The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

For starters, I can say that the whole "racial tension" bit from other reviews is junk. Although Carolina is in the South (and yes, there are definitely still issues to be worked out for everyone to get along), you'd have to try really hard not to learn a million things about the world around you and the many, many different perspectives of its student body. As a naive kid that grew up in rural NC, I am so thankful for the chance to befriend and get to know people from all races, orientations, backgrounds, etc etc, and just having the chance to listen to different people's stories and their point of view on things. I feel that I am a better and more compassionate human being because of it.

As a Christian, I can tell you that this is a unique opportunity for you to grow in your faith while learning to get along with people that quite possibly, completely disagree with you. The college missionaries that work here (check out Chi Alpha, IV, or Cornerstone) are a resource that is worth more than pure gold in helping you to make decisions for yourself...in fact, if you're considering a career in ministry, I would even challenge you to get a 4-year degree at Carolina and use one of these great campus ministries as a launching point for your career.

As a BS Bio major, I can tell you that the intro courses (intro to bio, intro to chem) are weedout...do everything possible to take these anywhere else or come in with AP credit (or just be a genius who can outsmart a class of 200+ students) so your GPA stays intact. Once you get out of the really big classes and start into the more focused classes, the quality of education skyrockets. I have never worked harder for an A (or sometimes a C) in my life, but the academic rigor prepared me very well for the outside world. I ended up switching fields and went into IT/management, instead, but I can tell you that the quality of my work, my writing, math skills, everything, is so much more polished and sharp than people I've seen come out of other institutions with greater student loans and no real skills to show for it. The catch: If you definitely want to go to med school (dental school, etc, also), there is a GPA game to play and it may be better to go to State or ECU where you will get the educational base you need, but will run into less cut-throat competition and you honestly have a better chance of a better GPA, and then go to Carolina for Med/Dental.

For people not necessarily looking at grad school: If you can ace the weedout classes and *do lab research*, the sciences @ UNC are top notch (bio, chem, etc). I've also had friends go through their comp. sci, school of journalism & mass. comm., and business school and all of us are a) employed b) successful and c) our degrees were well-worth the investment.If I had to do it over again, I would definitely go back to Carolina (but given my career choice, would maybe have picked a BSBA from the Business school as my primary major and maybe minored in Bio, instead).

4th Year Male -- Class 2007

Education Quality: A+, Collaboration/Competitive: C-

I was looking up reviews of different schools on here and I noticed that there were some overwhelmingly negative comments posted. I decided to look up UNC Chapel Hill since I graduated from the school, just out of curiosity. I noticed that many of the negative reviews posted refer to specific universities in comparison to Carolina (the REAL Carolina BTW), talk about racial tension on campus, and refer to the school as a waste of money because professors are arrogant and so are the students.

First of all, as an African American male, UNC is one of the most liberal places you could hope for, and in no way is there unspoken racial tension to the degree that other reviewers are stating. Secondly, the professors and students are NOT arrogant, but are rather proud to be part of an institution with so much history and Prestige. I now live in South Florida where there are plenty of strong schools such as UF, FSU, UCF, USF, Miami, etc., and when I mention that I attended UNC people always comment on how great of a school it is. If that doesn't tell you something, then I don't know how else to explain to you that the University is top quality.

My major was Psychology, I completed my MS in Mental Health Counseling, and I am now pursuing a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Any person I have come into contact with professionally and academically has been impressed by my background, and especially that I graduated from UNC. It is a difficult school to perform well academically because the courses are challenging and large class sizes do make it difficult for those who need individual attention. However, if you are that type of student, then you should attend a smaller school or choose to NOT take the 300 person lecture class at 8AM and take smaller classes. Those of us who have a UNC-Chapel HIll diploma on the wall will tell you that it is an amazing university with state of the art technology, excellent campus living, and if we could go back, we would in a heartbeat.

With that being said, this review is not from a "fake" student, my name is in the bell tower with all of my classmates. If you are a fan of another university, write a positive review about your school and stop posting false statements about this one. And Duke, although it is a wonderful school, still holds it's position as the thing I hate most lol. Rah Rah Carolina!Gzaz

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000