value Colleges</p>
<p>The top 10 best value private colleges:</p>
<ol>
<li>Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa.</li>
<li>Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass.</li>
<li>Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.</li>
<li>Rice University, Houston, Texas</li>
<li>Yale University, New Haven, Conn.</li>
<li>Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.</li>
<li>Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.</li>
<li>California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.</li>
<li>Pomona College, Claremont, Calif.</li>
<li>Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.</li>
</ol>
<p>Top 10 best value public colleges:</p>
<ol>
<li>University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.</li>
<li>New College of Florida, Sarasota, Fla.</li>
<li>College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va.</li>
<li>State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, N.Y.</li>
<li>Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.</li>
<li>North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.</li>
<li>University of California – San Diego</li>
<li>City University of New York – Hunter College, New York City</li>
<li>University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.</li>
<li>The College of New Jersey, Ewing, N.J.</li>
</ol>
<p>i was really surprised at this, to be honest.</p>
<p>The list is flawed. I am always surprised at the high ratings for UC-San Diego in light of the large class sizes coupled with the financial difficulties of the State of California.</p>
<p>Why would UCSD be a better value than UCLA or UC Berkeley? All the UCs cost the same.</p>
<p>Great point! And the classes are much smaller at Berkeley & UCLA than at UCSD.</p>
<p>thesparrow: Getting a full meal plan at UNC is either 200 meals a semester or 14-a-week option.</p>
<p>Choosing</a> A Meal Plan</p>
<p>The food is pretty average, standard college cafeteria. It isnt HORRIBLE....but it does get old rather quickly. I barely eat the 7 meals a week option that I have...there are so many other options: Subway, Cosmic Cantina burrittos, Ram's Head Market has some nice options, Bottom of Lenoirs offers lots of options during lunchtime including Chick-fil-A...plus a LOT of places deliver around Carolina as it is a college town.</p>
<p>After Freshman year, people don't really eat as much at the cafeteria. The only reason I think people eat there is because it's convenient and all-you-can-eat...thats the only reason I eat there.</p>
<p>After 1st semester freshman year, people definetely downgraded their meal plans.</p>
<p>i really wouldn't consider nearby NCSU a better academic value. the tuition costs are slightly less, but the prestige of a degree from UNC-chapel hill in comparison far outweighs that difference.</p>
<p>NCSU is not prestigious by any means, it is the best engineering program in NC, but compared to Georgia Tech, Maryland, VT, I think NC State is less prestigious even in that regard.</p>
<p>UNC is top ranked and respected in just about every single academic discipline. In NC, it is considered the most prestigious university (people mostly hate Duke in NC)</p>
<p>The list is ridiculous.
Florida State ranks, while University of Florida (same price) does not. UF's academics are waayyy above those of Florida State.</p>
<p>UNC is weak on financial aid.</p>
<p>UNC promises to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for all applicants who submit their FAFSA on time. How is that weak?</p>
<p>No offense, but talk is cheap. All these rankings and assertions that UNC is "prestigious" and "top ranked" are ultimately subjective. NC State is an excellent institution and so is UNC. To assert that people mostly hate Duke in North Carolina is also nonsense (I live in NC).</p>
<p>UNC Chapel Hill</p>
<p>Financial Aid Statistics </p>
<ul>
<li>Full-time freshman enrollment: 3,800 </li>
<li>Number who applied for need-based aid: 2,858 </li>
<li>Number who were judged to have need: 1,229 </li>
<li>Number who were offered aid: 1,214 </li>
<li>Number who had full need met: 1,165</li>
</ul>