<p>I am deciding between wash u and unc. I got 10k a year in "scholarship" (aid) to washu and a work study offer. I would do bme at wash u, but be some sort of life science major at unc. Does anyone have any advice, things to consider, or thoughts to offer (i.e. pro's con's).</p>
<p>Two VERY different schools and undergrad experiences. </p>
<p>What are you looking for aside from your majors?</p>
<p>My reason for asking is that what happens AFTER classes end can be a HUGE contributor to academic success. In other words “fit” and overall happiness are very important factors in how well you do in class.</p>
<p>UNC (and Chapel Hill) offer perhaps the best mix of academics and extracurricular activities/social scene offered anywhere. People work hard and play hard.</p>
<p>WUSTL is a great school…St. Louis…mmmm…not such a great city and without any semblance of real sports programs there is certainly a smaller offering of things to do on weekends etc.</p>
<p>Are you in state or OOS? If in state, the money difference is huge. If you are thinking about med school, don’t rack up the undergraduate debt…you’ll need the $$ for med school.</p>
<p>Again, what are you looking for? What is important to you?</p>
<p>I go to Duke, but I considered both WUSTL and UNC up until the very last moment that I made my decision to attend Duke, but if I was choosing between the two I would have chosen UNC.</p>
<p>It really is a great school with a great atmosphere, and honestly UNC and Duke or so much more alike in atmosphere than some of the rapid basketball fans might think it is quite funny. Go visit!</p>
<p>That being said, both are great schools. UNC just would have appealed to me more than WUSTL.</p>
<p>Plus, unless you are like me and get full financial aid from WUSTL like I do from Duke, UNC will be cheaper.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in BME, UNC is a great school. Their BME program, though small, is really well run and starting to become pretty dang respected.</p>
<p>Well if I went to UNC, I would more than likely be a chem, pathology, major or something of the sort. UNC’s program is not accredited, which makes me worry, but it sounds like it is better than I think. eadad nailed the situation down. The main difference in my opinion is that Wash U supposedly has a very stressful academic environment that UNC may not have. Another factor is that Wash U has a stronger reputation than UNC. The main worry for me is that Wash U isn’t as social, or as fun, especially on the weekends, as UNC. The other thing to consider is that the people at wash u may be more interesting or, at the very least, more diverse. Last thought, I like Wash U’s size better (6000 undergrads) in comparison to UNC. </p>
<p>BTW, does anyone know when/how people find out if they are in the honors program at UNC?</p>
<p>When I got into the honors program it was in like March or something (I did early action to UNC).</p>
<p>Just curious, but what do you mean by saying, “UNC’s program is not accredited.”</p>
<p>UNC does not have engineering accreditation. However, the only real use for accreditation is getting an engineering license. Though that sounds important, most biomed engineers either go to grad school or get jobs without the license. There aren’t really many bme careers that require the licensing. This is all from an info session on the BME department I went to. I was really impressed, but I’m not interested in BME so it wasn’t for me. All this being said, I’d say it’s definitely worth a visit to meet with Dr. Goldberg at UNC. The program’s far more impressive than it looks on paper (I was shocked).</p>
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<p>Not true at all…in fact the exact opposite…the majority of people at UNC are “normal” very smart kids while many (not all) of the kids I know who went to Wash U from my son’s school were more like the stereotypical nerdy, non social, stay in on Saturday night kids.</p>
<p>Now I say this coming from the fact that my son and his roommates called the house they lived in “nerd house” yet one roommate was a varsity athlete, and my son played lead guitar in a very popular Chapel Hill band for three years and all three were in fraternities as well. Like I said, very smart but “normal” kids.</p>
<p>UNC definitely has a more relaxed atmosphere that is far more cooperative than competitive.</p>