I’m going into my senior year of high school, and plan on applying early action to UNC as I’m an out of state student and need all the help I can get. Super-scored, my SAT (new) is a 1450, and a 1390 not super-scored. I am taking the September ACT to hopefully bring my 31 to a 33, I’m in the IB program at my high school, take AP classes (4s and one 5 on the tests), and have a 5.10 GPA weighted on a 4.0 scale. I’ve danced for 13 years, won a couple art competitions, and have 170 volunteer hours in activities that really connect to either dance or my dream to be a surgeon. Basically, I need a full scholarship to go to UNC, as I could go to UF for free with the Bright Futures scholarship I get when I graduate from the IB program. What would anyone say are my chances of getting Morehead-Cain, Robertson, and/or in the Carolina Honors program? Thanks so much for reading all that!
I guess I should add that I’m in National Honor Society, Nat. English Honor Society, Nat. Art Honor Society (4th year), Nat. Science Honor Society (3rd year), Republican Club, and Model UN. Being in the IB program means all of my classes are IB, and have been all four years of high school. I am ranked 22/455 in my class. One kid got Morehead-Cain last year and is starting there this year, but he is was smarter than I am and his mom is a UNC alum. Sorry there’s so much writing!
Honors is very hard to get if you are OOS. My daughter’s gpa/ test scores were in the top 1% and besides being very involved in her high school, she also had a major leadership role in the community where she helped raise a lot of money… and won a tri- county award in our state… and she did not make honors. She did not apply for the competitive merit awards because by the time she thought about it… she ran out of steam due to all of her other applications.
OOS acceptance is very difficult… getting these merit scholarships as an OOS applicant is even more difficult. Have you used the NPC to see if you qualify for financial aid?
Your chances are very slim. Stronger candidates in the 2017 class didn’t get any of those.
Here is a link to eligibility criteria for the Morehead-Cain: http://www.moreheadcain.org/take-morehead-cain-scholar/
If you are an OOS resident, you have two ways to be considered for the M-C: be nominated by your school, or apply EA and hope that you get referred by the Admissions Office for M-C consideration. You must also be a “competitive applicant” to UNC-CH.
Let me start with the “competitive applicant” part.
Unless you are a URM, D-1 athlete, an OOS legacy, or have a disadvantaged socioeconomic status, your current SAT and ACT scores make you marginal for admission, in my opinion. I base this on the fact that UNC-CH in its Common Data Set, under Part C7, informs that standardized test scores, application essay(s), letter(s) of recommendation, and the 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. There is also a 15% acceptance rate for OOS applicants, so you will have a lot of competition for admission. And, while your GPA is good, if you are admitted with your current test scores I suspect that you would not warrant a referral from the Admissions Office for consideration for M-C; which means that you will need to relay on your school to nominate you for a M-C, and because each eligible school gets to nominate only one student there is yet another level of competition there. Further, even if you are nominated for a M-C, that is no guarantee of admission; several M-C nominees from our school have been rejected from UNC-CH over the past several years.
I suspect that your chances for getting a Robertson Scholarship are also low, for many of the same reasons; competition is just very tough.
If you can raise your test scores a bit – say, a 33 or 34 ACT or 1500 SAT – I think that your chances for admission will improve a great deal. Even if you get accepted to UNC-CH, however, your chances of getting into Carolina Honors are not great; applicants with better test scores than what you have right now haven’t been accepted into Carolina Honors upon admission. (Although you can apply to join Carolina Honors once you have enrolled, and taken courses in your first year.)
Finally, if you are admitted, don’t hold out a lot of hope for getting a M-C, or Robertson, or any other merit scholarship from UNC-CH. Merit money from UNC-CH is just very, very difficult to get.
One additional thought/comment: If money is going to be a concern for you attending college, then I suggest that you go to UF for free, and save whatever money you might have spent on your undergraduate education to pay for medical school; because that ain’t going to be cheap.
Are you a semi-finalist for Morehead Cain?