Hey! I have kind of an interesting story. For my freshman and sophomore years, I attended a performing arts high school in North Carolina. After that, I decided to homeschool for a multitude of reasons, and it ended up being a very positive thing for my education! It also gives me a very strong topic for my essay lol. Having known all of this, I have a couple of questions. I would like to know my chances of getting into UNC Chapel Hill, and UNC Charlotte. I am also considering NC State, and a private university that I have not decided on yet. (Suggestions welcome ) I am interested in majoring in Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Acoustics, or Engineering Physics. What are some things I should look into? I am definitely open to applying early action, however, I would like to stay away from binding, early decision applications. Here are my stats…
-State: North Carolina
-UW GPA: 3.58
-W GPA: 4.41
-SAT (new): 1260
-SAT math: 660
-SAT reading: 600
-ACT comp: 28
-ACT English: 32
-ACT math: 27
-ACT science: 28
-ACT reading: 26
-ACT writing: 8
-Almost every class I have taken has been Honors or AP (Obviously you can’t take APs as a homeschool student, so there haven’t been too many of those, due to what is offered)
-I have taken a foreign language my first three years of high school, and intend on taking another this year.
-I had enough credits to graduate halfway through my junior year
-I have over 10 extracurriculars, many of which are a continuation of all 4 years of high school
-I am a part of a student core leadership team
-I have 4 first place awards at the North Carolina Fine Arts Festival
-I have 2 first place awards at the National Fine Arts Festival
-I have multiple superior ratings and multiple Top 10 and Top 3 awards at both the North Carolina and National Fine Arts Festivals
-I have received an Award regarding leaderships skills from the city in which I live
-I have won an international essay contest
-I have over a years work experience at Panera
I’m sure there is some stuff that I have forgotten to put in, but this should give a good feel as to who I am. I have been working extensively on essays over the past few weeks, including working with multiple mentors to assist in them being as powerful as possible. Beyond admissions chances, do I have an shot at any worthwhile scholarships? Also, as mentioned earlier, I am open to suggestions for private colleges, anywhere fro DC to Florida. Thank you guys so much for your time!
Congrats on your hard work and success! I would suggest you google “colleges that meet full financial need.” Most of the schools you find will be the most competitive schools (Harvard, etc.), which are also often very wealthy and can afford to cover students who cannot pay astronomical college costs. Please be advised that sometimes these schools strive to meet full need but probably come up short sometimes, or disagree with a family about how much they can pay. For example, your family might feel it can pay $10k but school says it calculates you can pay $20k. If you are accepted to a school who makes this claim, and don’t receive an offer of sufficient aid, you can discuss it with them. You can also run net price calculators for these schools.
Some schools that I find on some of these list that might be accessible to you include: St. Olaf’s (MN) (good science, I understand), Union College (NY) (also good science), College of Wooster (OH), Clark University (MA), Franklin and Marshall ¶, and Lafayette College ¶. You see that many are in Northeast and Midwest, which is outside your target geographic range. Maybe Mount Holyoke or Wellesley if you are female. Mount Holyoke is part of a five-school consortium (with Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, and U Mass-Amherst) and you can take classes at the other schools. Wellesley students sometimes take classes at MIT, although I don’t know the details. Wellesley is perhaps the most competitive school. Not all of them have engineering. FM has a 3/2 engineering program, which, if a student there, you could do or not do, depending on what you think after you are there:
It’s great that you have several terrific in-state options.
One thought, you have a lot of great accomplishments in art. That seems like something that could set you apart as a science/engineering student. Your artistic talents/experiences will give you a different perspective that might help you in some ways, sort of like the story of Steven Jobs and the calligraphy class he took at Reed College. You might think about that if it’s relevant to any of your essay prompts, and, more importantly, how you approach your studies. Good luck!
@TTG Thank you so much! Receiving such extensive feedback helps a lot in my endeavor to complete my application list! I will definitely look into those colleges, and I really appreciate the different aspect on the arts accomplishments/essay conversation! Thanks again!
Go to NC State! If you are interested in engineering and sciences it is the better choice. - from a former UNC grad. Even though I had fun at UNC, I wish I had gone to NC State.
What is your budget? How much can you and your parents afford to pay and what is your EFC? You need this info before proceeding much further in your search. Once you have that info, run NPC’s on college sites and see how the $ shakes out.
Hi - It was several years ago that I went to school, however I know it still holds true the UNC Chapell Hill is a liberal arts school - and NC State is still thought of for engineering and science. Pre med students may major in biology at UNC, but when you thinking about physics or engineering and it is your passions, NC state is the way to go. It is well recognized across the US as a great school in addition to UNC back then (when rankings weren’t so much of a thing in the nineties). I wanted to major in engineering, but went to UNC because of friends and I thought it was a better school. I did not feel the professors in the math/sciences area were good (most were teaching assistants). To make a long story short, I graduated from UNC with BA in Political Science, but ended up in the IT field and later received a computer science degree. I feel if I had gone to NC state I would have gotten to the profession I eventually ended up in more quickly. Good luck!
Thank you @Lorijb for your response! I am putting in applications to both UNC and NC State, and haven’t made up my mind on either yet. I haven’t even toured either yet, and still am on the edge for admissions to both. So thank you for the advice. It is much noted going forward!
Also, not that much of a difference is made, but I have completed two more honors courses since this post, both with A’s, which bumps my UW GPA to a 3.61 and W GPA to 4.46.
Update: I currently have applications in at UNC (With Robertson), NC State (With Park), Charlotte, Liberty, WUSTL, Southeastern, and Wingate (Have been accepted with Full Tuition Scholarship)
) I am interested in majoring in Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Acoustics, or Engineering Physics. What are some things I should look into? I am definitely open to applying early action, however, I would like to stay away from binding, early decision applications. Here are my stats…