
University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina is a system of sixteen four-year universities in North Carolina, as well as one public residential high school. All of the campuses are largely autonomous, but they have about 183,000 students in their schools. The university was founded in 1789 at Chapel Hill, making it the oldest public university in the United States.
University history
When you visit with your Charlotte car rental, you may learn that The University of North Carolina was the oldest public university in the United States. By 1877, the state also started to sponsor other higher education institutions, including a women’s college, a land-grant university, five historically black universities, and one for Native Americans. During the Depression, the whole system was amalgamated into one in order to save money.
The university today
Within the seventeen campuses, there are two medical school, one teaching hospital, ten nursing programs, a school of dentistry, a school of pharmacy, a veterinary school, two law school, 15 schools of education, three schools of engineering, and two schools for the performing arts. The campus in Charlotte has fur campuses in the city, the main one being in University City.
Visiting the campus
The main campus in Charlotte that you can visit with your Charlotte car rental is in University City, on 1000 acres of land between Route 20 and Highway 49, about 10 miles from Uptown Charlotte. It is a self-contained campus, so there are no major roads that run through the campus. It is a beautiful campus, with manmade lakes, wooded areas, and gardens that attract over 300,000 visitors every year. The oldest buildings on campus are made of concrete, but newer buildings are being built in a neoclassical style. The Charlotte Research Institute Campus is adjacent to the main campus and is where much of the research on precision metrology, intelligent manufacturing, opto-electronics, optical communication, and software and information technology takes place. There is a small campus in Uptown Charlotte that is focused on business and evening courses in the Mint Museum of Craft + Design. Finally, there is a fourth campus in South Charlotte (Ballantyne), where the College of Computing and Informatics offers a limited number of graduate programs.
Get into the game
When you visit with your Charlotte car rental, you will need to know that there are sixteen varsity teams that compete in NCAA’s Division I. They are considered a I-AAA member of the division since they do not have a football team, but there are many other games that you can catch when you visit. The nickname for the team is the 49ers, because the school was supposed to be closed in 1949. The mascot is “Norm the Niner”, and old miner. Men’s basketball is the most followed sport on campus, but women’s basketball is gaining ground.
Getting around the area
When you visit with your Charlotte car rental, University City is located within the outer limits of Charlotte near Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Concord Mills Mall.
Getting to know the rest of the system
When you visit with your Charlotte car rental, you may want to see some of the other campuses as well. A good place to start is the campus in Chapel Hill, which was the original site of the university. It is one of the original eight schools know as a Public Ivy, which are some of the best public institutions in the country. All undergraduates receive a liberal arts education and the option to pursue a major within the professional schools of the university in their upper years. UNC has consistently been highly ranked as a school of choice.
