Balancing social and academic life

Introduction
I wanted to be in a school that was known for it’s academics and also known for having a social aspect and I knew that UNC would be able to provide a really good balance between working and social life.

Campus Life and Social Life
It’s a beautiful campus very hilly – you’ll probably bump into someone you know at least once a day – it’s really a large campus but you tend to see a lot of the same faces so it doesn’t tend to alienate people, I think. There’s a public transportation system and generally it’s pretty reliable – there a U bus that goes all the way to the Dean Dome and it goes from Franklin Street to the Dean Dome and I think a lot of students use that especially business school students because it goes straight to the Dean Dome – the business school is right next to the Dean Dome. Academics
The faculty members are really enthusiastic you can tell that they’re all very brilliant and they all give you really, really good preparation for real life just in terms of all the faculty member being in the industry before coming to UNC. In terms of class size it really, really varies at the business school the average class is about 40 students but I’ve been in a ton of classes where there are only 5 students or 10 students and then I’ve been in those large 400 person class rooms so. Attendance is not always mandatory – at the beginning of the year you kind of see which classes you can and can’t go to and pretty much based on what you feel like you’re capable of doing you can or cannot attend those classes. There are a lot of other things that anyone can do if they don’t feel like joining a sorority or a fraternity – for example I’m in the business school right now – joined this organizations that was a group of 10 students and we basically got to plan this big event and it was a great event. Jerry Greenfeld from Ben and Jerry’s came and just a bunch of different executives from all over from different companies just came and talked to the students so being a part of that was really fun. I really got to explore my leadership potential also.

Student Body
There are a lot of opportunities for you to integrate your social life into your academic life. Just in terms of being able to meet friends in your class room and then you do group projects and start to make connections withy the people who are in your group and then through that you say lets have a reunion with the group mates and go to dinner with them. I think one of the great things about UNC is that the student body is very diverse – you can find a niche almost anywhere. I for example, joined Asian students Association and obviously that’s a group of Asian Students and so that’s one kind of niche but if you’re interested in Greek life or any sort of sports anything you can find your niche. I feel like the majority of the people who come here are basketball fans and that really unites the school I think.

In Closing...
The games are really fun you have to – if you come to school here you have to go to the Dean Dome, there’s no way – waiting in line for tickets kind of sucks because you have to get up at six or seven, wait in line and you might be 2000 back and you might have to wait 4 hours, but it’s worth it when you get to be in the Dean Dome where Dean Smith and Michael Jordon played.