unc or university of michigan?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
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<p>For what it is worth, I was on my way biking to my biochem exam this afternoon when I passed a circle of 10 people on the quad who were singing and playing either a guitar, banjo, mandolin, or ukulele, and had a crowd of 30 people around them listening and enjoying the weather. Just a small, and in many ways insignificant event on its own, but my experience at UNC has been full of moments like that. </p>

<p>I realize that my previous sentences were probably grammatical monstrosities, but cut me some slack. I had a biochem exam this afternoon. My brain took the day off after that.</p>

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<p>^ I’ve noticed that almost all posts in favour of UNC tend to be like this: about the weather and lifestyle.</p>

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<p>International prestige: Michigan>UNC
Alumni connections: Michigan>UNC</p>

<p>There are advantages to having a larger out of state/country enrollment PLUS a huge, well connected alumni base.</p>

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<p>Hi keepittoyourself,</p>

<p>They’re both great schools, but one is located in the subarctic and the other is not. That’s a big difference :-)</p>

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<p>@keepittoyourself</p>

<p>I think I’m talking more about the lifestyle factors than the academics because I really do believe academically speaking, UNC and Michigan are at the same level. Especially in the sciences. An imperfect measurement would be to look at the grad school rankings for biology and chemistry.</p>

<p>[Best</a> Biological Science Programs | Top Science Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/biological-sciences-rankings]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/biological-sciences-rankings)</p>

<p>[Best</a> Chemistry Programs | Top Chemistry Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/chemistry-rankings]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/chemistry-rankings)</p>

<p>Since the OP isn’t considering engineering, I don’t think the lack of engineering at UNC is a big deal for them.</p>

<p>So, if the schools are tied academically, which I think they are, what else is there to talk about other than lifestyle/climate?</p>

<p>Another consideration that I don’t think has been mentioned so far is the size difference between the two schools. I think Michigan has about 9,000 more undergrads than UNC?</p>

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<p>Weather does play into the experience of college but if your a person who likes the snow and to be outdoors go U of M. You will get all four seasons instead of a warmer boring winter. No offense to any NC fans, cold is not all that bad.</p>

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<p>Every big college campus has things like that going on. Maybe more in Fall at the colder schools or indoors but such events are common.<br>
I have been to both towns several times and UNC seems a little more like a one horse town that could get real dull after a couple years. You have basically one side of one street for about four blocks as the main drag. After than it thins out rapidly. AA probably has three areas that are similar and all are as large or larger than Franklin Street. UNC football is still a distant second fiddle to basketball. I went tot a football game and it was half full–I was given two great seats for free. I think AA has much more sizzle while Chapel Hill is kinda sleepy.</p>

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<p>The sex ratio at Michigan is more or less 50/50. If you’re a girl (or a guy) and you care about such things, that might be a point for Michigan.</p>

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<p>barrons</p>

<p>How long ago was this? Since Butch Davis arrived to be the head coach, the FB games are virtually all sold out…certainly NOT the Big House but Kenan is an awfully pretty setting for a football game and is in the midst of a second expansion since Butch’s arrival.</p>

<p>Chapel Hill is one of the towns (like Ann Arbor) that people seem to not want to leave or often gravitate back to. </p>

<p><a href=“Towns They Don’t Want to Leave - The New York Times”>Towns They Don’t Want to Leave - The New York Times;

<p>My kid is certainly an example of the above…after graduating he stayed in CH until just before he had to report to med school and he’s been back four times since graduating in '08 despite being in Med school. Now he’s looking to apply for residencies at both UNC and Duke Med.</p>

<p>And to be fair, Franklin St has a bit more “charm” than many other “main drags.” Franklin St and the university itself are so intertwined that it’s hard to distinguish where the campus really ends unlike many other “main drags” such as 6th St in Austin or High St in Columbus.</p>

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<p>Probably 4 years ago. And Davis’s success has come with lots of serious issues that put his future success in doubt. But it is a nice stadium and right on campus which I like.</p>

<p>[Expanding</a> UNC Football Investigation: Lack of Institutional Control? | Bleacher Report](<a href=“Expanding UNC Football Investigation: Lack of Institutional Control? | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors | Bleacher Report”>Expanding UNC Football Investigation: Lack of Institutional Control? | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors | Bleacher Report)</p>

<p>The main drag for UT is not 6th Street. It’s The Drag right across from campus. 6th is where everyone in Austin goes out at night. I used to live in Austin as 6th Street emerged. There are few major college towns I have not been to. Tucson would be one and anywhere in Florida. That’s it. So I have a pretty good basis for comparison.</p>

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<p>Chapel Hill is one of the best college towns in this country, and benefits from being in close proximity to one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic metro areas in the nation (Raleigh/Durham). </p>

<p>The football program is much better now than it has been; the stadium is in the midst of a $70 million expansion that will be completed by next season and we have a lot of positive momentum to build off of. Don’t put too much stock into Marvin Austin’s twitter page.</p>

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<p>eadad,</p>

<p>Thanks for posting the article. Weird little tidbit caught my eye though. The article mentions a guy who wanted to live in Chapel Hill that he commutes “3 hours each day” to his job in Raleigh. Raleigh is only 20 minutes away. Wonder what gives.</p>

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<p>Central chapel hill to central Raleigh is not 20 minutes at rush hour. I’d be impressed if you could do it in 20minutes at 3am.</p>

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<p>barrons</p>

<p>The article you posted is not only old news but for the most part has been refuted by anyone other than NCSU fans. There were two or three players who went rogue and accepted gifts and they were punished. The academic issue turned into pretty much a non issue and again actually only involved two or three players…the rest were held out of games by UNC for precautionary purposes.</p>

<p>There has never been a question of lack of institutional control (despite what the wolfpack fans might hope) and the way UNC handled things with the NCAA was far more open than most schools do…there was no withholding information like USC for example.</p>

<p>Butch will be in Chapel Hill as long as he wants to be and will make UNC a real power. Had it not been for the situation last year many analysts are now saying that they could have seriously competed for the BCS crown…they have 12 players at the NFL combines, more than ANY other school and to take a quote from ESPN’s Bruce Feldman:</p>

<p>

</p>

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<p>Alright, here’s how I’d break this down:</p>

<p>Prestige: At the end of the day, these are both mid/large public universities. Let’s not fool ourselves, you are not comparing Princeton to UNC. Is Michigan ranked higher than Carolina, yes, but is it still a public school and do people who care about this kind of stuff automatically group all public schools in one little category where Berkeley/UVA/UNC/Mich are all in a little lump, yes, they do. If there is any difference it is not significant enough to justify the additional cost. In terms of applying to graduate school I can assure you that it does not matter if you go to either one of them, for whatever field you’re interested in. It just. Doesn’t.</p>

<p>Employment - the point made that Michigan has a larger graduating class and thus larger alumni base is legitimate. If I were you and if I had the opportunity I would be very curious to look at employment statistics of Mich and Carolina grads.</p>

<p>Weather - I worked with a post-doc fellow throughout last year who got her phd at Michigan and the amount of time I spent listening to her rant about how Michigan is ALWAYS SO GRAY (her words, not mine) was enough to convince me that I wouldn’t be interested in applying there for grad school. I am a friend to warm weather and if U Miami had a top law program I would be there in a second. Sadly for me, it doesn’t. Anyway, back to Michigan. There are some places that are cold but have a “big sky” - there’s snow constantly on the ground and the albido of that snow actually brightens up the environment. For instance, Colorado. Colorado is cold, but the beauty of it and the active lifestyle make it so that the thought of living there doesn’t make me want to kill myself. On the other side of things we have places like Chicago. I will say no more. You need to think about wellness - from mid-October to March, what is the environment really like there? I personally haven’t been so I can’t answer this question for you. But you need to figure out if it’s a gray, depressing, winter, or a ‘refreshing’, spritely winter. My brother went to Dartmouth for undergrad and seriously regretted his decision to go because of weather alone. The sun set at 4:00 PM and when you’re in very difficult classes all day that truly is enough to depress you.</p>

<p>Anyone who ever tells you not to take into account the environment where you’ll go to school is full of loads and loads and loads of crap. Life is about a lot of things - school, yes, for sure, and future goals, definitely, but if you’re not in an area where you enjoy living then that will hamper your success and it’s just not worth it. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I’M SAYING MICHIGAN IS BAD - maybe you LOVE Mich’s weather. But I am not making a crappy argument by bringing up the weather… at the same time I challenge you to ask any Michigan alum about how they’d feel about moving Michigan’s campus down a bit in its latitude ;-). </p>

<p>Campus life - I have no idea what Mich is like. I’ve heard it’s fun. It probably is really great. I absolutely love Carolina’s campus life. You’re going to need to visit/hopefully you have visited.</p>

<p>Cost - Carolina’s cheap. Dose of reality: Undergraduate degrees are worth nothing unless you major in computer science, plan on using the skills you gain in your major to open up a small business, or are down to go into consulting. It’d be fantastic if it were 1999 right now and people were actually recruiting college undergrads for work. But… they’re not.</p>

<p>I’m running off but I hope this helps!</p>

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<p>Eadad–I think you put a very generous spin on the situation. Even the UNC alumni association was less blase.</p>

<p>[UNC</a> General Alumni Association :: Five Dismissed, 3 Suspended; Probe of Football Continues |](<a href=“Carolina Alumni”>http://alumni.unc.edu/article.aspx?sid=7889)</p>

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<p>Here is a link to UNC Business placement–not bad.</p>

<p>[UNC</a> Kenan-Flagler Business School : Career Services](<a href=“Undergraduate Business Career | UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School”>Undergraduate Business Career | UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School)</p>

<p>And UM</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bus.umich.edu/pdf/EmploymentProfile2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.bus.umich.edu/pdf/EmploymentProfile2010.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>^^^Wow! I guess weather isn’t eveything.</p>

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<p>I went to U-M. My roommate in law school went to UNC. We both loved our respective colleges. I’ve never been to Chapel Hill but I’d love to see it some day. They’re both great schools and it is amusing to read weather reports and other trivial comparisons. Should someone pass up a job in New York because the winters are warmer in Memphis, Shreveport and Jacksonville?</p>

<p>Michigan’s biggest strengths are that it has very few areas of academic weakness so a student can change his or her mind and end up in nationally recognized program. My understanding is that UNC does not share the same breadth of academic strength. Michigan also has a larger alumni population which due to historical considerations is well represented in the Northeast and other major metropolises which enhances its academic prestige.</p>

<p>I think the question of the better fit should make the OP’s choice.</p>

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<p>At UNC, we teach you to count to five.</p>

<p>[YouTube</a> - Chris Webber TO](<a href=“Chris Webber TO - YouTube”>Chris Webber TO - YouTube)</p>