The Most Underrated School in each State

Marsian
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 11:18:59 +0000

ethelouise and keepittoyourself – I’ve no doubt that you’re right that some NC students “see” UNC as a safety. They would be wise not to. I know, and know of, a number of top of their class students who thought of UNC as a sure thing and were rejected. In recent years, those students included: 1) a double legacy, straight A student from a very good high school; 2) a minority student who spoke three languages, was near the top of the high school class, and whose parents immigrated from a very poor country, and 3) the valedictorian of one of the most competitive high schools in the state, a student with several Ivy acceptances. All of these students were active in extracurricular activities and all were highly regarded by their teachers and counselors. These are just three examples from one person. I know people all over the state who could give you similar examples.

So, while I don’t dispute what you know personally, I have a different perspective from having known of a number of “sure thing” UNC rejections.

I also hear of this more and more with NC State, especially with the engineering program. Other UNC system schools like UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Asheville, and Appalachian are becoming more difficult to get into because they are getting a lot of students like the above (#3 went to one of the Ivies) who didn’t get in UNC or NC State. Also, they get a number of top students who choose not even to apply to State or Carolina.

One thing I appreciate about North Carolina is that, in general, people are not elitist when it comes to education. Most of our top students want to go to public universities, and many students who would have a good shot at UNC decide to apply to other UNC system schools instead. That strengthens our system as a whole and means that we have a lot of underrated public universities.