My daughter (from NJ) is a sophomore interested in studying psychology. Her GPA is 4.2 but she has only taken one AP class so far. She would like to go to college in NC or Fl. Does not want a city. Wants a school “with good school spirit“ and racial diversity would be a plus. I think Duke and UNC Chapel Hill would be high reaches. She will be full pay. Any suggestions of schools to visit?
In Florida, FSU and UF are pretty well known for their spirit, though their diversity is eh.
FIU is huge and very diverse but by a big city. The smaller Florida schools lack sports teams so not sure about the spirit, though I do think FGCU has a great campus with good facilities and amazing dorms.
Why Florida, out of curiosity?
OOS at UNC CH is almost impossible. Just keep that in mind- they are only allowed so many not from NC so that competition is intense.
I agree that getting into UNC as an OOS student has about the same low percentages of getting into a top 20 university. Give it a shot, but it is not very likely. The higher her SAT/ACT score, the better. NCSU is not quite as difficult, but would be a reach too because it is a very popular school and because of NC’s OOS enrollment cap.
Unfortunately, her wishes point in different directions for NC public universities. The more diverse schools (UNC-G, UNC-Char) are in large cities of 300K-500K. The school with an extra kick of spirit is App State, but App State is not diverse, and is not in a diverse town. But App State is a great school in a nice college type of town, and it would probably fit her needs well outside of diversity.
The school that sounds like the best fit for her list is ECU. It has great spirit, is extremely diverse, is in a great college area, and is an hour from the beach. ECU is very good in Health related studies. Some people, not all, may feel it is not a high enough academic school overall, but if your daughter’s test scores match her GPA, she can get into the Honors School. Even without honors school, I think she could find her place there, but that would of course be a personal choice for her and the family.
UNCW is a decent school, but it has no school spirit and is not diverse, so I’m not sure how much it would interest her. It is at the coast, so there is that. Similarly, UNC-Asheville is a cool little public Liberal Arts School in a cool moderately-sized city, but only she can decide if it is the right fit for her.
If she’s looking for private schools, try Elon, or maybe Wake Forest if it is in your budget. Neither is very diverse, but WFU especially has a good bit of school spirit.
Good luck.
@mom2boys1999 Why Florida? She likes warm weather. She went on a college tour with her brother to Michigan in November, 22 degrees, and was ready to commit to Florida. I agree that she has no chance at Chapel Hill. We can afford private schools.
Also, her dislike of cities was based on NYC (touring Columbia with her brother). I have not spent much time in NC, but I suspect a NC city is different than NYC.
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Not NC or FL, but what about Georgia, SC or Clemson? All three would be easier admits than UNC but have similar school spirit and aren’t in big cities. Athens in particular is a very cute college town. My D did a summer program there for two years and her only complaint was that it was HOT – but this was July. 
@burghdad is from the NE, I believe, and his daughter is at Clemson and having a very good experience. I think Clemson is getting more OOS STEM students these days as places like UMD and VT in the mid-Atlantic are getting tougher to get into, and, as mentioned, NC State has sig. OOS caps.
@AlmostThere2018 Thanks for these suggestions. Have not spent much time in the south.
Davidson College in North Carolina should be considered.
I second Davidson and also you should look into schools with warmer weather because only applying to schools in NC and FL is a lot harder.
In Florida, your best shot at diversity is going to be FIU or University of Miami. Florida schools are not very diverse until you head towards Miami, though a few years ago FAU was boasting of its diversity as an admissions factor.
My Jersey girl is also looking to study psych and not a city girl. But again, “not a city girl” is not a NYC girl. We’re looking at JMU in VA -good size, seems to have good school spirit, and their psych offerings seems pretty interesting. We’re also looking at App State, ECU and Wilmington (hoping for honors college at a couple hopefully).
UMD psych seems to be really strong; not sure if this will be too urban but we’re hoping to visit.
Quite. I like the feel of both Charlotte and NYC. Charlotte is the 15th largest city in America with approximatley 900K people in the overall area. That’s not the same as NYC with over 8M people. Charlotte is a big city for 99 percent of America, but living there is not the same as living in NYC.
If your daughter fine with a city of Charlotte’s size, UNC-Charlotte is definitely worth a look.
Thanks everyone. My son knew exactly which schools he wanted to apply to and my daughter is at the other end of the spectrum. Hopefully campuses will reopen for tours in the fall because the student’s impression of the campus is so important.
Seconding JMU, App State, UNCW, UNC Asheville, VTech or NCSU depending on major, Elon, UMiami.
What about UTK or USC Columbia?