@pac12bound: To clarify, is your son currently a senior in high school, who is choosing between UCLA and UNC to matriculate in August 2017?
If your son wants an urban campus, he will not get it in Chapel Hill. But Chapel Hill has its charms, although it may be a bit of a leap of faith for your son without seeing the campus in person.
Student academic life at UNC is not competitive in the way that I think you describe for UCLA. I have a first-year at UNC who seems to be pretty happy there.
I just hope that there will still be college basketball at UNC after the NCAA gets done with its investigation/adjudication; I’m keeping my fingers crossed!