<p>How much does a degree from a prestigious university impact the rest of your life? There’s harvard failures and obscure college people who make themselves household names, but how much did their college help them? Doess alumni associations and the school social circles help you that much in life?</p>
<p>Long story short, I’m trying to decide between a full ride to UNC or JHU. UNC’s a wonderful school, but JHU is more prestigious in the medical circle. I’ve heard people say just go for the full ride and school names only matter for grad school. Then there are people saying that where you do go college leaves a “brand” on your resume forever and that college prestige does matter a lot for your future opportunities- like the school you go to majorly impact how your people see you.
Which side would you go with?</p>
<p>This is what I said in a similar thread in regards to Harvard:</p>
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<p>In some industries (high-brow print media comes to mind), prestige and networking can matter. In others, it doesn’t. And in all cases, the question is whether it’s worth the cost difference to you and your family.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard of previous college students, the stuff they learn in different college’s classrooms do differ a lot. I just don’t know if it’ll make that much of a difference. I’m considering premed, so JHU has the academic appeal, but UNC’s offer is very enticing</p>
<p>Go with UNC and save your money. It is the med school that matters. I have close family members who have gone to JHU and to state schools premed and frankly, the ones who went to state schools were happier and did better in the long run. Plus they saved a pile of money for med school tuition. Kids are also more well rounded in general at UNC. I think you will be happier overall choosing UNC.</p>
<p>I have to agree. Go to UNC. It saves you money for grad school and you can’t beat the atmosphere.</p>
<p>On another note, I have heard in different circles that Medical schools of universities are actually less likely to accept you if you go to that school for Undergrad. I don’t know how true that is, and I don’t have any stats to back that up, just something I have heard from different doctors.</p>
<p>packerfan is correct. Most med schools actually limit the number of acceptances offered to their own undergrads. My son has a good friend that graduated from UNC in '07 at JHU med and I’ve already mentioned his classmates/friends at Harvard and Baylor as well as his top ten school. Even the multiple posts on the pre med forums are saying to take the money. UNC carries a lot of prestige. My son told me that every med school interviewer he had talked about how strong the sciences are at UNC and all know how tough an OOS admit it is. Many of the interviewers he had knew someone at UNC or had done research with someone at UNC. The world of academia is smaller than you might imagine.</p>
<p>UNC will NOT hurt your chances for med school, will offer a far more enjoyable undergrad experience along with a far less cutthroat acdemic environment. Save your money for med school it is VERY expensive today and will be even more so in four years.</p>
<p>Have you visited both schools? The area around JHU makes Durham look like a playground!</p>
<p>sorry im about to go a little bit off topic but im also considering pre med at UNC. However I was wondering if someone could confirm this for me. Is it true that UNC students also have the option of taking classes/research at Duke as well? I really like how the area has so many resources as far as hospitals. And would like to take advantage of the resources at UNC as well as the those of surrounding schools. Thanks</p>
<p>You can take some classes at Duke; there is a limit on the number of hours you can take and it must be a class not offered at UNC, unless you are a Robertson Scholar.</p>
<p>The Robertson bus runs back and forth between the campuses and anyone can take it which makes things fairly easy.</p>
<p>“Have you visited both schools? The area around JHU makes Durham look like a playground!”</p>
<p>Nonsense, JHU is fine. Security is pervasive at Hopkins. JHU’s class president wasn’t executed and dumped in the street last I looked.</p>
<p>“UNC carries a lot of prestige.”</p>
<p>So says you. People associated with UNC seem to say this more than anyone else. blah, blah, blah… No matter what UNC does it’s still going to be the state school of North Carolina and it’s still going to have to admit 80% of its students from in-state. That statistically disqualifies it from being a national school. It’s a fine school - be happy with that and quit all the puffery. </p>
<p>“UNC will NOT hurt your chances for med school, will offer a far more enjoyable undergrad experience along with a far less cutthroat acdemic environment.”</p>
<p>The whole “cutthroat” thing is a canard. There’s plenty of competition at any school worth a crap. The fact is studying with a class full of the nation’s best benefits the student more than studying with a class full of the second best.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses so far. I’m asking so many questions because I want to understand my choices as much as possible before making decisions.</p>
<p>What’s the difference between a public and private school? I’m OOS for UNC, so the competition to get in was similar to those of private schools. If public schools are just as good as private ones, then why are some people so willing to pay $$ for private schools?</p>
<p>And how is JHU/northwestern/UNC’s alumni association? Will this actually help you later in life if you have connections?</p>
<p>True as that may be, some people on this forum may find that comment slightly offensive. Additionally, the reason this was so shocking to UNC and the Chapel Hill community is that is the first time that anybody can remember that anything like that happened around here. This sort of thing virtually NEVER happens.</p>
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Explain your comment further. Would you agree with the statement that other top public schools such as UCB, UCLA, and UVA are not on the map nationally?</p>
<p>Someone who doesn’t live in MD probably doesn’t know much about the prestige of JHU anyway–also, don’t sell Chapel Hill short. It is consistently in the Top 5 public universities. And, although it admits 80% in-state, it admits AMAZING in-state students. You must be a Duke fan, since you live in NC.</p>
<p>I agree with your point that Chapel Hill isn’t very safe. There are many things that I say to defend my school, but I have been very disappointed in the way UNC and Chapel Hill handles matters of security. Living on campus is no problem, but petty crime around the surrounding area is rampant.</p>
<p>That being said I am incredibly offended by your tone when describing Eve Carson’s murder. Her death was very close to my heart and has totally affected the lives of my friends and family. I understand your point, and I agree with it, it’s just how flippantly you discussed it. Please don’t say things like that again. I know that when anyone reads news it’s hard to imagine that there are real people behind a headline, and anyone makes these kinds of mistakes.</p>
<p>“True as that may be, some people on this forum may find that comment slightly offensive.”</p>
<p>It’s the truth. People who find the truth offensive need to examine that personal problem for themselves. You can rationalize it away all you want, but it happened.</p>
<p>“That being said I am incredibly offended by your tone when describing Eve Carson’s murder. Her death was very close to my heart and has totally affected the lives of my friends and family. I understand your point, and I agree with it, it’s just how flippantly you discussed it. Please don’t say things like that again. I know that when anyone reads news it’s hard to imagine that there are real people behind a headline, and anyone makes these kinds of mistakes.”</p>
<p>I appologize for offending. My point was not to diminish Eve Carson in any way. I agree with you completely - it was an outrage and an extreme tradgedy.</p>
<p>Coolbreeze: You actually think that JHU is full of the “nation’s best” students? That’s a laugh, more like the safety school for the nation’s best.</p>
<p>“Explain your comment further. Would you agree with the statement that other top public schools such as UCB, UCLA, and UVA are not on the map nationally?”</p>
<p>I would agree. My only point is they all have the same self-limiting factor of being geographically limited in their selection pool to a certain extent. </p>
<p>“… also, don’t sell Chapel Hill short. It is consistently in the Top 5 public universities. And, although it admits 80% in-state, it admits AMAZING in-state students. You must be a Duke fan, since you live in NC.”</p>
<p>I’m not selling Chapel Hill short. It’s a great institution. I agree they’re a top 10 public school. Graduates go on to do great things. However, I do not agree that North Carolina somehow has an edge on the rest of the world in producing AMAZING students.</p>
<p>“Coolbreeze: You actually think that JHU is full of the “nation’s best” students? That’s a laugh, more like the safety school for the nation’s best.”</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to (and I don’t think I did) refer to JHU there. I meant it more generally to schools that competitively recruit their whole classes on a national (or global) basis.</p>