How to get into UNC out of state? Help!?

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

Hello everyone,

I’m getting ready to get the college application process underway. I’ve looked at many schools, and UNC is by far my favorite choice. Unfortunately, it seems extremely tough to get into out of state, and none of my family members went there. I am here to ask you what can I do to improve my chances of getting in. I’ve already completely three years of high school so I can’t change much, but I know I can work on my essays, etc… Obviously I will be applying early action to boost my chances. Here’s a bit about me:

Bio:
-Citizenship: US Citizen
-State of residence: Virginia
-Class: 2018
-Race: Caucasian
-Gender: Male

School:
-Type (Public/private & size): Private boarding school (250 kids total, 65ish in my grade)
-Graduates (How many go to Ivy’s): Usually one/two per year go to an ivy, most smart kids go to UVA/UNC (usually depending on state residency)
-AP’s Offered: 17 (AP cap per year 0-1-3-none)

Academic Profile:
-Unweighted GPA: 93.0 (we use unweighted scale out of 100, not the 4.0 scale)
-Weighted GPA: n/a
-AP’s: 10 + special (non AP) research class for select seniors
-Honor’s: 7
-ACT: n/a
-SAT: 1470
-SAT II: n/a
-Rank: school does not report class rank
-Course Rigor: have taken the absolute hardest schedule possible for my school, focused towards math/science

EC (In order of importance/commitment):

  • Honor Committee (group of 7 seniors elected by school)
  • Counselor Body (group of 20 seniors elected by school)
  • Student Council (group of 4 per grade elected by class)
  • Mayor’s Youth Council (group of 25 from town of Lynchburg meet with mayor regularly)
  • Swim Team (All conference swimmer, state qualifier)
  • Alpha Order (nominated for admissions help–> tours/host to prospective students)
  • Varsity football
  • Varsity golf
  • Investing club

Other Notables (College courses you’ve taken, papers published, created own website, Taking a class, etc):

  • Africa mission trip to Kenya/Uganda with my school for a month this past summer

Honors:

  • Analysis Award
  • Statistics Award

Work:

  • Summer camp counselor at a sleep away camp (7 weeks per summer)

My essay should go well and I’m hoping for great recommendation letters as my teachers and I are very close.

I realize at this point it will mostly be just a coin flip (or less) if I get accepted or not, but any help would be greatly appreciated!!

2

Maybe try to get your SAT score up another 50 points or so.

What’s the problem with UVA, or William & Mary? I think that, as a Virginia resident, you should be pretty solid for those two schools; especially considering that males seem to have an advantage in admissions at William & Mary, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/14/want-a-college-admissions-edge-these-schools-might-give-you-a-gender-advantage/?postshare=4661458082560627&tid=ss_fb-bottom&utm_term=.b2c16a3c2de2 (“The College of William and Mary . . . has a 14-point gap favoring men, one of the largest in the country for a school of its prominence. That’s a function of the huge number of women who apply to the public college in Williamsburg, Va. But the school has an interest in making sure that the male/female ratio of its students doesn’t become too imbalanced.”) That gap was 11 points this past year, but still . . . .