Would UNCG or Appalachian be a better option for me if I study sociology? I am thinking about a criminology/deviance/law concentration. I have an absolute goal of going to graduate school and hopefully getting a Ph.D at the best university I can possible be accepted into, so I am really looking for undergraduate research opportunities, close relationships with my professors, etc. I know that ASU is a better school in general, but is it best for sociology? Is there a better UNC school that would be best for sociology (other than Chapel Hill or NC State because I likely would not be accepted).
Generally, undergraduate programs in fields are not ranked/compared to each other, so there’s really no place that has been judged “best” for sociology. Besides, you don’t need to choose a school that is great in one particular subject; you should choose based on where you can have the best overall undergraduate experience and education. Even if you do ultimately major in sociology, you’ll actually take most of your classes and spend most of your time outside of the sociology department.
App State seems to have a concentration on both practical and academic applications: they talk about the kinds of doctoral programs their students attend after graduation but all students also must take a practicum to get experience before graduation. Students are encouraged to get involved in research. App State specifically has a concentration in criminology, deviance, and law, and you can also double-major in criminal justice. Professors are involved in research; you can see what their specialties are on the website, but with that concentration and a special major in CJ I bet you could find lots of people to do related research with.
UNCG has an MA program in sociology, so there’s the opportunity to take graduate courses, although I wouldn’t weigh that super-heavily (at most you’d probably take 2-3 grad classes). UNCG does have a criminology concentration and some of their professors do concentrate in that. One of my friends teaches in the sociology department at UNCG.
There’s also the difference between being at a rural school and a school in a small to medium city.
App State is a far better school than UNCG academically, more level with the likes of UNCW and Elon. But it all depends on whether you’d rather go to a school in the mountains or in a small city.
@LBad96 in other words you think my choice should be weighted more on my overall feel for the school rather than academics? I prefer UNCG in some ways, but I would make the sacrifice if the academics are notably better at ASU. In other words who would competitive graduate programs prefer?
App State, like UNC-W, is just a tad less selective than NCSU, and is more selective than UNC-G (and UNC-C and ECU as well). If you are looking to get a PhD later, ASU will be more impressive, if GPAs are the same. UNC-G has more off-campus commuters and is over 65% female, if gender balance is an issue. Boone is much smaller than Greensboro but is a college town. Anecdotally, it seems everyone that I’ve heard of who went to ASU loves it. I lived in Greensboro near UNC-G 25 years ago and audited some classes at the school. I loved the area around the college. And Greensboro is well-located between Raleigh and Charlotte. Then again, Boone has skiing and snowboarding.
One thing to maybe consider is that a lot of students change their majors, and as juillet mentioned, most of your classes are outside your major. So it really comes to which school is a better fit. Which campus do you like best?
UNCG’s strength comes from it’s social sciences. You can PM me if you want OP I can answer any questions about G’boro you have. I visited Boone and, while App State seems cool, I didn’t really like what I saw. Thought it was kind of boring.
UNCG’s faculty were wonderful when I was there (admittedly, many years ago). They were incredibly supportive and helpful to serious students who were looking at grad school. My brother went to App State. He loved everything about it. A big difference that we’ve noticed over the years is the vibrant App State alumni network compared to UNCG. That might be less important if you’re headed to grad school but it’s worth considering. On the other hand, Greensboro might offer more internship opportunities in your area.
I don’t really think it would matter. App State does have a great reputation as a regional North Carolina university, and they do have a more competitive/selective student body than UNCG. As already pointed out, UNCG does have more commuter students (although it’s still residential: 82% of freshman live on campus, as opposed to 99% of ASU’s freshman. Both have similar amounts of upperclassmen on campus - 34% - but in Boone that’s probably in apartment housing that is relatively close to campus, whereas in Greensboro that could be anywhere).