Chance me - UNC

Ok so I used to live in chapel hill for ten years. I am now out of state (I live in Kansas). My dad works at UNC chapel hill as a professor in the linguistics department. My act is 30, 31 super scored (I’m taking it again in October and taking the sat in November). I have a 4.0 (the highest my school goes) and I’m in all the top classes my school offers as well as dual credit courses. I’m top of my class, in many extracurriculars, and volunteer. I’m also hispanic. Please tell me I’ll get in lol

In the first place, no one on this forum can tell you whether you’ll get in.

Second, the chances for any OOS applicant to UNC-CH are somewhat problematic due to the highly competitive nature of OOS applications there: UNC-CH admits OOS applicants in numbers that are calculated not to exceed 18% of an entering freshman class. See “Undergraduate Admissions” on Page 2, here: http://www.admissions.unc.edu/files/2013/09/Admissions__Policy.pdf. As a further example of the difficulty for OOS students to be admitted to UNC-CH, the entering Class of 2022 had a 13% acceptance rate for OOS applicants: https://uncnews.unc.edu/2018/08/17/carolina-welcomes-5095-new-undergraduate-students-to-campus/ (29,563 OOS applicants; 3,829 admits).

If you look at the UNC-CH Common Data Set, here, https://oira.unc.edu/files/2018/06/CDS_2017-2018_20180605.pdf , under Part C7 it states 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.

Further, Part C9 of the Common Data Set for UNC-CH 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; Part C11 gives the percentage of entering first-year students falling within a range of unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale, and Part C12 gives the average high school GPA of first-year applicants.

By way of comparison, our OOS high school usually has 8-10 students who apply, and 1-2 students who are admitted, each year to UNC-CH; and, with the exception of legacy students, our admitted students have SAT scores of 1500+, ACT scores of 33+, and weighted GPAs of 4.4+. These successful applicants also were involved in extracurricular activities that showed commitment over time (no “drive-by” ECs), and demonstrated leadership in the school as well as their ECs. Other kids in our city who I know were admitted to UNC-CH recently also had similar academic statistics and non-academic characteristics; and all of these kids were “unhooked” in admissions parlance (i.e., not a recruited D-1 athlete, or a URM, first-generation college student, etc.).

As a URM (“under-represented minority”), you may have a slightly easier path. Irrespective of URM status, however, you should focus on getting high standardized test scores (as you indicated you are attempting to do), boost your GPA to the extent you can, and work to have really good ECs, essays, and LORs.

Regarding whether you would be a “legacy” because your father teaches at UNC-CH, as I noted in the thread started by @rlenard in response to your query, the official policy of UNC-CH regarding legacy admissions is found in the UNC-CH Admissions Policy, here, http://www.admissions.unc.edu/files/2013/09/Admissions__Policy.pdf, on Page 1 under Part III: “In the application of this policy of competitive admissions to nonresident students, preference for admission may be given to nonresident applicants who are children of alumni of the institution.” This language also appears on the UNC-CH website, here, http://www.catalog.unc.edu/admissions/undergraduate/#admissionspolicytext. As I read this policy statement, to be an OOS legacy – and receive the benefit as quoted above – you must have a parent who is an alumnus of UNC-CH. It does not appear to apply to a parent who is simply an employee of UNC-CH (although if you were admitted, there might possibly be a tuition discount based on your father’s employment – something else to look into).

Your father’s employment by UNC-CH does raise a question – can you claim North Carolina residency based on your father’s employment at UNC-CH, if he lives in North Carolina but you do not? If your parents are divorced, then that question may be resolved by the child custody agreement; but you may want to investigate by starting with this link, and perhaps asking questions of the people at the Residency Determination Services: https://admissions.unc.edu/apply/residency/.

Finally, I don’t know whether your high school has Naviance or any similar program that gives information about how students at your high school have done in applying to colleges and universities; if so, you might peruse that data for anything relevant to UNC-CH applications. I would also try to meet with a guidance counselor at your school sooner rather than later to discuss application strategies for UNC-CH; if any former students from your school have been admitted to UNC-CH recently, the guidance counselor may be able to give some insight into how and why such student(s) were successful.

Honestly, I don’t think I can get in state tuition because I’m not my dad’s dependent. Also, I don’t think anyone has ever applied to UNC from my high school. We have really bad counselors and there’s like a culture of under achievement.

I don’t think the OP can claim residency just because the father resides in NC. “The residency statute mandates only those who can demonstrate a minimum of twelve months of uninterrupted domicile (legal residence) in North Carolina are eligible for in-state tuition.”

OP, you’ve got a shot, but it would be greatly helped by a higher ACT or SAT score. Did you ask your dad if they give any preference to children of employees?

@suzy100 I texted him, and he said there is no preference, but there may be discounted tuition.