Calling all UNC Kenan-Flagler 2010 applicants

Duke vs UNC Full scholarship; I'd choose UNC w full $$$.

There isn't any 'significant' advantage that Duke has over UNC that I'd let go of a full scholarship.
But if I were, I'll spend 2 days at Duke and 2 days at UNC and fully immerse myself to make the final call.
Another important aspect I like about UNC is, the growth rate/value propositio of UNC's MBA program is higher than most other schools. UNC is doing a way way awesome job of increasing its reputation/ranking etc.

I think it matters also what type of $$ they're giving you. A few points:

-if the dollars are part of a fellowship of some sort (Falls?, premier?) then that's a huge step up when speaking with recruiters. You'd get your name in some fancy fellows-only resume book and alums would take notice of that.

-even if the dollars aren't attached to some fellowship, it still speaks highly of you to future employers that UNC would give you that type of cash

-Grad school, and Duke in particular, are not cheap. Your ROI from UNC will be much higher initially, considering your costs will be incidental compared to tuition at Duke. You must obviously weigh this against the expected higher income from a Duke MBA (otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation), but I don't believe the differential would be high enough to justify choosing Duke - the qualitative difference is not the same as UNC with $$$ and say, H/S/W.

-with the $$ you'll be saving, you can take part in a ton more extras, like every int'l trip, career trek, etc.

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Other things to consider: if you've visited the Duke campus, you know that the school's facilities are brand new and fantastic. That said, do you remember which bar(s) or night scene everyone goes to? Yeah, me neither. They're pretty much out in the middle of the woods and Fuqua Friday's is pretty much the consolidated night scene. KFBS, on the other hand, has free buses to Franklin Street and Chapel Hill's great nightlife.

Durham, though, does have Durham Bulls ball park, Ninth street, and is a lot closer to Raleigh's nightlife.

Seriously, you're not going to go wrong either way. But I do encourage what BB said: spend some time at both schools during admit weekend (they're not the same weekend, right?) and get as much a sense as you can about the culture of both places. What place just feels right to you?

Congrats on having to make this decision - let us know how it turns out.

Thanks. I am definitely leaning towards taking UNC's offer for two reasons: the money is a stand alone big deal for me and, as you highlighted, I think the resources/flexibility available to fellows are significant in terms of finding jobs. I'm also impressed with Kenan-Flagler's alumni base (Julian Robertson, Lee Ainslee, Dwight Anderson, etc.) when it comes down to what I want to do. I'm also a believer, rightly or wrongly, that long-term success has little to do with what school you come from. The Duke vs UNC name will likely give me a leg up for the first five years, but ultimately my success will be determined by my production. And as you mentioned a merit based fellowship will help compensate for coming from a lower ranked school for the first few years out of school.

Bonobocobra, specifically what in your opinion is UNC doing to improve its ranking and reputation? I know they have some programs (e.g. AIM, Leadership Initiative) that are fairly new and innovative, but am wondering how you came to that conclusion.

The admitted student weekends are different. As per my correspondence with UNC I don't think they've chosen the Premier fellows yet. Dont' quote me on this, but they've chosen full-tuition recipients (I'm not sure if they have more to hand out in the third round) and will be naming Premier fellows out of this bunch later this or next month. The Falls Prize winners are eventually chosen out of the Premier Fellow receipeints, maybe in March, April.

Thanks again for the input.

T-minus one week for R2 decisions...

You can add me to RD2 (2/8 decision). The wait is killing me!

I also applied Rd2.

Did anyone else receive this email yesterday?

"Thank you for your interest in UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. We have received all of your application documents to our full time MBA Program. Your application is now ready to be reviewed by the Admissions Committee with deadline 3."

My application has been complete for weeks, I wonder if that means that they're starting to review R3 submissions now.

I have applied in R1, Dec 4th deadline and still did not receive this email. The only communication I got was this one:
We have received an unofficial credential (transcript or GMATand/or TOEFL score) for your file. Your file will be evaluated with the unofficial copy of these documents. If you are admitted then you will be required to provide us with the official document before we can accept your enrollment deposit.
I call them and asked about my status, he said that the email above means that my application is complete and it will be reviewed by adcom. Needless to say, it is very frustrating process for me and you should consider yourself lucky that you have received such notification which means that they were able to match your paper transcripts with your file. Good luck!
Feb 8 can't come fast enough for me.

For any real estate kids out there like me...

Were you all invited to a UNC Real Estate reception? I received this letter:

"Happy New Year from Chapel Hill! We’re holding our annual Washington area alumni/prospective student reception on Thursday, January 28, 2010 at the City Club in the award-winning Columbia Square project which is at 555 13th Street, NW from 7 – 9 PM.

I hope that you can join me and our current students, who are doing their career trek in DC on Friday, January 29."

It was a strange event as all the current students were networking for jobs, not to mention there were only two of us who were perspective students! From the earlier perspective student session for all applicants, I know there were several people interested in real estate who weren't there. Did others have a similar experience? I'm surprised there were so few prospective students - it was free beer for two hours!

I didn't attend that, but I went to a Darden event in NYC that had a similar vibe. Not that I necessarily blame them, but all the current students were looking for jobs and not interested in talking to prospective students.

Maybe this question has already come up, but I'm too lazy to go digging back through the thread. Does UNC call the day prior to deadline or do they just send out emails the day of?

I think it's gonna be on that Super Monday unless you receive full $$$ or fellowship.

We're a little exhausted from reading, but Round 2 admissions decisions are finally done. Decision letters and emails going out on Monday <-- this is UNC adcom tweet.

Aaa, my fate has been decided already, only I have to wait in agony for 3-4 more days! What do you think about admission percentage for R1 this year? It has been around 30-35% in the past.

oh boy, here comes the painful weekend!

besties to all!

Good luck everyone, I think this weekend calls for a lot of booze to take the edge off. I've heard 10am for the decision release, anyone confirm? Fingers crossed for Monday.

For EA, yes. I checked my app promptly at 10am EST, and saw my decision. I didn't get the email until a few minutes later.

Good luck to everyone!

Did anyone call UNC Admissions Office today to hear an early decision ?