On the Friday before Labor Day weekend, the UNC Admissions Office held an admissions tour for prospective students.
Upon walking in, the room was quiet, the lights were down and a YouTube video played on the giant screen. The video described life at Carolina as a new student.
After the video went off, Patty Baum, assistant director of admissions, returned to the front of the room and began engaging the room of timid high school students. She asked them questions about where they were from, what they thought of the video and what their high schools were like.
Gradually the room filled with talking, mostly from the students’ parents. The students felt Baum’s enthusiasm throughout the presentation, and she encouraged audience engagement by asking questions.
The presentation started with historical facts about UNC, such as it was the first public university and its first student was Hinton James, who walked from Wilmington to Chapel Hill.
Baum said she was biased toward the school because she attended UNC for undergrad. She also said the student life and diversity is a big reason why students choose to apply.
“Carolina students are elite students, but they are not elitist,” she said.
Baum then talked about UNC's national rankings, the student-teacher ratio and percentages of student diversity.
After the numbers, Baum talked about application dates and the admissions process from the point of view of the students and the admissions department.
She ended the presentation portion and invited the UNC Admissions Ambassadors into the room. Seven students stood in the front of the room in a semi-circle and introduced themselves to the students.
The students and their families followed the ambassadors outside, picked their groups and the tour started.
Sophomore Brian Riefler is one of the ambassadors. When starting the tour, Riefler said he would not take the group to South Campus, but would discuss it in detail because that is where most first-year students live.
The first stop was Ruffin Quad, where he talked about the suite-style dorms on South Campus and the hall-style dorms on North Campus.
The second stop on the tour was the Pit. Riefler said the group did not get the full effect because of the lack of students on campus at the time. Riefler said that almost every student on campus comes through the Pit once a day.
“I call it the social epicenter of campus,” he said.
He went on to talk about the social organizations on campus. Riefler said he is more involved with Campus Y — the social justice group on campus — than with any other organizations he is a part of.
Then the group went to Lenoir Dining Hall, where he talked about the meal plan options: value, block or unlimited.
The tour moved into an open classroom in Murphey Hall. Riefler said the average class size is thirty students. He also explained how lecture classes and recitations work, along with professor office hours.
Riefler discussed one of his favorite professors and how he would invite students for coffee once a week and sometimes for lunch.
“Professors really want to make those connections with you,” Riefler said.
The group moved on to Polk Place and the Old Well. Riefler mentioned the legend that if you drink from the well on the first day of classes, you are destined for a 4.0 GPA that semester.
The tour circled back to the main part of North Campus stopping briefly outside of the Undergraduate Library and concluding in the Pit.
When talking about why he loves Carolina, Riefler said he wants to be as excited as an alumnus as he is as a student.
“I want something that is going to last more than four years,” he said.
After the tour ended, the students went to further explore the campus, cash in their free meal at Lenoir or travel back to their homes after a long day.
university@dailytarheel.com
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
