Hey yall, I am trying to choose between UNC and Wake and I was hoping for some input from NC folks. Thanks to financial aid, my cost of attendance for these two schools is as near as makes no difference. What I am really looking for is advice concerning relative prestige of each school, job opportunities at graduation, and whether either school seems to better prepare its students to be lawyers in any meaningful way.
Many, many, many threads exist on this. If cost is the same, go with whichever one you like better. Anyone who claims there is a meaningful difference between the two in terms of job prospects is wrong.
Seriously, just visit them both and go with whichever strikes your fancy.
Exactly. If you want a bigger state school and all the pros and cons that go along with that, go to UNC. If you want a smaller, more personalized school, also with plenty pros and cons, go to Wake. If you do well and want to work in NC, your employment prospects will be pretty much the same from either school. They’re both good schools, and, honestly, if the prices are the same, there’s really no wrong answer. Given the same choice (same cost of tuition for both, etc.), I picked Wake, but I know people who chose UNC too. Just visit both if you haven’t already, meet the people, look around the towns, and you won’t have that hard of a time figuring out which one fits your personality best.
As others have suggested, go with whichever is the right fit for you; they are very different schools with very different feels. The only additional piece of advice I would offer is to look into the specific area of law you are interested in, if you know it. If you are more interested in Public Interest, UNC may be better for that; if you are more interested in litigation, Wake may be a better fit. Speak with specific professors at both schools to get a feel for which is a better fit for you. I was in a similar situation (with the same schools, in fact), and one professor actually told me that while they would really like me to attend their school, for what I am interested in, the other may be actually be a better fit. Advice like that, from a professor who really knows what they are talking about, is incredibly valuable.
If you wanna split hairs, then Wake has outpaced UNC in NLJ250 placement 9 years in a row now. UNC is better for DA/DOJ/PD/etc. The difference in placement in any category, however, is pretty negligible.
Yeah, in general, Wake tends to be a little better all-around than UNC, but really it comes down to which school has the better fit for you. Both are really good choices, so you can’t really go wrong either way.
I go to Wake and think W-S sucks as a city. Plenty of people disagree with me and that’s fine. But if you are debating the quality of education/job prospects, these two schools are basically the same and therefore should visit both and assuming costs are equal attend the one you “fit” with better.