University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Top Questions

Class size varies, there are huge, typically freshman classes, but once you get into taking major classes they get smaller and professors are generally interested in getting to know you. It's cool to be in classes in which your professor actually wrote the textbook. Classes are challenging and it is nice to be in an environment in which other students are motivated and want to do well. A liberal arts school, UNC is interested in producing well-rounded students who are more than capable when entering the work force. I am in the journalism school and it is one of the best in the country.

Yes, most professors do know my name. Unless you're in a class that's 350 people (which are very few classes here), you'll know your professor pretty well. Also, don't believe that there are tons of 500 person classes here! That is not true. These are only for introductory classes (one for each department) and they're not over 350. The UNC students that I have come in contact with do indeed have many intellectual conversations outside of class. There are times where I have had 2 hour long conversations about how our class applies to our life. I have also spent time with professors outside of class. For the most part, professors would love to sit down with you and talk about your plans or what you're interested in. They're really cool.

Giant lecture classes are usually avoidable if you major in the humanities, but with all of UNC's bullshit general college requirements you're going to have to take a few. These classes (especially the math and science ones) are completely useless and painful unless you want to continue in those fields. Fortunately, UNC does offer small classes just for first years on specific topics that count as general college requirements. I took a class on the geology of Eastern California, and we actually went to the mountains of California and did field research for a week. The topic sounds boring, but it was actually a blast. You're only supposed to take on max per semester your first year, but I was able to take 4 in all because, like I said, advising/the registrar/financial aid don't communicate...My least favorite classes have been the bigger classes where participation is discouraged and competition is encouraged, which I think is actually how most UNC classes work...My friends and I have intellectual convos outside of class, but the majority of the student body is pretty conservative and less "bright" than I expected...As I've said before, UNC's academic requirements are bogus and not geared toward getting you a good career. If you want to survive after college, get an internship or three and lead a couple student organizations.

Great! A few too many classes being taught by graduate students and too many in my introductory courses (300+ at times), but on the par the academics at Carolina are superb. They are what you make them to be. You can volunteer to be an assistant in a lab or write an honors thesis or take advanced courses. It is all up to you.

Some professors know my name because the teacher to student ratio is low. My favorite class is English because it is discussion based. I do not like big lecture classes where it's not personal and tests are the only grades. Students are competitive only in certain majors, such as business. The most unique class I have taken was drama 121. The professor was very entertaining and the class material was applicable to everyday life. UNC's academic requirements are too much. I do not think business majors should take a history class, science, etc, unless they want to.

Yes Entreprenurial Imagin - about entreprenuership English 102 - complete waste of time all the time in small classes only yes yes entreprenurial imagin Biology is intense sometimes literary arts and history is useless for a bio major learning for its own sake

I was satisfied with my courses in the graduate school. The students there were very bright and, though competitive, willing to help one another. UNC has a large variety of resources, including thousands of books, useful online journals, and a GIS data library.

Yes, professors know my name. All the classes at Kenan-Flagler Business school are great. I disliked my Italian one class. The teacher was very rigid in the way she taught the subject

Academics at UNC are challenging. In most classes, you will have to work hard to get an A, but it is possible. Students study alot, but at the same time know how to have fun. UNC is the definition of a school that works hard but plays hard too. Perhaps the most amazing thing about UNC is that despite the academic rigor, students are rarely competitive. There are a lot of academic requirements and they can seem daunting, however its pretty easy to satisfy them.

Half of my classes are small enough that everyone knows each other's name, including the professor. I have been told that once I get out of introductory classes, that classes will get smaller. It is also easy to meet up with professors of large classes by going to office hours. My favorite class right now is probably Italian, because I know that I will not major or minor in it, but hopefully one day I will go to Italy, and it will be great to understand some of what locals are saying. My least favorite class is geography, because I am not interested in geography, but I have to fill a general education requirement. Students study very often, and libraries are packed close to exams. Professors encourage participation in class. I do have intellectual conversations outside of class. Just the other day, I was talking with a friend about biology on the way back from lunch. It is not too competitive, as far as I have seen. The most unique class I have taken was Think, Speak, Argue, which was a course for first years only, about debating, and we held actual debates. I am a Biology major, planning on pre-dentistry. It is very common to be a biology major at UNC, and the department seems pretty good so far. I spend some time meeting with professors outside of class but not much, which is my choice. I feel UNC has difficult academic standards, but they are necessary to keep the high quality of education that we receive at the university. Education is geared toward learning, because of the requirements to complete classes unrelated to one's major.

Everyone must take general college requirements which cover a variety of liberal arts areas. These freshman classes are almost always large lecture classes with a few hundred people and recitations. Professors will not know your name until you get into classes with 50 people or less which happens as you progress into a major and more specialized classes. They usually make themselves very accessible to students though with office hours and try to really make sure that you are learning. Students are very competitive but don't really talk about it. Everyone studies regularly but then will meet up with friends for socializing. There are classes that cover just about everything it seems and also special topics classes within each department that change every semester. Within the Journalism School, professors get to know you quickly because you most likely will have them more than once. Building a relationship with them is very beneficial because they will help you find a job and want you to do well after school due to its high reputation. The Journalism School is very much career based learning, but other departments are not at all like that and are based on learning itself.

Most of my teachers for my smaller classes have been grad students. They've learned my name, especially since those classes are more participation-oriented. However, only a handful of professors have known my name. This is mostly because they teach classes with 200 students in them. But, I rarely go to office hours for professors who teach large classes like these. Most of my professors who I've had for smaller classes knew my name though. My favorite class so far if News Editing. It has about 20 people in it and is taught by a professor who is engaging and has 30+ years of experience with big newspapers. The class is pretty intense since it's three hours long and twice a week, but I feel like I've gotten a lot out of it so far, and really enjoy talking with my professor about journalism and everything else! My least favorite class has been Intro to Psychology. The part that I really hated was the instructors. One was old, senile, and went ballistic anyone's cell phone or laptop made a noise and would stop class for ten minutes to lecture us about it. The other instructor was in his 50s and dates female undergraduates. This is common knowledge around campus. I just couldn't get past how creepy and unattractive that man is to learn about Psychology. Students here study a lot. I personally spend most of my free time, (besides late night weekends), doing homework and studying. Most of my friends are the same way. Class participation is very common here. For many bigger classes, like political science and history, students are required to sign up for recitation sections that cover related material. TAs instruct these sections and the main purpose of them is to make students discuss readings related to lectures. The amount of participation in these sections highly reflects your final grade since the TA ultimately oversees and assigns it. I often hear other UNC students participating in intellectual and political conversations outside of class. I sometimes participate in them too. I think this really enriches our college experience since what we're learning in our classes is meant to be applied in our lives. Students are extremely competitive here. Classes and recitations are somewhat structured like this since we are graded on our participation. Sometimes it's hard to get a word in because there's always one person in your class that talks as much as possible. The most unique class I've taken is Classical Political Theory. It was a small class with about 45 people and taught by a professor. She structured the class very loosely and we never had tests. We only wrote papers and paragraphs on short prompts throughout the semester. The main component of the class was participation. It was a very hard course since it required a lot of reading and was completely structured around that. I'm a Journalism major and I feel that I'm in an excellent place to be one. We have an amazing Journalism and Mass Communication school here with down to earth, yet highly qualified professors. They are also very dedicated to helping the students network, which can yield great professional opportunities since graduates from the school are spread out over the world in excellent careers. I like to go by my instructors' office hours and talk with them about any questions I have about course work or relating to the subject. I correspond with many of my teachers through e-mail too. I've found that for the most part they're prompt in responding and make special efforts to be more available to students. I have also seen several of my instructors around campus and at school events. They seem to immerse themselves in campus life too and enjoy their jobs. I feel that UNC's academic requirements can be a little crazy at times. Especially the foreign language requirement. We are required to have at least three levels of the same language as part of the general college requirements. You can place out of this through a test on your high school foreign language but most people I know don't. The school's intentions behind this are to make sure that students are fluent in a foreign language when they graduate. I think this is a great intention, but the language classes are extremely demanding of one's time. It's difficult to learn a new language when you're also taking four other courses. I think education here is geared toward getting a job and learning. A lot of the classes that fulfill general college requirements like philosophy and literary analysis are meant to make us think more about the world and develop our opinions. However, once people get deeper into their majors classes are more similar to real life. For example, my news writing class gave us cluttered information to write a good news story in a time restraint like we would in a real news room. Since completing that course, I've felt I could write in a news room and work under pressure and time constraints.

If you take the time to meet your professors, you can learn some very interesting things and nurture fine relationships. Most teachers seem to make an effort to get to know students, but those who actively seek out interaction will benefit from the knowledge of their professors to a larger extent. Many students are highly competitive, especially in the Journalism school. Professors and advisors in the J-school are very helpful and supportive, though faculty and staff in the financial departments are quite lax.

The academic experience can vary depending on your major. Liberal arts majors tend to be pretty low stress, with the trade off of having some pretty big lectures in your first year, and career services wanting nothing to do with you unless you're a business or econ major. I've had professors in big intro classes who will actually get angry at you if you try to come talk to them at office hours. That said, there are some really great profs to be had for intro classes. I was in an Economics 101 my freshman year that had four or five hundred people in it, and that professor still remembers me - I wasn't even very good at Econ, but I made the effort.(Dr. Byrnes - if you ever need to take Econ 101 make sure you're in his class!). You just have to make the effort to make yourself known to profs and start early - you never know when you'll need an academic reference. USE PICKAPROF. It costs money but it helps. Once you get into your upper level classes you'll start having normal-sized sections again (20-40 people). I can't really vouch for science majors because we almost never see them. Majors like Bio, Chem, Computer Science, Math, and Physics are famously hard - these kids really don't seem to get out much. As a result, they tend to be really underrepresented in student organizations. UNC seems to be putting a lot more into attracting more science-y people, namely building a lot of new state of the art class buildings, labs, and research facilities.