It was my senior year of high school. Decision time. I was blessed with a few options for college, and ranked last on my list was Chapel Hill. It wasn't even the school itself—it was what I had heard about the school. I'd been tugged every which way by the opinions of peers and teachers alike, not to mention my parents, who played devil's advocate so they wouldn't influence my decision. (Thank you so much, but I was just so used to being told what to do!)
The mouths of my peers—and even some teachers—spewed insults regarding the University of North Carolina. Now that I'm here, I couldn't be more glad that the comments didn't influence my decision. Now that I'm here, I have a few responses to those comments:
“Chapel Hill is full of snobs."
We have an over-inflated confidence not found anywhere else? Ha! I love my school, but if anything, my academic confidence has been knocked down since I started college. (Professors, if you're reading this, please try to spare my GPA.)
“All people care about at Carolina is partying."
Oh my goodness, PLEASE tell me that when I'm up in the library working on a paper all Friday night. I promise you, if I've been there for that long, I really do need a good laugh.
“You only want to go to UNC because everyone else wants to go there."
1. So what? Even if that's true, if everyone else wants to go there doesn't that make it a good school? Everyone liked Full House, and that was a quality show. Everyone liked the "Electric Slide," and now it gets played at just about every dance and wedding out there as a crowd favorite that gets everyone moving.
2. Actually, now that the cool thing to do is the opposite of what everyone else does, your argument is invalid.
3. This comment, more than almost anything else, fueled the fire in me that rebelled against choosing Carolina. I wanted to be different. On the college wall in high school that listed where every graduating senior was attending, I wanted to have my own little space.
“You only want to go to UNC because it's the college you've grown up hearing about."
Once again, if this is true, so what? That only means that you've made it a goal and attending Chapel Hill would only be accomplishing it.
“Chapel Hill students are just a bunch of nerds."
College in general is just a bunch of nerds—a bunch of nerds, bettering themselves, finding things that spark their interest, learning more, and creating new opportunities for themselves. Doesn't sound too bad.
“Everyone at Chapel Hill thinks they're better than everyone else."
Please don't mistake pride with ignorance. If you're referring to sports, sure, we all bleed Tar Heel blue, but you can't seriously have a problem with us supporting our team. If you're referring to academics, yes, we're proud of being associated with a prestigious university, but we never said yours wasn't.
