UNC is NOT for everyone

eadad
Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:45:20 +0000

There is something underlying in orchid’s comments that are driving them that don’t completely add up. I’ll agree that UNC is NOT for everyone, just like Amherst or Dartmouth or Pomona or U of Chicago are not for everyone. But, on the other hand, at UNC the negative comments seem to be far outweighed by the positives.

I know of one person last year on CC from Florida who got to UNC and then wished that they had gone to Miami so they transferred. I happen to know the parents of his former roommate and know that the person was unhappy almost from day one which could have led to him never really try to have a good experience or fit in as well.

I’m suprised that as an OOS student, given the highly competitive nature of admissions, that orchid had the experience with TAs that he/she stated. The fact IS that many if not most OOS students (as well as many in state students) enter UNC with a good number of AP credits, which places them through those entry level classes which are a fact of life at many schools-even Ivies. If you truly want to avoid any contact with a TA, choose a very small liberal arts college but understand going in that the overall undergraduate experience wil also be much different.

I’ve stated before that my now junior son has had ZERO classes “taught” by a TA and that in fact freshman year, his advanced calculus class was only 55 students and taught by a full professor while his best friend at Penn (Ivy not PSU), taking the same class was one of 300 taught by a non-English speaking TA.

He has had one or two grad asst TA’s run a lab section of a hard science class and lead a discussion group in a very popular elective but he also said that the person who led that group was more engaging and a better “teacher” than some tenured prof who might be teaching an undergrad class because he/she had to as a requirement of their position which he has heard from a number of his friends at Yale and other places. In fact, his former HS classmates at Harvard have had far more exposure to TAs in their first two year than he has had.

He was asked by the head of a department to TA for him this year and it was a highly competitive process. He doesn’t grade papers or exams and functions to lead discussions in a small group setting. Interestingly this professor insists that the TAs regularly rotate among the discussion groups so that his students can get differing viewpoints and be exposed to the whole of students he has selected to assist him.

I’m not the only person on CC who has regularly commented on the fact that there is far more to do at UNC that isn’t solely focused on parties and drinking as is the case at many schools so I am really puzzeled by the comments about “nothing to do.”

If anyone on the UNC threads needs information about life at UNC and in Chapel Hill there are plenty of regular posters who are current students and parents of current students. I am certain that they will give you honest answers to your concerns.

Sorry, and I don’t mean to offend anyone, but I had to laugh at the comments fearing that being from the north brands you as a “yankee.” This might be the case at somewhere in the “deep south” like Ole Miss, Alabama or even Tennessee, but at UNC, this couldn’t be further from the truth. UNC and Chapel Hill are the most liberal spots in North Carolina and given the fact that the state has had such tremendous growth, especially in the research triangle, that the number of transplanted northerners who now reside in North Carolina not only greatly impacts the overall diversity of the state but also impacts the backgrounds of many of the in-state students as well who were born and often spent much of their lives somewhere else before their family was transferred to North Carolina.