<p>I know that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the premier public universities in the nation. However, I am sort of curious how the branch campuses stack up.</p>
<p>I understand that Ashevilles is strong in the liberal arts and has a strong reputation, even for a branch campus. I know that Greensboro campus was a women's institution until the early 1960s. </p>
<p>Pembroke has been recruiting aggressively in the north, but I understand it has the weakest reputation in the UNC system. </p>
<p>I know absolutely nothing about Wilmington or Charlotte campuses.</p>
<p>UNCG has a very strong music program, as does appstate and NCSA. UNCW has a repuatation as a party school and UNCC has a good engineering program, as does NC State (but NC State is definitely a stronger school overall).</p>
<p>There are 16 campuses in the whole system, with Chapel Hill being the flagship.<br>
Many of the other campuses--all easier to get into than Chapel Hill, for both in-state and OOS, do have specific strengths.<br>
-NCSU, in Raleigh, with engineering/sciences, strong textiles program, a design school that's both outstanding and fairly selective, and a vet school.<br>
-UNC-Wilmington actually has a strong marine science program, but a reputation (as the above poster mentions) for being a party school. Not sure how well deserved that is, but it's located at the beach (enough said).<br>
-UNCG (Greensboro) does have a strong music and dance program, as well as an excellent creative writing dept/major. Probably has some other strengths, but I'm not that familiar with it. You are correct that it used to be the Women's College of NC, was all female, and highly selective--as difficult to get into as Chapel Hill. Some believe that the school went downhill (academically) when they went co-ed and became UNC-Greensboro. Certainly not a difficult admit now.<br>
-East Carolina (in Greenville) also has a strong performing and visual arts program.<br>
-NC School of the Arts (Winston Salem) is highly selective and the premiere school for performing arts. Graduates from there easily end up on Broadway (right out of school).<br>
-UNC-Asheville is relatively small, in the mountains--great location in a thriving city. I'm not sure what, if any, its specific strengths are, but students seem to like it.
-UNC-Charlotte. Not sure about specific strengths, though I <em>think</em> it has a strong architecture program.
-Appalachian is also in the mountains (Boone, NC) and students love it there, too. I know it has a strong visual arts program, not sure what else.</p>
<p>Not sure of all the others. Each campus differs greatly from the other, and they each certainly have a very different feel. I think it's also safe to say that Pembroke most definitely has the weakest reputation and is not on a level with any of the above--not even close.</p>