chances for OOS

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
1

<p>UNC is a great school, and I am just wondering as if I can make it in as an out of state applicant. Any thoughts you have are appreciated.</p>

<p>My stats are:</p>

<p>SATI: 2280, 770 CR, 780M, 730W
SAT II: 750 Chem, 770 U.S., 750 Math IIc
ACT: 35
PSAT: 229, national merit semifinalist for sure, finalist probably</p>

<p>Rising senior in IB program</p>

<p>6 ap classes taken, 6 in senior year, as well as IBs
Senior year: Macro, Comp. Gov., Stat, Calc BC, English Lit., Bio </p>

<p>IB Chem SL: 5
IB Spanish SL:6</p>

<p>APUSH: 5
AP Euro: 4
AP Calc AB:5
AP Eng Lang: 4
AP Chem: 5
AP Spanish: I had to take an alt alt this year, and Collegeboard never wrote an exam for it . I would have gotten a 3 though.</p>

<p>I have a 3.6 unweighted GPA and a 4.3 weighted GPA. I have taken just about every course honors since freshman year and have gotten a's and b's in all of them. However, I hope the admissions people take this into account, as I go to an EXTREMELY hard school, ranked #2 or #3 in the country. Also, my rank is quite low, 46/350 (I think). But I'm not even sure if my school sends rank to colleges</p>

<p>Brain Brawl District champion co-captain
State brain brawl participant
Emcee for numerous events on campus
President mentoring club
VP/Sec in 5 others
Freedoms foundation essay contest winner
AP Scholar with distinction
Congressional page program finalist
intern with mayor's office(and personal rec from him)
Numerous JSA best speaker awards
Pres, Chemistry club
2 Mu alpha theta individual 2nd place awards, 3 1st place team awards
Volunteer at Hospital, middle school
School year job teaching math at Kumon math
Great rec letters
Spanish Honor society
NHS</p>

<p>What are my chances of getting in?</p>

<p>Also, if possible, evaluate for Columbia early decision, UNC EA and UVA RD, and Uchicago RD</p>

<p>If these fail, I can always get into UF, but I'd prefer not to.</p>

2

<p>You have an interesting list of schools what are you using for the criteria to determine the list? </p>

<p>If we were to go on numbers and stats alone, I would say that you should be fairly competitive for all the schools, but UNC will still be the toughest admit of the group. There are often many students on the CC boards admitted to Columbia and rejected at UNC. UVA enrolls around 30% OOS and has a higher OOS admit rate to go with it. At UNC being male could be a plus since the student body ratio is 60/40 female to male. </p>

<p>At U Chicago and UNC the essays play a more critical part in the application process. Chicago is far more straightforward about it but don't underestimate the importance at UNC. There was an article in this past Sunday's NY Times "Education Life" section that calls U Chicago a new "safety school" and describes the admission process there to be much easier than at other peer schools with an admit rate around 50% mainly because the somewhat quirky and challenging essays that are required tend to create a more self-selcting pool of applicants.</p>

<p>My critical questions on looking at your stats are: Do you have any non-academic interests or hobbies or things that don't look like you have been trying to build a resume? You need to be more than one dimensional to gain acceptance to these highly selective schools. Do you golf, play tennis, hike, camp, play lead guitar in a band etc? What are your passions? What makes you distinctive? Your stats and ECs look like many other applicants to these schools, what makes you different? This is what you are going to have to convey in your essays to differentiate yourself.</p>

<p>Hope this helps....Good Luck!</p>

<p>PS: Don't overdo the recs, only submit what they ask for unless one can say things about you that the others don't. Remember the Adcoms are sifting through 20,000 plus applications which means 40-60,000 essays and recommendations. I heard more than one Adcom say the thicker the packet, the more likely it goes to the bottom of the pile and too many recs makes them wonder what an applicant is afraid of or hiding.</p>

3

<p>I do play violin and bassoon, and I have a few state awards to prove it. I also am captain of my local tennis team(not school). But honestly, my true passion is debating. I don't just do it for resume-building(although it is great for that), but I do it because I truly enjoy it. Also, I do enjoy doing some stand-up comedy.</p>

4

<p>Any more chances? Anybody?</p>

5

<p>I was not necessarily saying that you were resume building and I apologize if it came off that way. The things you mentioned were almost exclusively academically oriented and the ECs were things that could be seen as padding a resume. UNC does place value on well rounded individuals as well, which is why I asked the questions I did. I also I wanted you to focus on how you will try to differentiate yourself from all the other candidates that will have applications that will look very similar to yours because there will be many in the OOS application pool that could otherwise be considered a coin toss.</p>

<p>Your response was also the first time you mentioned a passion (debating) and you need to understand that schools like UNC will look for people with passion about something when comparing similar (on paper) OOS candidates.</p>

<p>I was merely trying to get you to stop focusing on the numbers and to start focusing on what makes you tick and how you will convey that to the people reading your application.</p>

<p>I hope this helps.</p>

6

<p>It really did eadad, sorry is I came off as impatient. I'll admit that I'm a little too focused on numbers, but honestly, It's the only way I truly know how to compare myself to other applicants.</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for the help!</p>

7

<p>I have to second what eadad said. Do you know how many kids out there have wonderful stats? A lot, actually! And it's great to be one of them - but for the uber competitive places, that's just the bare minimum. Stats are what gets you <em>not</em> rejected, so you've passed that hurdle. Take a lot of time on your essays. Write about anything you're most interested in, or knowledgeable about. Also make sure your guidance counselor speaks to the rigor of your course load. Good luck!</p>