UNC Wilmington or UNC Asheville?

<p>Hi, I'm a high school senior who's been accepted to both UNCW and UNCA. I've visited the UNCW campus and I absolutely loved the laid-back atmosphere and especially the beach! UNCA was listed alongside UNC-Chapel Hill in the 2013 Princeton Review, however. I may visit the campus in April, but I'm not a big mountain person. </p>

<p>Which ranks better academically, socially, location-wise, and overall? I'm planning on going the Pre-Med track (Yes, yes, Chapel Hill is amazing for Pre-med, I know.) I'm an African-American female with a 3.8 unweighted GPA and all my courses have been Honors and College credit, so I'm definitely considering the Honors college at Wilmington.</p>

<p>Why are you considering those colleges ? Did you not get accepted to Chapel Hill ?</p>

<p>How about North Carolina State at Raleigh ? </p>

<p>If you are forced to choose one from those two, then Wilmington has the better program. It also depends on what kind of atmosphere you like. Wilmington is much bigger than Asheville.</p>

<p>The Princeton Review’s list also excludes some very highly regarded schools, including Cal Poly SLO, and includes some institutions whose inclusion I find, at best, questionable. FWIW, UNC-W is listed as a best Southeastern school by the Princeton Review. </p>

<p>If you prefer UNC-W, go there. It’s a good school with some truly excellent programs.</p>

<p>Frappe – I am very familiar with both schools. You have two wonderful choices and cannot go wrong with either. Congratulations on getting in! It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get in these schools.</p>

<p>You already are familiar with UNC-W from your visits. I know lots of students there (from my children’s high school classes), and all of them are very happy.</p>

<p>UNC-A is a lot smaller and is more hippie/green/liberal than UNC-W. The students from our high school who have gone there love it. Graduates of UNC-A do very well in getting into medical/law/graduate schools. I like that there is only a very, very small Greek presence. Asheville is a very artsy, liberal city, with outdoor opportunities galore. Although UNC-A is a very diversity-friendly place, my sense is that there is not as much racial diversity at UNC-W, if that is a concern of yours.</p>

<p>They are very different places. I’d encourage you to visit UNC-A to check it out, but at this point if you decide to go on and accept a place at UNC-W, you shouldn’t have any regrets. If you like UNC-W as much as you seem to, UNC-A might not be as good a fit.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>Frappe – The last sentence of my third paragraph should read “my sense is that there is not as much racial diversity AS at UNC-W”. That totally changes the meaning of the sentence.</p>

<p>@XtremePower These were my safety schools for if I hadn’t been accepted to UNC. I was, though which is awesome!!!</p>

<p>@whenhen and Marsian Thanks so much for the info! I definitely prefer Wilmington’s atmosphere to Asheville but I just didn’t know how they compared academically.</p>

<p>Congrats goto Chapel Hill.</p>