<p>hey everyone, so I was accepted to William and Mary and UNC, but choosing between them is near impossible. </p>
<p>I loved W&M when I visited last summer, the idea of a really close community is what I was looking for, and the size of the student population is perfect for me. The problem is that my major (journalism/mass communication) isn't offered at W&M, and there aren't really any ways around that. Also, I haven't gotten financial aid because my mom hasn't been able to file taxes, but even with a decent package, I'd be in debt by graduation.</p>
<p>UNC, on the other hand, has a very strong journalism/mass comm school. The campus is familiar to me. I have countless UNC shirts/sweaters. I would graduate without any loans, even without the $2000 scholarship I got. But my problems with UNC are also pretty big. It is literally 5 minutes from my house, but I know that my college experience will be different than my high school one. I view college as another chance to have a clean slate, but I'd see so many people I know that it would be hard to just shake off my high-school self. Also, I know that 17000+ students is too big for me. </p>
<p>I'm surprised at how difficult making this choice is for me. If you asked me a month ago which one I'd go to, I'd say W&M in a heartbeat. But I honestly don't know anymore. I did the whole "coin flip but don't look, just which one your gut wants it to land on" thing, but my gut isn't telling me anything.
Both school have really good weekly papers, a cappella groups, and improv teams; things I'm hoping to do when I go to college. School sports really don't matter to me. </p>
<p>If anyone has advice for me, that would be extremely helpful. Thanks!</p>
<p>There are certainly great reasons to go to either school. The good news is you still have about three weeks to make up your mind. Even though you’ve visited both, we’d encourage you to visit both again as an admitted student.</p>
<p>We’d also encourage you to contact W&M’s English department to see what advice they might give someone interested in journalism and mass comm since that’s the path most W&M students interested in those fields take. We have had several students who worked for our office in the past few years major in English at W&M and go on to positions and/or grad school in jounalism so not having an undergraduate program in the field certainly doesn’t prohibit our students from pursuing that as a career. Furthermore we have two student newspapers, a TV station, a radio station, a yearbook and several lit mags on campus that provide outlets for students interested in journalism/mass comm. There are also usually student interns hired by Creative Services and University Relations/W&M News so that you can gain professional experience.</p>
<p>There was a thread on W&M vs UNC last spring that might also be useful</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-william-mary/935717-wm-vs-unc-chapel-hill.html?highlight=unc[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-william-mary/935717-wm-vs-unc-chapel-hill.html?highlight=unc</a></p>
<p>If my math is right, W&M will cost you about $44k/year OOS (assuming a 5% increase for '11-'12) versus $14k/year IS at UNC (5% increase in '11-'12 and a $2k scholarship). Paying an extra $120k over 4 years ($30k/year x 4) just doesn’t make sense! I love W&M but would strongly recommend you make UNC work. Consider W&M for grad school!!</p>
<p>By the way, make sure you live in a dorm as a freshman at UNC. Don’t live at home as that WILL impact your college experience.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much debt you would leave W&M with, but IMO that should be a serious consideration for you.</p>
<p>Cost should absolutely be a factor but so should fit. It doesn’t do a school or a student any good to attend a school only to wind up transferring if the school truly isn’t the right fit. However, if cost is a major factor and you think you can have a productive and satisfying at UNC and the cost differential is in fact significant we certainly can’t fault anyone for making a prudent financial decision.</p>
<p>You would have freshman year at W&M. You would experience 13th grade at UNC. The schools are night & day. Major in English, intern at a paper in the summer and you will easily get a job at graduation from W&M.</p>
<p>W&M certainly do work to provide students with a great intellectual and academic experience that challenges them and helps them grow as students. That being said both W&M and UNC are considered public ivys with great curricula and faculty. W&M’s size does make it unique among public schools in that 40% of our classes have fewer than 20 students and 86% have fewer than 40. 99% of classes are taught by faculty and our faculty-to-student ratio is 12:1 so students get individualized attention that allows them to flourish in the classroom and pursue their academic passions.</p>