I saw UNC’s campus and fell in love. Everything about it is the perfect school for me. The only thing is my counselor told me that Northerns (I am from the North) usually do not enjoy UNC because it is mostly kids from the South who sometimes are not friendly with Northerns.
I do not totally believe this and think he is living in the past but has anyone experienced this at all?
Also wanted to just post my stuff to get an idea if I can even get in:
ACT: 34
GPA: 3.9 (Unweighted), 4.6 (weighted)
EC: Volunteer EMT, Some clubs (founded one club too), Football
UNC-CH has a student population that is mostly from North Carolina: it is a requirement that the university admit OOS students in numbers that do not exceed 18% of an incoming first-year class. I don’t think that there is a great deal of animus towards OOS students at UNC-CH, however, even those who come from up North; and there is a long tradition of students from the Northeast – especially from New York – going to UNC-CH. (Frank Bruni, columnist for the New York Times, for example, is an alumnus; and George Steinbrenner had a daughter who attended back in the late 1970s and early 1980s: http://acc.blogs.starnewsonline.com/14597/the-boss-had-unc-ties/.)
Your ACT and GPA are competitive for UNC-CH OOS applicants; however, your ECs seem to be less than robust as you have reported them. If you look at the UNC-CH Common Data Set, under Part C7 it states 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. Extracurricular activities, talent, and character/personal qualities are considered as “very important” non-academic factors. So while you have one good “very important” academic factor – your ACT score – you need to work on the other “very important” academic and non-academic factors.
Consider it as difficult as to get into a top 20 university due to the OOS cap (which goes first to oos athletes and legacies.)
What did you like about UNCH? There are certainly other universities that share some characteristics.
My other ECs also include research on upcoming medical field advancements. (I want to study Chemistry and take the pre med track).
I also have taken many AP courses and usually gotten A’s. For my senior year I will be taking Organic Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, and AP Bio as some of my difficult classes.
I am not sure what else I can do besides continue doing more research and volunteering to improve my chances of getting in. If you have any insight, that would be greatly appreciated.
@Bengals44: At this point in the process, I would focus on writing really good essays and getting really good LORs. The thing that I see about your ECs is an apparent lack of leadership positions; I don’t know whether you can remedy that by the EA application deadline of October 15 (assuming that you plan to apply EA), but if you can, that would probably help.
If your high school has Naviance or any similar program that gives information about how students at your high school have done in applying to colleges and universities, then you might look at the information available to you there. I also would try to meet with a guidance counselor at your school early in the Fall semester to discuss application strategies for UNC-CH; and if any former students from your school have been admitted to UNC-CH recently, the guidance counselor may be able to give some insight into how and why such student(s) were successful with their applications.
If you’re taking “organic chemistry” and A&P, have you taken Honors Bio, Honors Chem, Honors Physics or Physics1, and AP Chem? Have you taken Calc AB too? Those are essential to make it through the gauntlet of premed pre-reqs.
If you want to be premed, you have other problems: indeed, premeds need to find the university that’ll be cheapest for them. So, run the NPC for UNC-CH and bring the results to your parents. Can they afford to pay the “net cost” each year for you? If not, it’s pointless to get attached to UNC-CH.
Premeds getting into med schools: the percentages are meaningless because they don’t tell you what they include - one thing that’s certain is that they never indicate what percentage of freshmen who wanted to go to med school ultimately got in. About 3/4 freshmen change their minds or change tracks, and from the remaining 1/4 only about half get into even one med school.
In order to maximize your chances, you need to pace yourself (think marathon over 4 years, not the mad dash of the 100m sprint race), a collaborative college with a lot of support and easy access to professors, classes that don’t weed or minimally (ie., where there’s no fixed number of A’s or where there’s no fixed percentage that must get a C and below, or where that is limited) and a college you can attend without any debt (or limited to federal loans at most). Med schools don’t care where you went to school as long as your college is legit. In other words, they make no difference between UNC CH, UNC W, UNC A, NCSU, App State… the algorithm that makes “cuts” doesn’t even know your major or college, only your overall GPA, your premed GPA, you science GPA, and your MCAT score.
Yes I have taken all of those courses that you listed as well as AP Physics and Calc BC. I know that med school is a long way off and honestly I expect to change my course but I would like to have it as an option down the road.
Would being an EMT not be considered leadership? I also founded a club and am the president of that club in my school, can that be considered leadership?
I have looked at Naviance and unfortunately no one from my school has gotten into UNC-CH. But the highest ACT that was submitted was a 31.
@Bengals44: The way I read your information, your participation as EMT is as a volunteer; and I can’t express an opinion about founding a club, and being the president. However, both of those things may be something you can flesh out in your application. Is there an organization or activity that you have been involved in for a while, in which you have been selected by your peers, teammates, or coaches to a leadership position – captain of your football team, for example?
I would still talk to your guidance counselor this Fall about application strategies. Good luck!
Yes, being an EMT would be considered leadership but you’d have to be able to describe what exactly you did (look at “action verbs for resume” online).
It’s not necessarily a matter of ACT score, the big constraint is being an OOS applicant when there are very few spots for OOS applicants.
If you like NC, apply to NCSU, Wake Forest, Davidson, Elon, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Wilmington, App State.
If you like a nice college town, you have UVermont and St Michael’s, UWisconsin, Penn State, William&Mary, USC Columbia… but these will cost a LOT of money (except for USC-Columbia and St Michael’s, which give merit). Run the NPC and ask your parents whether ANY of these is affordable. BTW at all of the public universities, apply for the Honors College. The smaller classes, extra resources, and extra support are very important for premeds.
If you want a good, supportive premed program, run the NPC on St Olaf, Allegheny, Earlham, Skidmore; also interest for you Hobart and William Smith, John Carroll, University of Scranton, Trinity College CT, Drake, Creighton…
Thank you for your answer and all the suggestions, I really appreciate the help! I’ll take a look at those schools and see what happens, still hoping for UNC-CH, hopefully luck will be in my favor.
Thanks for the response, I am planning to write my essay about the calls I have had as an EMT (some have been pretty intense). Hopefully that will show my leadership but I will still look for others too. Thanks!
@Bengals44 I am the parent of an OOS student. Your GPA and ACT score are very good. UNC does place a strong emphasis on community service- they actually do a community service project at orientation and are very involved in the surrounding community. My advice is to get recommendation letters from teachers who know you well, and see if you can also get a recommendation letter from your EMT supervisor ( our HS included these letters). The essays are going to be important - they will help show who you are and need to be taken seriously ( not saying you wouldn’t). UNC has some YouTube videos out regarding essays- they are worth watching. Getting input from your guidance counselor is also a good idea.
It’s also important to recognize that the OOS acceptance rate is 18%… for that reason it is important to cast a wide net. There are a lot of great schools out there that meet your criteria. Good luck!