The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

I am very upset and have a lot of shame towards Carolina at this time. With my beloved university being exposed for years of cheating (which there were many students who graduated with me at the time which knew that athletes were given grades and false classes), the reputation has taken a major hit and I feel like I cannot even support Carolina any more until the university comes clean and cleans up athletics. I use to be proud to say that I graduated from UNC but now I hold my head down as others think that my degree is a joke. I am staying strong but my advice to incoming students is to just enjoy your time no matter which university you choose.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Overall, UNC-Chapel Hill provides a healthy balance between academics and extracurricular activities. Upper level undergraduate courses are difficult/demanding whereas courses for freshman/sophomores are relatively painless. The school's student composition is 82% in-state and 18% out of state. My experience was that in-staters and out-of-staters don't mesh well.

2nd Year Male -- Class 2005

Campus Aesthetics: A, Useful Schoolwork: B

I recently transferred to UNC, so my comment is partly tailored to that experience. I am an in-state student that did not get into Carolina out of high school, so I went to another in-state school for two years and then transferred. After the long up-hill climb, now I'm here, and I'm thinking maybe it wasn't such a bad thing I didn't get in in the first place. At my other school (which wasn't as elite, but still was good), I really had the ability to stand out. I was the president of organizations, involved in the community, had lots of friends by my sophomore year, etc. Here, in addition to having the feeling of starting all over again as a freshman at my new school, I am not nearly as academically competitive as I was, with my previous 3.75 GPA. But I expected that. What I didn't expect was the excruciating social atmosphere. If you are looking at UNC, as either a first year student, or as a transfer, you should take into account that this school caters to very specific types of personalities and interests. If you aren't within those bounds, or like me, are miles outside of them, prepare to polarized, isolated, and radicalized. I have been in mental and emotional deuress, really, from orientation on up to this day. The coursework is challenging here, but the emotional turmoil created by the academic and social atmosphere has made it significantly harder. To illustrate UNC's social environment, I will describe attributes of students that will probably love it here and do well: activist, academically a genius, no sense of humor, politically correct, judgmental, out to prove a point, try-hard, future moms of America, future boring dads of America, future boring people of America, overly-organized, power-walker, power hungry, wanna-be artist, ready to make a difference in the world by joining corporate America, conformist, pretentious, elitist, matter-of-fact, self-dignified, political, far-left collellectivist, far-right neocon, news-consuming-elitist, science-oriented, business-oriented, corporate-oriented, sports-oriented. Obviously, not everyone fits all of these categories, but I just wanted to illustrate some of the general vibes you will get. If you fit into a lot of the above categories, then maybe you'd love UNC! However, if you don't, or if you're like me and you're interested in going into the arts, you might want to look elsewhere. I see a lot of people calling UNC 'artsy'. Hahahahahahaha. That is laughable. UNC is not artsy, UNC is anti-art. They do however love sports, science, and lots and lots of soul-crushing, passion-extinguishing work. At orientation you will be told that 'following you passion' is BS. If you're looking in-state for more art friendly environments, UNCSA or UNCG may be better fits. And if you didn't get in to UNC from the get-go, that may have just been a sign that this was not a good fit for your personality. Why be miserable? Go somewhere where you will be valued and can let your colors shine. That denial letter may be the best thing that ever happened to you.

1st Year Male -- Class 2016

Collaboration/Competitive: A, Individual Value: F