UNC is highly ranked, it’s up there with Michigan, but not as high as UVA. It is known as a public ivy. It’s also true about out of state vs instate. Out of state, you may as well shoot for Duke, it’s almost just as hard to get into. In state, it’s not easy but nowhere near as hard as out of state.
I have no idea about out of state but in state it’s not all that to get in. Not to mention if you are transferring in from another school or a juco NC State has higher requirements to get in than Carolina in most schools including business and engineering. But you’ll never hear that from anyone bc state kids don’t care about being known as big shots and Carolina kids are too embarrassed to admit they don’t go to Harvard south