For what it's worth, UNC-Greensboro is only about an hour or so (or has the drive time gone up in the past few years?) from Chapel Hill/Carrboro.

You haven't lived here since they finished the interstate and upped the speed limits, dude! I'd say more like 35 minutes to CH, 45 to Durham.

I was also going to recommend UNCG if UNC-CH doesn't turn out to be an option. It's one of the smaller and more, hmm, college-y feeling UNC system schools, and I've known a lot of people who have done edu-related degrees there and had good experiences. Back in the day, it used to be the top-of-the-line women's school in the system, and when they integrated the sexes system-wide, they made UNCG into a liberal-arts focused school (as opposed to the various tech schools, for example).

Wake County is also respected

Not any more, they're not. The whole "getting rid of desegregation" thing is really hurting them reputation-wise, and (maybe more to the point) nobody has any idea what's going to be going on next year in any given school zone.

Durham schools run the gamut from among the best to really not so good. There's a county-wide system of magnet schools at all levels (and they tend to be very good and much loved. There are great non-magnet schools because of a lot of parent and neighborhood involvement. And there are schools where people in the particular neighborhood really, really want to get their kids into the magnets. Durham is urban and minority-majority with a stupid wide income range, and having some excellent schools and some bad ones comes with that. (See smonster's comment about housing prices in Durham vs. Chapel Hill.)

Oh, dear lord I has opinions.

I can't move that far away from family, Barb. Although my dad keeps talking about moving himself and my mom to Spain after my grandmother dies.

I can't move that far away from family, Barb.

I know, babe. But a girl can hope...

Amy, i got my creative writing MFA at UNC-G if you have questions about it (it's been 12 years though and evidently the program has sobered up since I've been there.)

If Durham is a serious option, I can tell you all about the school issues, and help you navigate that system (there are magnets and walk zones and neighborhood schools). I know elementary really well, and have watched neighbors deal with HS. (Middle school is a tricky one - as I gather it is in many many cities.) If I were moving back to the Triangle, I would definitely pick Durham.

I also attended NCCU for my MLS, which is in Durham and is - okay. It's no UNC-CH, but it's a lot easier to get into, too. They have a school of Ed and I know a woman who is a professor there, if you would like a contact.

Excellent, lisah! Man, now I'm all excited. And distracted, which is not good. Must go write.

Hey, Barb, did you ever get a chance to read what I sent you?

Harvey is a pretty kitty!

Good luck, omnis! It can work out - I moved into my current house having found it on Craigslist (! I know!), never saw more than a few photos, with a six-month lease. Then it went on the market a month later and I bought it because I love it.

What is true of NC is true of Virginia - I wouldn't live anywhere in VA except Charlottesville, a little blue dot in a bloody sea of red. It's because of the University of Virginia being here.

Not even Harrisonburg, Zen? Because I considered James Madison, too.

And what about my hometown, Reston? It's another liberal bastion.

I didn't much like Harrisonburg, but maybe I was just in a bad headspace when I was there. (Much as I was when I was in Yorktown and Gloucester. Although Gloucester really is depressing; it wasn't just me.) I'm so unfair - Reston is so close to DC it kinda blends in my mind. Sorry, Reston.

The last Presidential race, I remember watching the Virgina map as the little blue dot got slowly bigger and thinking, that's where I live, right there.