I am currently an uprising senior and right now I have about a 3.2 GPA but I recently scored a 1530 on the SAT and I scored a 32 on the ACT. I also have a lot of extra curricular such as Honor Society, President of Science Olympiad, over 100 hours of volunteering at the hospital, 3 varsity sports, DECA, Debate Club. I plan on taking 6 more AP classes next year to hopefully boost my unweighted gpa to a 4.8. Is there any possibility that I can get into this school?
Nobody can tell you for sure whether or not you will get in. I can tell you that it will be very hard if you are from out of state, but that is true for everybody. I can also tell you that your GPA is on the low side, … but I don’t know what the rest of your application looks like ( essays, letters of rec etc) and if there is something unique about you that catches their eye. And… even though your GPA appears to be on the low side, we don’t know what it looks like within the context of your school.
So… is there a possibility of acceptance? If you apply, then there will always be a possibility. My advice is to apply and also make sure you have a few likely options. Good luck!
Is your 3.2 GPA weighted or unweighted? Would you be an in-state or OOS applicant? (You are a “rising” and not an “uprising” senior, by the way.)
You may be able to get an idea of where you place relative to recently admitted students by looking at the UNC-CH Common Data Set: Part C9 of the CDS gives the median 50% for both SAT and ACT scores, as well as the percentage of the entering first-year class falling within certain ranges of SAT and ACT scores; and Part C11 gives the percentage of entering first-year students falling within a range of unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale.
The CDS also tells you, under Part C7, that standardized test scores, application essay(s), letter(s) of recommendation, and the rigor of your high school record are “very important” academic factors considered for freshman admission, whereas GPA and class rank are “important” academic factors considered for freshman admission. Extracurricular activities, talent, and character/personal qualities are considered as “very important” non-academic factors.
So you have done well --especially your SAT – in an area that UNC-CH considers to be very important. While your GPA is a factor that is an “important” but not “very important” academic factor, nevertheless it is a bit low if you are an OOS applicant, unless you have other factors – being a URM (under-represented minority), recruited D-1 athlete, first-generation college student, disfavored socioeconomic status, legacy – that could work in your favor. Otherwise, you will not be as competitive for admissions as many, many other OOS applicants. (If you are an in-state applicant, then the calculus will change a bit in regard to your GPA.)
You ask whether boosting your GPA up to a 4.8 after taking 6 AP classes next year would help. A couple of thoughts and observations. First, I don’t know that you can raise your unweighted GPA to 4.8, even if you ace all of your AP classes; I doubt whether that much of a jump is numerically possible. Second, if you apply EA to UNC-CH, then the grades at the end of your just-completed junior year will be the ones submitted to the Admissions Office, so all of those AP classes won’t help you. If you are considered as part of the RD pool, then the Admissions Office will look at your cumulative GPA after the Fall Semester of your senior year; and, again, I don’t know that you can raise your GPA sufficiently after only one semester of grades.
What you have under your control at this point (besides your Fall Semester grades) would be your essays and LORs (and perhaps your ECs, to a lesser degree). Work on having outstanding essays and LORs, as they are “very important” academic factors to UNC-CH. I would also consider elaborating on your leadership abilities and examples of leadership in your ECs, which relate to the “very important” non-academic factors of character/personal qualities, as part of your overall application.
You might be able to get in in-state, but you have zero chance OOS