UNC Experience Weekend

UNC Experience Weekend was this past weekend, and I decided to attend it despite my predisposition to pick UCLA or Duke over UNC. I did apply to the place, after all. Plus, it is only a 10-15 minute drive from my house.

So, Friday night, Liane and I headed over to the scholarship recipients dinner at the Carolina Club on UNC's campus. After some schmoozing, we all sat down in our assigned seats at our designated tables. It became quickly apparent that the seating assignments were very deliberate. I was seated between a marketing professor and Liane. Liane was seated between me and a current partner, who was seated next to another incoming partner. Basically, all of the incoming students were seated between a current student and a professor or their partner and a professor. In addition, everyone at the table that wasn't an incoming student or partner had read the incoming students' resumes and, therefore, proceeded to probe into our documented history unannounced. A bit creepy, if you ask me. Dinner was a crab cake and a steak filet -- very tasty. One thing that Liane and I noticed was that almost all of the scholarship recipients were from North Carolina. You would have thought that UNC would have doled out the cash to the out-of-staters, to try to lure them in with a lower tuition. Either none of them made it (or maybe most of the out-of-state scholarship recipients were internationals, and thus couldn't make the weekend), or UNC heavily favors in-staters in terms of scholarship money.

After the scholarship recipients dinner, we all headed over to the DuBose House in Meadowmont for the welcome reception to which everyone was invited. This is where we got to meet all of the out-of-staters, a refreshing experience after seeing all of the in-staters at the scholarship dinner. The DuBose House is usually home to the UNC Executive Education program, so, needless to say, it was niiiice. Lots of little rooms everywhere with food, desserts, and drinks. Everything we ate was delicious, and everyone we met was very friendly and down-to-earth. At one point, I remember beginning to seriously consider UNC as a contender, as the incoming students were so easy to talk to. Alas, this sentiment would be gone by the next day.


Early Saturday morning, I headed over to Kenan-Flagler for the welcome breakfast and Deans' speeches while Liane headed out to volunteer at the Girls-On-The-Run 5k. After the welcome speeches, it was time for an alumni panel, which was pretty interesting, especially when the host (the current student body president) said something to the effect of "Tyler Hansbrough is your god." For those of you who don't know who Tyler Hansbrough is, he was the freshman sensation on the UNC basketball team (arguably the top freshman in the country), and he recently announced that he is going to come back for his sophomore year. Tar Heel fans rejoice!

Liane joined me at lunchtime for the club fair and a boxed lunch, after which we headed into a marketing class simulation. We were treated to the first lecture by the new marketing department head, but most of the information was stuff we already knew. Plus, the class discussion just wasn't that stimulating. I took this as a bad sign.

Overall, I really liked the incoming students and the professors, but I was less impressed by the current students (many of whom are still looking for internships and/or don't know what they're doing after graduation). Don't get me wrong, I think Kenan-Flagler is a great program or else I wouldn't have applied. I probably just met the wrong 4-5 current students. Regardless, I think Kenan-Flagler would be a lot of fun, but I don't think it is the right place for me for the next two years.