<p>I second that the essays are very important. Admissions represents to whom I have spoken say that essays are your “interview” that they wish they could have… if it weren’t for so many applicants. Good luck, and be yourself!</p>
<p>As an OOS applicant unless there were extenuating circumstances, or are a highly URM I don’t think so. A score of 2000 would probably be on the low end as well even with a 3.8-3.9. OOS admission is THAT competitive and getting more so each year.</p>
<p>I’m an OOS student at UNC in the class of 2013. Based on my strengths and the fact that I got in here but was waitlisted elsewhere, my rankings would be:</p>
<p>GPA, ACT/SAT, Essays, EC, Recommendations, AP scores.</p>
<p>I like to think that Carolina got it right.</p>
<p>All of the events I went to, they really stressed strength of schedule, and making sure you fully tried to put yourself to a test. Unfortunately every time the question was asked, “Would it be better to have an A in an honors, or a B in an AP class?” it was always responded as we’d like them to have an A in the AP class, then they would continue and be ambiguous. As stated before, admissions has constantly said the essay and recommendations can be very important in finding out the actual person.</p>
<p>I believe that GPA, SAT, Extracurricular, Essays, AP scores/ recommendation. Although they say that it is a holistic approach, every large university has a set manner in which they do admissions. Basically, they have a graph and if you fall on that line, then you hold a chance. They first look at your GPA and SAT and see where you fall on the graph, if you’re within the graph then they’ll consider you for admissions. However, outliers also do sometimes get consideration, however you must explain your argument (extenuating circumstances, URM, etc.) for your abnormality in the UNC applicant pool. Basically if you fall on the graph, you’re on step closer but you still have to stand out amongst the other thousand applicants through your extracurriculars and essays.</p>