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Are students very social? Is there an active social scene open to students? Does the school have a reputation as a party school?

In reply to #1:  Tarheels are a very gregarious bunch.  Since they typically only take the top ten percent of high school graduates, the student body tends to be well-informed, curious, and great debaters.  It's a public school too, so it's not as homogenously elite and snooty as many of the schools in its rank. 

Chapel Hill is famous for Franklin Street which is a collection of shops and good restaurants that turn into bars.  In my time at Chapel Hill, I managed to go out often having great conversations over drinks with friends, and meet lots of new people.  I wholeheartedly recommend UNC to anyone who gets in.

One other thing:  although it's a big school, after a while it doesn't feel like it, and upon graduation, it feels like family.  

In reply to #2: I agree with you about how UNC feels like a small community rather than a huge campus. It may be because the town of Chapel Hill and the university are so intertwined with each other; you never really know where one begins and the other ends. Unlike other schools, you don't feel as if you're isolated from the rest of the town when you're on the school grounds.

In terms of the social scene at Chapel Hill, there are many opportunities to get ivolved with the community on campus! There is a great fair on campus in the fall allowing students to sign up with various clubs and interest groups which opens the door to meeting people. A Greek system is also in place in Chapel Hill. More than any organized group is the overall positive attitude of students at the university. Everyone is open to speaking with each other and learning from one another which creates the welcoming atmosphere in on campus!

In the state of NC, where I live and was born and raised, Chapel Hill does not have "THE" party school reputation as much as others in the state, such as East Carolina University (who upset both WVU AND VT...go Pirates!!!) or Western Carolina University.  Chapel Hill is a very large school and has endless opportunities for social interaction.

It's a beautiful campus and has a small-town feel.  I taught in NC for several years and took my journalism students to writing camps at UNC.  The students there seem very social, friendly, and driven to succeed.  I would not classify the school as a party school like others--University of Florida, for instance--but they do know how to balance fun and academics.

In reply to #6: Back when I was a grad student at UNC, the late, great NC senator Jesse Helms often talked about the school as a hotbed of immorality. At first, I agreed with him. I got my bachelor's degree at Belmont College (I can't get used to calling it a university), which was then a small Southern Baptist school. Men were not allowed into the women's dorm rooms, and the dorms were locked at 11:00 p.m. Imagine my culture shock to move into a coed dorm at UNC!!! But Helms was wrong. Students were more interested in studying than in carousing.