UNC Chapel Hill versus Schreyer (Penn State)

toneranger
Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:56:38 +0000

Congratulations to you on two really good choices!
my son is in Schreyer and is a business major. The Schreyer experience can be great…but personally, I think the best Schreyer students are ones who love PSU anyway. It does give you access to some small classes (not all). Priority registration is great for a big school. And the dorms aren’t palaces, but they are a step up from the regular dorms and very well located…plus you get four years of guaranteed housing (a plus). The honors classes have been terrific and some of the regular classes have been good (some very large though!). Check out the Schreyer blogs (the dean and students both post on them).
We visited UNC but my s didn’t apply. Some of it was timing as we visited on easter weekend and the place literally cleared out…a ghost town. It didn’t help that we visited Duke the same day and there were lots of kids around. It was a shame because we thought UNC would be a great match for him (although VERY hard to get into).
As you know, UNC overall, has a better reputation. If your son is fine with being an out of state student with 80% North Carolinians, it is likely to be your better choice (my son would have gone to UVA in a minute be he didn’t get in!). 5K per year is not enough to be a major factor, IMO.
Whether or not the UNC is a problem for out of staters is up for debate (see the many threads on the UNC board). If you son is a social kid, it’s likely to be a non-issue.
One question though. Does he like basketball or football? :)