University of North Carolina

The University of North Carolina is the college Lara Jean chooses after visiting and realizing she wants to attend without keeping one foot in a different plan. That decision redirects her future from the expected route through William & Mary, places her farther from Peter, and becomes the focal point of their conflict over whether they can remain together while pursuing separate lives.

A Choice Beyond the Original Plan

Lara Jean had expected to attend William & Mary and then transfer, with the couple anticipating a long-distance relationship during her first year. The possibility of attending the University of North Carolina changes that arrangement: after visiting, she knows she wants to be there and wants to give the experience a genuine chance rather than treating it as a temporary stop on the way to another college. She later explains this reasoning to Trina, describing the UNC decision as the point when their plan began to go sideways.

The university represents more than a different school on a map. Lara Jean’s choice is tied to her desire to commit to the place she actually wants to attend, rather than shaping that decision around a relationship or an earlier transfer plan. Her account emphasizes the importance of being fully present in the choice, even as its consequences unsettle the future she and Peter had imagined.

Campus Life and Cultural Belonging

Before the college transition, Margot advises Lara Jean to make friends of her own at UVA, where Peter expects to meet people through lacrosse, and to seek out an Asian-American association. Margot speaks from her own experience of studying in a different country and missing the chance to belong to such a group; she connects college with the process of finding a racial identity. Although this conversation refers to UVA rather than UNC, it establishes a question Lara Jean’s college life carries with it: how to find community and cultural belonging in a large university setting.

The family’s cultural life also frames the decision. Margot insists that Korean food is a central link to Korean culture and should not disappear from family life because Trina does not enjoy it. Lara Jean answers that the sisters will eat Korean food every day during their planned summer in Korea. That trip is arranged for all of July and includes a stay with a great-aunt in Seoul, Korean-language classes, a tour of the country, and a Korean pastry-making class for Lara Jean. These plans place college and departure within a wider transition: her future at UNC is discussed alongside continued ties to family, Korean culture, and the skills and experiences she hopes to carry with her.

Distance, Peter, and the Breakup

The distance between the University of North Carolina and UVA makes the couple’s future harder to imagine. Lara Jean tells Peter that he needs to do what he needs to do at UVA, including playing lacrosse and studying, while she needs to do the same at UNC. She fears that trying to stay together will make everything fall apart and breaks off the relationship rather than asking him to abandon the college he has worked toward.

Her decision is also influenced by Peter’s mother, who tells Lara Jean that Peter has been thinking about transferring to UNC and urges her to break up with him before he alters his plans for her. When Lara Jean later explains the situation to Trina, she distinguishes this pressure from her own reasons: UNC is farther away than William & Mary, and she wants to give it a real chance. Peter, in turn, later says Lara Jean was right that he should not transfer, but also says she should have told him that his mother had spoken to her. Lara Jean answers that he should have told her he was considering a transfer and how he felt, rather than shutting her out after graduation and insisting everything would be fine.

The university thus becomes the setting for a difficult distinction between choosing a future and choosing against a person. Lara Jean’s decision is not presented as a lack of love; she wants Peter to attend UVA because it is the place he has worked toward, while she pursues the opportunity she wants at UNC. Their conflict arises partly from the way that decision is handled: his possible transfer and his mother’s intervention remain unspoken between them until the breakup has already exposed the strain.

Narrative Significance

The University of North Carolina gathers the story’s questions about independence, intimacy, and belonging into one concrete choice. For Lara Jean, it is the college she recognizes as the place she wants to attend, not merely a waypoint in a plan to transfer elsewhere. For her relationship with Peter, it is the source of a geographic and emotional separation that makes their assumptions about sacrifice visible. The resulting tension lies in the fact that both college decisions matter: neither character’s future can simply be folded into the other’s without cost.