Chance me: UNC Chapel Hill EA 2024

OOS from CA
White female
Income: $100,000+ (not applying for need-based aid)

GPA: W- 4.25 UW- 3.9 ish (got one B first semester junior year)
Class Rank: school doesn’t rank but likely top 10% (large public school)
ACT: 35

Intended major: Political Science, maybe minor in Spanish

AP classes:
Freshman- none offered for 9th grade
Sophomore- AP Euro (only one offered for 10th grade)
Junior- English Language, Spanish Language, US History
Senior- English Literature, Spanish Literature, Calc AB, Economics (Macro + Micro), Environmental Science

Fairly good Common App essay

Teacher recs pretty good (7 or 8/10)

Counselor rec not great––large public school, no real connection with counselors

Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction, California Scholastic Federation, some entrepreneurship/business competition things, Cross Country Rookie of the Year freshman year

Extracurriculars :

  1. Head Copy Editor of school newspaper
  2. School’s Student Trustee to district board (sole representative, elected by student body)
  3. Chief Operations Officer of entrepreneurship/business club that entered/placed in several international business competitions)
  4. Weekly tutor/founder of a monthly program at local nonprofit tutoring center
  5. Part-time job at local fast food restaurant
  6. Captain of cross country and track teams (varsity since freshman year)
  7. President of my class for a branch of National Charity League (very active in community service––assisting in elderly homes, volunteering at Special Olympics events, etc.)––since seventh grade
  8. Amigos de las Americas participant (6 weeks living with a host family in Panama the summer after my sophomore year)––had a big impact on me, was part of my Common App
  9. Member of the Leadership Class at my school (0 period, starts at 7AM four days a week) since freshman year, was class treasurer freshman year
  10. Did a selective program with the New York Times this summer––studied immigration with one of their immigration reporters; visited the border wall + migrant shelters to develop a storytelling project

Sorry that was so long!! Just very anxious and hoping for some information as I’m gearing up for admissions decisions.

I’d say you have a pretty good chance of getting in. UNC only accepts 20% of applicants from OOS, and a lot of them come from large states from California and NY. Your ECs are really good and your GPA and SAT are on par or better than most in state applicants I know. Your amount of APs is low but the fact that your school doesn’t offer them for all the grades should make up for it. UNC is also need-blind so it wouldn’t help you like it would at other schools. Overall, you are one of the stronger candidates applying, the only thing that gives you a minor disadvantage is OOS and a polisci major since it is really popular at UNC.

Thank you for the response! I knew being OOS would be very difficult, but I didn’t realize that about polisci. Thanks for the insight!

For real? 9 AP classes and 10 AP tests is considered a low number of APs?

Generally, they compare that to the number offered by the school rather than compare the number this student took versus the number another person at another school took.

And I wouldn’t worry about the counselor recommendation - I’m sure those are mostly just facts like the school profile information, a comment on your attendance/behavior record, how many APs the school offers vs how many you took, your grades, etc., and not a commentary on your work ethic, enthusiasm for your educational experiences, your activities… those are for your teacher recs.

@MESMES In comparison to a lot of in-state applicants, yes. I come from Wake County (the largest county in wake) and most of the kids at UNC from my high school would take 8 APs during senior year alone. So, in comparison to other OOS applicants who get in, only 9 is low (especially when you consider only 20ish percent of OOS applicants get admitted). Again, I did say they’ll take the school profile into account.

@izrk02 UNC already put out a statement a while back that they are really only looking for 5 AP classes because they found that more than 5 does not have any significant correlation to higher achievement in college. Also, 9 AP classes taken throughout high school is not low…

@dkahfdfhk guess I never saw that. And as far as the amount, I wasn’t saying that 9 is too little (it’s def not). I’m just saying compared to a lot of IS applicants, an OOS with 9 (depending on how many your school offers), is in mid-range. I should’ve clarified my earlier statement.

Whether UNC takes more than 5 into account is only one piece of the AP puzzle. In competitive high schools, taking more AP can be the difference between a top 10% finish in the class and falling outside. So, while UNC may not necessarily reward you for more than 5, it is a factor in GPA and class rank which are taken into account for a lot of schools including UNC and others. It’s a vicious game.