Now We Have An App For That!

We're thrilled to unveil our first-ever mobile tour app, which you can download to your iPhone, iPad, or Android right now - just search "Tour Carolina" in Apple and Android app stores! We're excited to share our beautiful campus and the opportunities available here at Carolina with prospective students and visitors no matter where you are – from New York to New Zealand, from the lobby of our office to the comfort of your home. And did we mention that the app is free?!

We know that not all interested students and families can make it to our campus for an actual tour or information session, but with our new app, you can still experience all that Carolina has to offer on you own. All of the points of interest covered in our student-led campus tours are included in the app, so if we miss you on your next visit to campus, this app can serve as your virtual tour guide! Of course, we still recommend attending a regular information session and tour if you can, but this app is definitely a nice option if you can't make it for the real thing.

So now we need you to download our mobile tour app and review the initial version of it – play around, explore, and enjoy! But most importantly, please share any and all feedback – good and bad. Seriously! We want to know what you think, and based on your suggestions, we'll tweak the app to improve the experience for future users.

Thanks in advance for your comments, and we hope you’re as excited about this as we are!

Carolina Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is just around the corner, and Carolina's week-long celebration  begins on January 20 with the 28th Annual University/Community MLK Jr. Memorial Banquet. Other events include a rally, candlelight vigil and interactive discussion. The week will culminate on January 25 with local high school students offering their interpretations of Langston Hughes' poem, "I, Too, Sing America," and its relation to Dr. King's legendary dream.


Check out the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs for a complete list of the week's activities.

Find Out What's Happening Around Campus

If you're planning a visit to Carolina this spring, we hope you'll schedule in some time to check out some of the exciting events that are happening around campus. In any given week, our community gets to enjoy everything from improv comedy shows to academic lectures, student art exhibitions, world-class theatrical productions, Tar Heel athletics, and more.

To help our prospective students find out what events are happening on the day they're planning a visit, we've started a new blog called UNC Calendar in Context. Updated weekly by a current UNC student named Cary, we hope the blog will help you all get a glimpse into what's happening around campus. And if you haven't yet planned a trip to visit our campus, we hope this will inspire you to get planning!

De-stressing During Exam Time...

I think the Library Flash Mob Rave is becoming an exam-time tradition.

More snow!

More snow pictures. Because this doesn't happen every day here!





I'm not sure what hill they were bound for, but they seem properly equipped with sleds. I saw a number of less-prepared students toting cardboard boxes and cafeteria trays.





I like the creative usage of dining hall materials here.



Old Well, beautiful in the snow



And our own tour guide Awika, braving the snow with a group of visitors on a campus tour. We had a number of visitors this morning--and some of them stayed after the information session to watch the Inauguration and President Obama's address with us on the big-screen televisions in our lobby.

Happy Inauguration Day! For those of you in North Carolina, I hope you are spending it playing in the snow or cuddled up in front of a fire!

Snow!

It's snowing here in Chapel Hill. The campus, always beautiful, is blanketed in a gorgeous white covering. Classes are still on, and our office is still open. We are slightly understaffed, so please be patient if you give us a call. For those of you in the area, enjoy your snow day!!

Student Stories

Last week, we had a fantastic time criss-crossing campus with a photographer, capturing student faces, voices and stories during a three-day photo shoot. We met with more than 40 students to snap their pictures and talk to them on video about their experiences at Carolina. I interviewed some amazing students who are doing extraordinary things--muscular dystrophy research, community development work with local schools, studying the conflict zones of the Republic of Georgia, to name just a few. I was blown away by these students, and I am a pretty tough one to impress.



The three-day shoot was tiring, but fun. We must have walked back and forth across this campus a dozen times. (Not all that bad a walk at all, as our Director Stephen Farmer wrote below, but a more difficult feat after the sixth time in one day!)

We're looking forward to sharing the video and stories that we are recording with all of you through this blog, as well as on our new website. We're redesigning the website, so look forward to much more multimedia and lots of opportunities to hear directly from current students.



But in the meantime we are getting ready to begin reading your applications! Consider this my first official reminder: the first deadline is just over three weeks away! I'm going to nag you as badly as your mother.

Below is a short excerpt from one of our interviews. Julia is a senior chemistry major; she's the one doing the muscular dystrophy research. When I asked her to tell me more about her research, her eyes just lit up and she enthusiastically began talking. I think that's the thing I love most about being on this campus--people here seem to find a passion, and they just run with it. The enthusiasm is contagious and inspiring. Enjoy!

One Campus

Yesterday I wrote about walking the 400 steps from the Pit to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Today I took a longer walk—all the way across campus—just to show you how long it doesn't take.

Carolina is one campus. All our undergraduates study, and most of them live, within a few minutes of one another. When you visit while you’re still in high school, you might wonder how you’ll find your way around. But the campus is really pretty compact—and there are plenty of friendly people to help you find your way.


1:52:00 pm. Standing at the northernmost edge of campus--on the stone wall separating McCorkle Place from Franklin Street. Two students walk past and wish me happy Friday.


1:55:00 pm. Just miss photo of toddler drinking from the Old Well. Nothing to be sad about, since this happens every day.


1:57:45 pm. Wilson Library, home of one of the greatest manuscript collections in the world, as well as the great digital collection Documenting the American South. Steps here are a great place to meet; in fact I’m meeting a prospective student here tomorrow afternoon just before the football game to talk about Carolina.


1:59:15 pm. Bell Tower. Fourteen bells chime the hour and occasionally play “Sweet Caroline.”


2:04:30 pm. Rams Head Dining Hall. Delayed because of conversation with Steve Reznick, friend and psychology professor. Walk down lawn—actually a green roof for the parking deck below--just as Rebecca Egbert, assistant director of admissions, walks out of dining hall with terrific transfer students involved in our C-STEP program.


2:09:50 pm. Student Academic Services Building. Delayed because of conversation with John Blanchard and Robert Mercer, friends and colleagues from the athletics department. Note color of sky.

Total time: 17 minutes, 50 seconds. I’m betting you can beat that pretty easily—and if you don’t want to walk or need help getting around, there are tons of buses and vans to get you from place to place. Happy Friday.

--Stephen Farmer