<p>I am considering transferring to UNC--I have been accepted--and I would appreciate any advice on this.</p>
<p>My story:</p>
<p>During high school and even before then, I had always thought that I would go to one of my state colleges, University of Oregon. I had been a huge fan of their sports teams since I was a kid. I didn't really start thinking about other options until my senior year.</p>
<p>So, I am currently at Oregon, and I was not impressed during my first few terms. I applied to UNC since I did pretty well in high school and I figured that I would have a shot. Also, the only way I could really justify out of state tuition would be for a top school like UNC.</p>
<p>The thing is, I am starting to like Oregon. I had several screwball professors during my first two quarters, but now things are better. What I would plan to do if I stay here is aim for the honor's business program.</p>
<p>What I want to major in is business administration, and do a minor in computer science and possibly also economics. Oregon supposedly has a fairly good undergrad business school and an honors program that I'd apply to next year, but computer science is sort of just there. UNC, on the other hand...is UNC. I have been down to campus over my spring break, and I was very impressed.</p>
<p>I have not gotten my financial statement from UNC yet, but I am anticipating that out of state tuition isn't going to be pretty. My parents are going to give me a full ride into an in-state school, but I will need to contribute out of state.</p>
<p>Any thoughts or opinions on when transferring is a good decision or not would be appreciated. Is a UNC degree going to * do *something for me besides the inherent prestige?</p>
<p>RDU has some very good airfares with enough advance purchase time. Chapel Hill may be the quintessential college town. UNC is a fairly liberal place overall, often referred to as the blue island in the red sea. I'm not sure how this compares to Eugene and U of O. </p>
<p>We visited UNC, and although we were impressed with certain aspects of the school, we also had some concerns as out of staters. We visited right before Easter and the place was a ghost town - seems almost everyone is local and went home for the weekend. We went to Duke the next day and it was the exact opposite (lots of students around). Also, we have a family member who teaches there and she says that the classes are very large and TAs are common. Researchis a big deal and it seems teaching comes second. It was a nice campus though, and the business school IS highly rated. I just don't think it worth a lot more $ compared to a reasonably good in-state school. Great deal for NC students though.</p>
<p>UNC is not a suitcase school. Obviously before a holiday like Easter you would expect a large number of in state students to head home, but this is not the case for normal weekends. Duke has far more OOS students as well as a larger percentage of Jewish, Muslim and Hindu students so it's not surprising that there were more people on campus that weekend.</p>
<p>All I can speak from is the experience my sophomore son has had as far as class size. He had a large number of AP credits coming in so he was in many upper division classes freshman year. UNC caps English classes at 18 or 20 and math classes at around 55. His advanced calculus class first semester frehamn year was about 55 students and taught by a tenured prof that spoke English. His best friend from HS is at Penn. In the same class he had 300 + students and a TA that didn't speak English well---this at an IVY so I would say it's not safe to make generalizations.</p>
<p>He has had one or two large classes and TAs but they were for core classes that ANY school short of a very small LAC would have similar class sizes. In most other cases classes have been in the 25-45 range, and taught by tenured faculty. Additionally for those who are interested in research opportunites they are available as early as freshman year. 2sonmom's son has been doing research all year as a freshman for one of the top professors in the business school.</p>
<p>I just saw this thread, and I'd like to respond to post #8, that for all NC public universities, Easter weekend was a long one, and 'Good Friday' was considered a holiday, so many people did go away. Duke did not have an extra day for Easter. That would account for the difference in campus activity when toneranger visited. I also agree with eadad's comments about the class sizes. His son's experience sounds similar to what our freshman daughter experienced this year. Any larger classes were intro/required courses for certain majors. The other classes, and especially honors, were fairly small.</p>