Is UNC or the University of Michigan harder to get into overall?

The biggest practical tradeoff is residency: UNC is much harder for out-of-state applicants because it is required to keep most of its class for North Carolina residents, while Michigan enrolls a much larger out-of-state population. So “harder overall” depends a lot on where you live, not just on the school name. For a North Carolina resident, UNC is highly selective but often more attainable than it is for someone applying from another state; for an out-of-state student, UNC is usually the tougher admit.

Michigan is also very selective, but in overall admissions conversations it is often a bit more accessible than UNC for out-of-state applicants because it has more room for them. UNC’s admissions structure creates a sharper divide between in-state and out-of-state odds, and that is the main reason people give conflicting answers online.

If you want the cleanest comparison: for in-state students, UNC is difficult but not necessarily harder than Michigan in every case; for out-of-state students, UNC is typically the harder school to get into. Looking at it “overall” without separating residency is misleading, because the two schools build their classes in very different ways.

For college-list planning, I would treat both as reach-level or at least very high-target/reach schools unless your profile is exceptionally strong and you have the right residency advantage.