First of all, your daughter has two very good options lined up for college. I can't really speak for UCLA but I can for UNC. A lot of prospective out of state students worry about feeling left out when coming to an institution where no more than 18% of the student body can be from out of state. In general, out of state students do not have a hard time getting to know people because Carolina does such a great job at the beginning of the school year trying to get students (particularly incoming freshman) involved by having an event called fall fest (a street festival where most student organization recruit new members) during WOW (week of welcome).I'm not from out of state so it is difficult for me to relate personally, but those students that i do know from out of state (three of which are from California) feel like it was easy to get to know people, especially when living in a suite or joining organizations on campus.
If you are interested in learning about the faculty in the history department or just the history department in general visit
Department of History, UNC Chapel Hill — History for more information.
UNC, like any other large public school, has large classes. Entry level classes tend to be larger and class size naturally decreases as you move into more advanced courses. This exception here is entry level english, spanish and math, and some other courses that have their enrollment per class capped which helps keep classes significantly smaller than at other school. A recent report stated the following: "In 2003, 51 percent of UNC’s course sections enrolled fewer than 20 students. That was second (topped only by UC-Berkeley at 54 percent) among UNC’s public peers and up from 40 percent in 2002. U.S. News considered an additional measure: only 12 percent of UNC’s course sections enrolled 50 or more students in 2003, down from 13 percent the previous year." If your daughter got in as an honors student at Carolina she will have virtually all small classes if she wants them. Honors classes are, by nature, much smaller than normal classes.
Now to the issue of available funding....
Carolina, at least in the foreseeable future, does not appear to have funding issues. For the 2004-2005 fiscal year UNC received 25.01% of the whole UNC system budget that provides for 15 other state institutions. Actually since 1991 UNC has never received less than 24.81% of the whole UNC system budget from the state. This trend will likely continue. Furthermore, the Carolina First campaign just ended on December 31st. It is the fifth largest fund raising drive among higher education institutes in the nation to date and raised 2.38 billion dollars for the university. Of this money, $345.3 million is allocated directly to aid students, including 577 new scholarships and 196 new fellowships; $579.4 million for research; $664.8 million for strategic initiatives; and $185 million for facilities. Looks like funding is okay given these things.
Hope this cleared up a few of your questions!