<p>My vote goes to UNC for a more complete experience</p>
<p>I also vote for UNC Chapel Hill. I strongly disagree that you would have less interaction with professors there than at W&M.</p>
<p>"Do you love basketball? If not, W&M. "</p>
<p>Do not reduce UNC to basketball. That is ridiculous it is on par academically with Cal, UCLA, UVA and Michigan.</p>
<p>^ Can you elaborate how you can have more professor interactions w/ close to 18,000 students for undergraduate studies compared to 6000 students?</p>
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Let’s not put words in my mouth. I certainly did not say UNC offered more interaction; I simply said it did not offer less.</p>
<p>If you take the time and effort to look at course listings, you’d see that most courses have fewer than 30 students. Many upper level courses have 10-20 (or even fewer). Professors have office hours at UNC, as they do at most other universities, and they’re more than willing to work with dedicated/motivated students.</p>
<p>But, aren’t some classes taught by teaching assistants unlike at william and mary.</p>
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Put briefly, not really.</p>
<p>You are referring to graduate instructors rather than teaching assistants (who, by definition, merely assist with teaching). Graduate instructors are usually ABD graduate students and are nearly always used for basic introductory courses (intro calculus, first year of certain languages, etc.). The use of graduate instructors is definitely not limited to public universities. Just a few miles down the road, Duke uses them at least as much. Many other elite private universities (e.g. Brown) also have graduate instructors, and it’s quite common for LACs to hire graduate students before they completely finish their dissertations (hence the “PhD expected [date]” on some CVs).</p>
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<p>I’ve never had a class taught by a TA at UNC…some of the larger (ie 100+ student) classes have weekly discussion sections led by teaching assistants, but the courses are still taught by the professors.</p>
<p>sounds like you prefer W&M more for its smaller student body, more academically focused environment, and closer interactions with its your professors.
I’m deciding between W&M and GW, and i’m leaning towards W&M for now :)</p>
<p>It would be harder to get a 3.6+, imo, at W&M. There is always talk about grade deflation here. That said, we have better Med and Law school placement/acceptance than UVA, so I’d assume [correct me if I’m wrong] it was better than UNC-CH too. </p>
<p>As for student-professor interaction, not all of it occurs in the classroom. I’m on an environmental committee with professors, staff, and other students which has helped me to get to know some truly amazing people. My intro to geology Professor (also on that committee) learned everyone’s names in our 100+ person class, and can even spout off most of our hometowns too! My Spanish professor learned everyone’s name in the 25 person class the first day. Maybe its just me, (and me being bad with names) but that kind of thing just amazes me. At W&M, its not just upperclassmen or graduate students doing research - this year some fellow freshmen found a new bacteriophage that may be useful in treating tuberculosis. I’ve even been over to a department head’s house for BBQ (as a freshman?!). While there, another professor stopped by as she was walking her dog and another came over from next door to join us when he saw us from his window!</p>
<p>For undergrad W&M>>UNC. W&M is like the Marines (few,proud…) and UNC is like the Army. A little bit more for the masses.</p>
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<p>W&M may be like the Marines, but if UNC is like the Army, then it has Green Berets, Rangers, and Delta Force.</p>
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<p>Nope. The Marines are elite, but they would get their asses handed to them by Delta and the Green Berets.</p>
<p>There is a reason that UNC has produced more Rhodes scholars than any other public out there besides UVA (yes, even more than William and Mary). There are more opportunities for you here if you choose to take advantage of them.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that UVa and USC-CH are also much larger schools with more than 3x the undergrads.</p>
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Irrelevant. The Rhodes requires institutional endorsement, and usually universities nominate only 3-5 candidates.</p>
<p>Whoops, UNC, sorry. And yes, I believe it’s relevant as they [as in the uni itself] have a larger pool to choose from.</p>
<p>Anyway, before we start debating the number of Rhodes Scholars as a metric to compare universities, I think we all recognize that each institution has its strong points and provide different atmospheres for undergraduate education which could better suite some students at each.</p>
<p>I would go with UNC. Great school, lots of school spirit, and good reputation. William and Mary is also a very good school but i have heard that a lot of kids live near by and go home on weekends- not sure how much that happens but i heard it somewhere. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’d Say UNC. UNC Kenan Flagler is a great business school and UNC in general is a very good university.</p>
<p>college11- you couldnt be more wrong about W&M being a suitcase school. Most parents have to beg the kids to come back for a visit, they are having so much fun. With almost 40% OOS population, going home is impractical for the weekend.</p>
<p>bump… It is just getting interesting</p>