absolutely positively last chance thread!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
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<p>In-state senior! I applied EA and I put International Studies as my major.
My teacher recs were great (I submitted 3) and I think my essays really showed who I am (i also submitted an additional essay about a disability I overcame) </p>

<p>unweighted gpa = 3.53 weighted=3.88 (will go up this year)
SAT: 1860
White Female
In one of the most, if not the most, competitive public school districts in North Carolina </p>

<p>Senior Year Courses: AP Comparative Government, AP Human Geography, AP English Lit, Advanced Functions and Modeling , Honors Global Classes</p>

<p>I'm taking a class at UNC (french) and I think my final grade will either be a B+ or A- (I'm going to send in the transcript once i get my final grade at the end of December) </p>

<p>AP French Language Score-3</p>

<p>Taking online marketing class </p>

<p><strong>EC's</strong> + I have the most service learning hours in my grade
-founder/co-president of the Amnesty International Club (11,12)
-founder/co-president of the Movie Club (11, 12)
-Junior Advisory Guide (11) Senior Advisory Guide (12)
-treasurer of National Honor Society (11, 12)
-JV Volleyball Captain + on Varisty (10)
-In Academy of International Studies at my school + A.I.S Board (10, 11,12)
-Graduation Project Committee (11, 12)</p>

<p>I have over 500 service learning hours:
-volunteer at local elementary school every summer (9, 10, 11)
-voluneer at local library (10, 11)
-CIT for 3 weeks at a YMCA Camp (10)
-volunteer counselor at an Art Camp (9)
-volunteer at local walks (9, 10)
-childrens soccer coach (9, 10, 11)
-I stay afterschool to fundraise for the Amnesty Club-which gets me more service hours</p>

<p>North Carolina Governor's Page (summer 2009)</p>

<p>Awards so far::
NCHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award
Varsity Letter (volleyball)
29th in state for national french exam</p>

<p>so what do you think? UNC is my first choice, and if I get in I will almost definitely attend.</p>

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<p>bump 10 char</p>

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<p>I don’t really know because I’m not sure about your EC’s (if they’ll help you enough to get you in). Without considering the EC’s, I’d say it’s a reach/far reach. Especially if you’re in a competitive county, there are going to be students with much better test scores and GPAs than you. Carolina accepts >2% of applicants with below a 4.0 (weighted) and I think the average is something like a 4.75? Your test scores are really pretty sub-par for UNC, so combined with the GPA, it doesn’t look good, imo. Plus, 70% of applicants submit at least one AP test score, and your 3 isn’t so great either.</p>

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<p>Your chances are good. Since you are in-state, I would consider UNC a high match or low reach for you. You have awesome EC’s, 500 service hours is a lot. </p>

<p>I can tell you really want to go to UNC, so I hope you get in.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>thanks ryan! and artemis, regarding the gpa thing, if you’re looking on collegeboard or us news, the gpa is OOS + In State. Basically, i think people from OOS bring UNC’s average GPA up a whole lot (just because the people who get admitted OOS usually have really really high GPAs, not to say that In state people don’t, though). I don’t mean to argue and say that i’m average, but I believe that the average in state GPA is a ton lower, like maybe a 3.8</p>

<p>am i making any sense? lol!</p>

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<p>I wouldn’t assume the in-state GPA is that low.</p>

<p>Out of the 32 senior admitted last year from my school (also highly competitive high school in highly competitive Wake county), 1 had a GPA less than 4.0 (weighted) – and it was a 3.9. She was minority and had similar service hours, but had taken AP Spanish.</p>

<p>You have a chance, especially because of your ECs. But I wouldn’t make myself confident. Our salutatorian isn’t even making himself confident, yet.</p>

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<p>Actually, if anything, I think in-staters might be bringing the GPA up (and possibly the test scores down). In comparison, a public school in NC is going to be much less difficult than a public school in CT. NC has high grade inflation and the 6.0 scale isn’t widely used (to my knowledge) outside the state.</p>

<p>Here’s why I think it’s a far reach (it’s all a numbers game):

  • 7432 admitted, of that, 91.4% reported a GPA and 89.2% had above 4.0 = 737 remaining spots for GPAs below 4.0 remember, this is out of the 7,342 admitted. </p>

<p>Test scores: Since you didn’t break it down, I’m just going to guess you got roughly a 600 on all three sections. That puts you in the bottom 25% for test scores. (i.e. in the admit pool, those scores are at the bottom 25%)</p>

<p>Of those 737, here’s probably why those people were admitted:

  • Kids who had below 4.0 GPAs but TOP test scores (2300, 34/35 ACT) – in state
  • Athletes (I’m guessing the majority of this population)–in state/oos
  • Legacy/Donor kids (minority, but probably there)
  • Minorities (Native Americans and other under-represented groups)
  • People who go to ridiculously hard high schools (Me!)
  • and finally, the EC kids. </p>

<p>So, assuming that each one (and I’m omitting Legacies because that’s just speculation) gets an equal share of the spots (and that’s probably not true, I’m guessing this is the athlete pool)… 737/5 = 147 spots out of 7,342 admits. </p>

<p>I’m not saying you don’t have a chance. I’m just saying that out of the rest of the admit population, with your GPA and test scores, you’ll be competing for like 2% of the spots available. And, you’ll be competing with the 23,000 other applicants with outstanding ECs. So, your EC’s could get you in, or they might not.</p>

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<p>AKA, hope your essays were absolutely phenomenal. UNC treats them as your interview.</p>

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<p>i really loved my essays and i believe they will help me greatly. my teacher recs were also awesome and they talked about my leadership ability and such. </p>

<p>quick question:
when you guys talk about GPA, are you referring to UW or W? There’s a bigggg difference between the two. </p>

<p>I’m getting almost all As this year, which will bump my GPA up (and I’m planning on sending in a mid year report). My W GPA will be over a 4.0 </p>

<p>my school had about 25 people get accepted to UNC last year and UW, they had UW GPAs from around a 3.6 to a 3.9. none were athletes. of course, maybe they all got 2400s on their SATs or something, but i do know for a fact that they did not have super super high GPAs. the few URM students who applied didn’t even get in.</p>

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<p>I was talking about weighted GPAs. I have a 4.2 and I am still very, very nervous about getting in. Last year’s average weighted GPA was around a 4.47.</p>

<p>What county are you from? I know kids from Franklin county who had very poor scores but got in because it is a poor, less privileged county.</p>

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<p>I’m in Orange County. </p>

<p>BTW, I don’t believe I said anywhere in my posts that I WASN"T nervous about getting in, but I get the feeling you guys think (for some reason) that I’m not nervous and that I think I will get in…</p>

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<p>Saying, “i really loved my essays and i believe they will help me greatly” projects confidence.</p>

<p>It’s okay to project confidence, though. I just don’t think anybody should be getting a sense of security until acceptance letters actually come out. For now, it’s time to just chill and wait… there is nothing more we can do.</p>

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<p>confidence in my essays, yes. do i think they will help me? yes. but do i actually think i will get in? no. </p>

<p>oh trust me, i do not have a sense of security. my gpa and sat are killing me, and it’s not like i can be accepted just because of my sat scores and essay.</p>

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<p>I’m talking about weighted and how a 3.88 weighted is crippling you. Honestly, while your senior year grades matter-- a lot, they aren’t going to see them (as official grades because you applied in November) and they aren’t going to help you (officially). UNC only saw my midterm grades for fall term of my senior year, and I don’t think those even -officially- count. So however awesome this year is, I don’t think it’s really going to pull you up past your 3.88</p>

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<p>I would disagree that NC in-state brings up the GPA because of the weighting system used. The DPI scale is 7-point (A-=93), as compared to the 10-point scale used by many states. Also, NC does not give 4.0 (or 5 and 6 depending on the course) unless a student scores 96+. </p>

<p>That being said, 3.88 is relatively low for an instate student. At my in-state high school (ranked in the top 5 of all NC high schools) no one got in with less than a 4.0.</p>

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<p>Also, in response to Artemis’ comment, my counselor has said that while they do not see senior grades for early admissions, UNC does look at the senior year courseload and consider it as an admissions factor.</p>

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<p>

This is not true at all, at least not at any school in my county in NC. I could score a 92.5, which would round to an A and I’d get 4.0 towards my UW GPA. I don’t know where you heard of this, but it isn’t something that ALL of NC high schools use!!</p>

<p>Anyways, regarding the chances for the OP, I think it will be a reach/high reach because of SAT and GPA coming from a highly-represented county in NC.</p>

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<p>It varies by county, but for the most part, NC Public Schools are moving to the NCWISE Augmented Scale, in order to determine class rank more efficiently, with Wake and Mecklenburg Counties being notable holdouts. More information on NC’s policy on GPAs can be found at : [Policy</a> outlining standards to be incorporated into the electronically generated high school transcript](<a href=“http://sbepolicy.dpi.state.nc.us/Policies/GCS-L-004.asp?Acr=GCS&Cat=L&Pol=004]Policy”>http://sbepolicy.dpi.state.nc.us/Policies/GCS-L-004.asp?Acr=GCS&Cat=L&Pol=004)</p>

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<p>I wish Wake used the augmented scale during my high school years! Nothing’s worse than earning a 92.4 and having the same weight as someone who earned a 84.5…</p>

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<p>^To clarify, Wake and Mecklenburg still use the traditional standard scale, not the augmented, sorry if my wording was a bit confusing.</p>