Academics

NC offers 71 bachelor's, 110 master's and 77 doctoral degree programs. Carolina enrolls more than 26,800 students from all 100 North Carolina counties, the other 49 states and more than 100 other countries. 82% of Carolina's undergraduates come from North Carolina.

UNC's library system has more than 5.6 million volumes and perennially ranks among the best research libraries in North America as judged by the Association of Research Libraries. The most recent association listings place Carolina 15th among 114 research libraries in North America. UNC's North Carolina Collection is the largest of its kind among state-oriented collections on campuses nationwide. Also, the Southern and rare book collections housed in Wilson Library are among the country's finest.

Among graduate programs, the School of Law, the School of Information and Library Science, the School of Public Health, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Analytical Chemistry program, and the Kenan Flagler Business School are especially highly regarded.

At UNC every freshman must take a philosophy course regardless of placement. Every freshman must also take an English course but can place out of two of them through high SAT Verbal scores. Those who do place out must take a communications class on public speaking. Honors students take creative writing or poetry instead to fufill the English requirement.

The first two years at UNC are in the General College where students take a variety of classes in every discipline. Social science, history, foreign language, aesthetic, mathematics, and natural science are the departments requiring at least two credits in order for students to graduate from the General College. The natural science requirement includes a lab in addition to its two required credits. The aesthetic requirement includes one literature and one fine arts course. The history requirement includes one pre-1700 course and one post-1700 course. These courses are known as General College perspectives and there are hundreds to choose from in each department to fufill the requirements.

All students must also complete a Cultural Diversity course that can range from something like Globalization Issues to Modern Asian Literature. UNC accepts many AP exams to fufill these requirements, but students typically must score a 4 or 5 to even to be considered for credit. After their sophomore year, students either enroll into the College of Arts & Sciences or choose a pre-graduate program such as medicine, business, pharmacy, dentistry, journalism, or law.

All students must complete a swim test and two physical education courses if not in a varsity sport in order to graduate.

The university has for decades offered an undergraduate merit scholarship known as the Morehead Scholarship, modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford. The scholarship offers tuition, room, and board for four years. Also offered is the Robertson Scholarship, an innovative scholarship granting recipients the opportunity to attend both UNC-Chapel Hill and neighboring Duke University. Offered both at UNC and Duke, UNC recipients receive full tuition, room, and living stipends.

Ahtletics

The school's sports teams are called the Tar Heels and the mascot is Rameses the ram. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The University of North Carolina has won 36 team national championships in five different sports and 51 individual national championships: The women's soccer team has won eighteen national championships since 1981, the men's soccer team has won in 2001, the women's basketball team has won in 1994, the men's basketball team has won in 1924, 1957, 1982, 1993, and 2005.