<p>Hi, I'm a junior, and my college counselor wants me to make a list of colleges that I will apply to. I have a good list, but I need to consider some safeties. I already have one for-sure safety, but I am trying to think of one or two more. I am out of the ACT ranges of each of these schools and I think I can consider these safeties. Anyways, which fits best for me? Here is what I am looking for in a college:
-great pre-medical program (good advising to really help me get an edge into medical school admissions, challenging but not impossible courses, competitive but not a super cutthroat environment, great place for research and summer internships)
-location in or close to a large city (not just any large city, but one where I can experience numerous different things like great shows, restaurants, sports teams, maybe even museums idk for sure but hopefully you understand somewhat what i'm talking about)
-really nice campus vibe (where the school is generally pretty close-knit and there is large involvement in school spirit and pride)
-nice people (I kind of already mentioned this, but i don't want a school where everyone is SUPER competitive... I mean, yeah, I want competition but I want to be around people who are willing to help me with homework and stuff)</p>
<p>btw i realize that these aren’t “SUPER” safeties, but i am also looking for some more mid-range acceptance schools since most of my top schools are low acceptance-rate schools</p>
<p>If you are out of state UNC is by no stretch of the imagination considered a safety for anyone.</p>
<p>UNC is by no means a “safety” school for out-of-staters, so don’t waste your time unless you’re exceptional. Besides, our visit proved to us what others have said: there is a tremendous disparity between the caliber of in-state and out-of-state students. In-staters, in our view, were barely literate and could not put together a stimulating thought. We quickly erased the school from our list.</p>
<p>@ Readerman Not only does your comment have no merit, but you also revealed that you are an arrogant ******bag. </p>
<p>“In-staters, in our view, were barely literate and could not put together a stimulating thought”</p>
<p>You misspelled ‘I’m a raging ■■■■■■’. Go ■■■■■ elsewhere.</p>
<p>Out of state=not a safety. For just about anyone.</p>
<p>ok, so we’ll say that these schools are NOT safeties. still, which best fits me? that’s all i’m really looking for. please help.</p>
<p>raider2012, my son was accepted to both UNC and BC…we are from NJ. He has been accepted to other schools as well. BC is probably his first choice, but UNC is a VERY close second. We are actually in Boston this weekend for EA acceptance day. Both schools have exactly what you say that you want. I think for him, it will probably come down to climate and money. Even OOS, UNC is about $15,000 less a year than BC. When deciding on a school, you have to really visit them and get a “feel” for the environment. My son often said that he would just look around at the students and try to see if they “seemed” happy or stressed. He felt that both UNC and BC had very happy students. </p>
<p>I know that there have been comments that in state students are not nearly as strong as OOS, but IMO, that is not true. If you go on the threads and read the stats of both in state and OOS, you will see for the most part, they are ALL very strong students. Yes, sometimes someone gets in with lower SAT scores, but maybe they bring something else to the table. Even the Ivys allow less than stellar students in because of their athletic ability. Visit the schools, do lots of research and I’m sure at the end of the day you will find the right school for you. Oh and IMO, BC nor UNC can be considered a “safty” school for anyone. Good luck:)</p>
<p>I don’t really know much about the other two schools, but UNC definitely fits all of those qualities. Great pre-med program, Chapel Hill is close to both Raleigh and Durham, which have all kinds of entertainment (Durham Performing Arts Center, DPAC, is brand new and my favorite place in the world). Chapel Hill is also the ideal college town with everything you could need. The students always talk about the ‘Carolina family’ even though the campus is huge, and most people are involved with multiple things. Vising the campus is invigorating to me because of the amazing atmosphere. And we’re in the south, so there’s southern hospitality.</p>
<p>You didn’t mention if you’re IS or OOS, but if you’re in-state, ECU is another place to look for a medical program. It’s getting better every year. It is definitely considered a party school, but it would be a good safety to fall back on for medicine.</p>
<p>And I think we should all ignore readerman, because he’s obviously just looking to get us riled up.</p>
<p>^^^ To be fair, I think CC is a fairly self-selecting pool of overachievers and isn’t really a good picture of the entire UNC pool of in staters as a whole. Although, CC does reinforce the fact that there are some incredibly smart and talented in-staters. </p>
<p>^ Yes, we should all just report the posts rather than respond to them. </p>
<p>I’d pick BC over UNC if costs were equal, but I’m very happy with the quality of UNC’s academics and certainly don’t think that I’m missing out on anything. I certainly wouldn’t pay 15k more to go to BC.</p>
<p>I’ll have to tell my in-state son that he’s barely literate. His 800 Latin SAT II score must be a fluke…</p>
<p>Excuse me, y’all, I have to go make some more moonshine while Paw plows the back 40…</p>
<p>My son is an oos sophomore at UNC, and was also accepted at BC. He chose UNC for the climate, the money, and also UNC offered a specific academic program that BC did not. The fact that BC is sooo expensive, and offers little merit aid, I believe deters many students. My son has many in-state friends, and he finds them highly motivated and extremely intelligent.</p>
<p>Speaking of quality of undergrad at UNC and at other school for that matter, generalization can be way off of the mark. Back in the days when I was at UNC as a grad student, I got the change to meet IS undergrad student like Holden Throp (yes, the Chancellor today at UNC), and I got to teach some really slow undergrad as well. So, folks, be careful in making comments like that. You may run into some NC in-state students like Holden someday down the road.</p>
<p>I think everyone is jumping a bit too hard on the OP. If you are the sort of person for whom Harvard, Stanford, MIT are genuine possibilities, and not just crazy reaches, then yes even OOS Chapel Hill is much less competitive than those places, and you might consider it a safety in a way. But I would advise any such person to also have some safer safeties!</p>
<p>The in-state students are by no means drooling idiots, but we should be honest about the fact that a good fraction of the in-state students are … pretty stupid. Not drooling idiots, but not smart by any measure. As others have mentioned, the better in-state students are very good though. </p>
<p>But OP, you won’t find this at UNC Chapel Hill:</p>
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</p>
<p>Though Raleigh and Durham are cities, that is really just a technicality … noone in a million years would be calling them ‘large cities’. They are best described as provincial towns. Charlotte is the nearest genuinely urban city, and that is (justifiably or not) widely considered a cultural deadzone.</p>
<p>Honestly, the nearest large city to UNC is Washington DC, a good 4.5 hour drive away…</p>
<p>Keepittoyourself, I think Raleigh and Durham satisfy that requirement. Maybe that’s just me after living in Cary for my whole life, but there are also no major metropolises down here. You make what you can out of it.</p>
<p>For shows, DPAC is basically the best performing arts center around. There are lots of musicals and performers. There’s also Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, the RBC Center which has lots of sports games as well as performers, and the Greensboro Coliseum is an hour away, and they also have a ton of things there.</p>
<p>There are a million restaurants to try on Franklin St and there are also a bunch of good ones in Raleigh and Durham. You can’t deny that.</p>
<p>The Durham Bulls (baseball) and the Carolina Hurricanes are popular sports teams. Chapel Hill athletics are also huge, so you don’t have to leave campus to see games.</p>
<p>And there are a lot of museums in Raleigh and Durham too.</p>
<p>Coming from a huge city like Boston or NYC, yeah, it’s not such an exciting place. But there is definitely always something to do.</p>
<p>Also, how much do you consider a good fraction of in-state students? Yes, there are not so smart frat boys and athletes, but that’s not a whole lot of people. I know about three people from my school who got in who are not super intelligent, but they’re definitely not stupid. Other than that, almost everybody I know from my school who got in is in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Readerman made the classic error of non-Southerners. We moved to North Carolina well over a decade ago, not too far from Chapel Hill. I grew up in the NY metro area, and it took me a few months to realize that the cultural cues are very different down here. I would meet people with heavy accents and imprecise grammar – e.g., “Ain’t no way I’ll be headin’ out before dark” – and assume that they were uneducated. After several such conversations moved onto, “I double-majored in Mathematics and Engineering, and then moved into nanotechnology after getting my Ph.D.,” I realized that the joke was on me. I love living in the South, and would never move back up North. Finally…</p>
<p>Instead of speculating on the difference between in-state and OOS, let’s examine the statistics. The following includes a comparison of the Critical Reading + Math SAT scores for full-time in-state vs. OOS students in this year’s UNC entering class. The average is 1301 for in-state vs. 1318 for OOS, which is very similar. OOS are skewed towards both ends of the distribution. I suspect that scholarship athletes represent most of the left-side OOS population:</p>
<p>[First-Year</a> Full-Time Undergraduate Student Profile, Fall 2010 - Office of Institutional Research and Assessment](<a href=“http://oira.unc.edu/first-time-freshman-class-profile-fall.html]First-Year”>http://oira.unc.edu/first-time-freshman-class-profile-fall.html)</p>
<p>MeadowbrookCourt, that is one fantastic post. Thank you!!!</p>
<p>We have been down here 21 years, and our experience is exactly like yours. I’m originally from Boston; DH is a semi-Southerner (from Louisville); but both of us have certainly learned not to underestimate native North Carolinians. :)</p>
<p>During the ‘80s, we spent three years in Louisiana – now that was culture shock, LOL. But even there we quickly learned that those drawlin’ Southron folks were a lot cleverer than we’d bargained for. I had a little freelance copywriting business, and when I was negotiating terms with a client, believe me, I was the one at a disadvantage. :o</p>
<p>One of my native-born colleagues has a daughter who scored 2350 on the SAT and is now at Chapel Hill on a nearly full-ride scholarship. She’s North Carolina born and bred, and so is her mom (my colleague), and they’re both brilliant. Another stereotype bites the dust… ;-)</p>
<p>As an erstwhile Bostonian (born and bred), I must say that I don’t think any NC city can really compare with Boston, culturally. But Boston’s unique in that respect. Personally, I far prefer it to NYC (more liveable, more walkable, not as overwhelming). But that doesn’t mean I’d want to live there or go to school there.</p>
<p>Of course, I’m a whole lot older than the OP…when I was young, I loved Boston/Cambridge. However, even then I did have a sense of Boston’s downside:</p>
<p>*** It’s not all Fanueil Hall and Beacon Hill and Back Bay. Large parts of Boston are butt-ugly and grimy and industrial. Other large parts are very dangerous. Traffic is horrible.</p>
<p>*** Boston is cold. Really cold. And, since Boston’s right on the ocean, the cold is a dank cold. Then there’s the wind. It slices right through you. It seems as if every bus station in Boston is a wind tunnel. I thank God with all my heart that I will never aagin (I hope!!) have to wait for a bus in the Boston/Cambridge area on a cold, dank, windy mid-winter day. The very thought of it makes me feel chilly all over!</p>
<p>We lived in Vermont for three years right before we moved to NC. Believe it or not, Vermont feels less cold than Boston. Vermont’s cold is dry and not very windy, and that makes a huge difference. It’s the wind and the dankness that make Boston’s cold so unbearable. (Plus, Vermonters have the good sense to actually dress for the cold – with down jackets, lots of layers, and fleece-lined boots. Bostonians would look ridiculous riding the T to work dressed like that, so, instead, they just freeze their butts off.)</p>
<p>*** There is a TON to do in Boston. But how can you possibly do all of it? You can’t, especially when you’re in school. In terms of stuff to do, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham undoubtedly provide far more than you can fit into your schedule. What use is it to have a thousand things to do – a thousand options, I mean – when you have time only for one or two things per week? The only thing I really miss about Boston (WRT Stuff to Do) is the opera. The Opera Company of Boston put on many memorable productions, and every year (back in my day, at least), the Met came to Boston. There were also some awesome recitals. I don’t think there’s anything 100% comparable in NC…but that would matter only to opera fans. :o</p>
<p>*** Boston is absurdly expensive. As long as you’re on campus, you won’t feel the brunt of that…but wait till you try getting an apartment off-campus! I-yi-yi. You should see the dump we lived in on Mass. Ave. in Arlington Heights (just outside of Cambridge). When we moved to Louisiana in the early '80s for DH’s teaching job, we rented a very nice townhouse for roughly the same amount we’d paid for our dumpy apartment in Arlington. There was NO comparison. And the housing market in Greater Boston is even worse than the rental market. That doesn’t matter to an undergraduate – but it does matter when you graduate and you’re thinking of settling down. NC’s real estate, even at its priciest, is a bargain compared with Boston’s. </p>
<p>I would never move back to Greater Boston, personally. Too cold, too big and ugly, too expensive. I still have family up there, but even they are gravitating southward (to Florida, mostly, LOL).</p>
<p>Overall, on balance, NC Rules. But again, I’m a geezeress, so take it from whence it comes…</p>
<p>^ Even if there is a lot of stuff to do in this area a lot of stuff here is of marginal or purely local quality.</p>
<p>boston is ‘on the circuit’ for big national events and tours in a way this place isn’t.</p>