Odds and Ends, Part 9

Cost of Attending UNC

Much has been said about the costs associated with attending UNC. The administration at UNC has learned, however, that the perception of UNC to a lot of North Carolina high school students is that it is an expensive school and, as a consequence, some high schoolers do not bother to make application to UNC. I still think it is unbelievable that UNC gets more applications from out- of- state than they do from in- state and it is not a new phenomenon. The perception that it is expensive to attend UNC may have something to do with this.

I thought it might be interesting to compare the other two major schools in the Triangle area and, to that end, the Raleigh News and Observer printed the following comparisons.

Tuition + Room/ Total fees board


UNC $4451 $6756 $11,207

State $4282 $6508 $10,790

Duke $30,720 $8520 $39,240

I don't know what was used to develop these figures. For example, on campus housing vs. off campus, room and apartment rates in Chapel Hill vs. Raleigh, etc.


Required Reading

I haven't finished yet, but I am in the process of reading the book required (?) of all students entering UNC for the first time this year. I find the book to be both educational and entertaining. I may try giving a book report when I am finished but, then again, I may not. I never have been comfortable telling people what somebody else had to say. If I write, it will be to report what the book meant to me.

I can say this. I certainly find this book a better choice than the ones selected for the past two years.


College Rankings

I'm a sucker for rankings of all sorts even though I rarely agree with the rationales used for rankings. I ran into these the other day on a message board where the poster was trying to give reasons why a basketball recruit should choose UNC over several other universities. I haven't checked each one out but the poster seemed credible, so here goes.

#1 college for your money (USA Today)
#3 campus that rocks (Rolling Stone)
#8 Business School in USA (Princeton
Review)
#1 college town in America (MSN.com)
#1 Journalism School in U.S. (Princeton
Review)
#1 Halloween Party in U.S
First public university in U.S.

I was watching a program on my new "Video on Demand" the other night, and they had a program entitled "The 10 Best Places to Live in America." I have gotten to the point where I expect Chapel Hill and Asheville to score high in these types of listings, but you never know. So I punched in.

I can't remember all of the rankings but the best I can recall is as follows:

10. Fort Collins, Colorado
9. Maryville, Tenn. ( I think we have a quarterback coming in next fall from here.)
8. Annapolis, Maryland
7. Eugene, Oregon
6. Charlottesville, Virginia ( See if you can think of a town in the U.S. with a post office that has more letters in its name (one word) than Charlottesville)

5. can't remember

4. can't remember

3. Austin, Texas

They did a brief narrative and video on each town leading up to no. #1 and, by this time, I was getting nervous. Charlottesville being listed as the number 6 is what caused it. At the outset, I was sure Chapel Hill would be in the top 10, but with Charlottesville already nailing down the number 6 slot and only two spaces left, I was getting worried.

I was relieved when they ranked Chapel Hill number 2, but I was surprised when they presented Chapel Hill as "horse country." They didn't really use that terminology but the scenes gave that impression. Good coverage of Chapel Hill as a college sports town with shots of the football team taking the field in Kenan Stadium and some good shots of basketball in the Smith Center. Comments by some of the residents were very complimentary and they described Chapel Hill during basketball season as "another world." Watching the program made me want to live in Chapel Hill until I remembered the real estate prices there. Actually, they are not that high when compared to other college towns, but still pretty high compared to a lot of nice places in the country.

I have some more, but they will have to wait until another time. Maybe then, the UNC basketball team will be ranked near the top. By the way, I hope the recruit read the poster's rankings on the message board. By the time this article appears, we will know if he was persuaded.