Do I have a reasonable chance as an OOS?

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

UNC is amazing, but I am well aware that it is highly selective for OOS…do I have a shot?

ACT: 30 composite (36 English, 34 Reading, 28 Science, 21 Math) and 31 Super Scored
GPA: 3.46 UW/4.03 W
Rank: 154 out of 500+ (Top 30%)
Senior Courseload: AP Gov, AP Research, AP Japanese, AP Lit, Honors Physics, Honors Intro to College Math

Highschool Context: extremely large public school that has over 25 APs, known as an extremely competitive environment (ie. often ivies+top 20s will ONLY visit our school in the whole area because they love getting our students. A lot of people say our top 20% is most schools’ top 10%)

Freshman: all honors classes
Sophomore: all honors/pre-AP classes
Junior: AP Psych, AP Seminar, AP Language, honors
Senior Courseload: AP Gov, AP Research, AP Japanese, AP Lit, Honors Physics, Honors Intro to College Math

Extracurriculars:

  1. School Literary & Art Magazine (10th - 12th) This magazine had been dying since at least 2004, and my sophomore year I made it my goal to bring it back so students could have an outlet to express themselves…I’m now the editor and our coffeehouses have the largest turnouts in years.
  1. college prep program designed to help underrepresented kids get opportunities outside of the city (10th - 12th) I'm on this programs student executive board and I also am the focus of another program where I help guide 10 young freshman through their first year of high school; I had previously led them on a wilderness expedition to help them develop leadership skills.
  2. Student Council Executive Board, Senior Commissioner of Activities (12th) I organize all events for the senior class including community service and work with the administrators and class officers to help push policies/petitions.
  3. Church Soccer (9th - 11th) I played a season every fall; had to stop because of how busy my senior year was.
  4. Work (Party Bus; my sister's dad took a bus and recreated it. He knew I needed help with money so he offered me a job to manage the consoles on the bus; i've been working weekends and partial summers there since 9th grade.)
  5. Japanese Club (9th -12th) (we interact with exchange students and learn and celebrate japanese language/culture)
  6. a leadership organization designed to help keep young black boys on track, help them succeed to college, and help them become leaders within their community. lots of community service through this organization. (11th/12th)
  7. links organization - this is actually for women but they created a special section that has an emphasis on black male youth because theres a big problem with them not succeeding in my area; they help us with leadership as well (12th)

Volunteer Work:

  1. Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 11th/12th
  2. local zoo’s halloween function 11th
  3. school’s green team, cleaning the school and collecting recycling every week 11th (had to stop because student council took the slot)
  4. Martin luther king Jr. Da of Service cleaning up the poorer portion of the city 11th/12th
  5. various other events through the leadership organization I’m in 11th/12th

Honors:
National Honors Society (11th/12th)
Distinguished Honor Roll (9th - present)
Citizenship Award (9th - present)
Honorable Mention in my state’s Letters About Literature
AP Scholar

How I Spent my Summers:
2014: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), local college honors camp, local high school’s honors camp (writing)
2015: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), Rhodes College Summer Writing Institute, Kenyon Young Writers Workshop
2016: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), Deer Hill Expeditions (where I led the kids)

Race: African American
Sex: Male
First Generation College: No, mother went to college. Father dropped out of college and is currently unemployed. I rarely see him.
Family Income: 61k
Household: 3 (my mom, my sis, and me)
Intended Major: Sociology
Hooks: URM, single parent household, love for writing/expression(?)
Weaknesses: Class Rank, C junior year in precalculus

2

I have no idea; I have no expertise in this area, but I’m just here to say good luck; I’m in the same boat with hoping to get in despite being oos (Ohio) :slight_smile: It’s waaaayyyy too long until decisions come out

3

Here is my usual statement for OOS applicants:

Our OOS high school usually has a couple of students admitted each year to UNC-CH; and, with the exception of legacy students, our admitted students have SAT scores of 1350+, ACT scores of 34+, and weighted GPAs of 4.5+ on a 5.0 scale. Other kids in our city who I know were admitted to UNC-CH recently have also had similar statistics; and all of these kids were “unhooked” in admissions parlance (i.e., not a recruited D-1 athlete, or URM, first-generation college student, etc.).

If you look at the UNC-CH common data set, under Part C7 it states that standardized test scores, application essay, letter(s) of recommendation, and 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.

As you may know, admission of OOS students is very competitive; and UNC 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. Last year’s entering freshman class had a 15% acceptance rate for UNC-CH: http://admissions.unc.edu/apply/class-profile-2/.

Having stated all of the above, because you are a URM you may be somewhat competitive for admission. Having good essays and letters of recommendation will help a good deal. Your ECs showing leadership ability also should help as well. I wouldn’t worry too much about the C in precalculus.

Just out of curiosity, I see where you have taken summer programs at Vandy; have you applied there as well?

4

@gandalf78 yes! I applied ED1 and here back from them tomorrow. Thank you for your input; I guess it won’t hurt to apply, especially if I have good essays!

5

hear* sorry I am tired

6

@sumuzu: If you applied ED to Vandy and are accepted there, would you still be able to apply to UNC-CH (if you haven’t already), or would you be precluded from further admissions efforts at other schools? (I’m afraid that my understanding of ED applications is very limited.)

7

@gandalf78 if I get into Vandy, then I will be attending there in the fall no matter what. It is binding so I must withdraw all other applications.

8

I’m not sure if your ACT and class rank are good enough OP

9

We have very similar stats and a very similar school type! My school only had one person admitted out of about 20 that applied last year but I am still hopeful!! Did you get into Vandy??

10

Didn’t get in to vandy as expected haha, I’m a fool for thinking I can get into these schools. @carolinahbrahh yeah I’m too far in to just drop my app so I’ll give it a shot but I’m honestly just expecting to be rejected from most of my colleges at this point

11

@sumuzu: Don’t feel too bad, Vandy is a hard row to hoe; it seems that it has been getting more and more restrictive on admissions over the past few years.

Perhaps I missed this, but did you apply to UNC-CH as an EA applicant, or will you be applying RD? If you applied EA, then you should hear something in about a month or so.

12

I’m applying RD @gandalf78

13

@sumuzu: I am sending you a PM, tomorrow if not today.

14

OP, do you have some safeties that you’d be happy to attend and that you can afford? I think UNC OOS is probably a big reach.

15

I do have UT Knox (already accepted+applied for Honors). Other reasonable schools I have are Howard, Georgia State, and Ohio State, and Tennessee State University (legacy+they tapped me to write a piece for them)