The University of North Carolina is home to one of the top journalism schools in the country, and its students are certainly aware of the pressures that come with a high ranking. While we're all proud and determined, we also know the struggles, frustrations, and annoyances that come with the UNC MJ-school.

1. Carroll Hall

Carroll may be gorgeous from the outside, but on the first day of classes when you're running late because you needed that third (or fourth) cookie from Lenoir, it's a nightmare. There are random stairways, strange corner rooms, hallways that seem to finish in dead ends, and don't even get me started on the basement.

2. You always know at least one person in your class.

Because everyone has to take the same pre-requisites and major courses, after your first few semesters you come to recognize the same faces in each course. As they progress from introductory to advanced courses, seeing everyone's development and learning from those who've been through the whole series with you is always rewarding, though admittedly also frustrating when your Introduction to Photojournalism classmates already seem impossibly advanced.

3. The equipment rentals office is your library.

Remembering to renew my camera gear every three days was the bane of my existence last semester. With that said, the ability to check out professional-grade equipment is one of the best perks of the J-school. When you're taking Introduction to Photojournalism simultaneously with Intro to Audio-Visual Journalism, those equipment office employees will be your best friends.

4. You learn to have two or three backups of everything.

While this is hopefully true for every college student, losing a 3-minute video that you worked on for three weeks is possibly even more horrifying than losing a paper. When you interviewed 4 people, took over 20 minutes of b-roll, and spent countless hours editing it all together, having at least 2 backups is vital to your mental stability.

5. You're always the first to know the latest news.

Walking through Carroll Hall is the best way to update yourself on the latest world news. With TVs constantly tuned to CNN and entire courses dedicated to current events, there's absolutely no way to be a student in the journalism school without knowing up-to-the-minute information on the global goings-on.

6. You spend an incredible amount of time on projects, as opposed to memorizing facts.

While all of your friends are studying historical and political facts for their final exams, you're locked away deep in the dungeon basement editing. While some courses certainly have more traditional exams (I'm looking at you, Media Ethics), the focus on real-world experience inevitably means you'll be interviewing people, shooting b-roll and splicing audio for many of your courses.

7. You know that having a degree from the UNC School of Media and Journalism is worth every bit of stress.

Yes, we spend most of our academic careers worrying about whether or not we're updated on current affairs and quadruple-checking that we have our external hard drives, but we also know that we're extremely lucky to be able to study at such a prestigious school. With such well-known faculty (shoutout to Dean King), amazing opportunities, and a confusing-but-beautiful building, who would ever want to be anywhere else? At the end of our four years, being awarded a diploma from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill makes every moment worth it.