<p>Hi, I'm new here. I applied EA and I realize that it's already decided and I'll know in two weeks, it's driving me up the wall--I'd like to hear what some other people think about my chances. </p>
<p>Mississippi--academically prestigious private school
GPA: 3.4 (unweighted)
ACT: 31
SAT: 2150 (800 CR, 800 W, 550 M)
AP Classes: AP English Comp (5), AP US History (5), AP English Lit (pending), AP Spanish Language (pending), AP US Gov/Economics (pending)
School does not rank
EC, community service, and work experience: Editor of award-winning school literary magazine; captain of debate team; captain of mock trial team; ballet; National Honor Society VP; regular volunteer/community ambassador for animal shelter; regular contributing columnist to two local newspapers; secretary at law firm (3 years)</p>
<p>Awards and recognition: Alliance for Art and Writing American Voices award and national gold medal for short fiction; published in Scholastic's Best Teen Writers of 2009; Columbia Scholastic Press Association poetry award; several other writing awards locally, regionally and nationally; voted Most Likely to Succeed</p>
<p>I applied for the Thomas Wolfe Scholarship for creative writing, too, so that's a big part of it. I have to be accepted to the school to get the scholarship, of course.</p>
<p>well your SAT scores look good (math =/) and since your school is extremely competitive you GPA is probably pretty good (considering UNC looks at your schedule too)
i think you have a good shot especially considering all your awards</p>
<p>I have a tough time believing you have a 3.4 unweighted and a 4.45 weighted if you use UNC’s scale. Does your school give a 6.0 for AP’s or something?</p>
<p>Regardless, you SAT’s are in the range, except the math which is ostensibly lower than the typical range. But I guess your reading and writing make up for it. UNC also likes to see Subject Tests, which are noticeably absent.</p>
<p>You have a pretty good overall profile, but I wouldn’t be surpised if you were deferred.
I would say reach.</p>
<ol>
<li>UNC uses 6.0 for APs, since they go by NC’s scale. Ryan - I may have seen something that you’re in-state on University of Florida’s board, and they use a noticeably different scale than NC. If I’m wrong about being in-state for Florida, though, sorry :/</li>
<li>It will not hurt you that you haven’t taken any subject tests.</li>
</ol>
<p>My only concern is really your math score, and I feel like you have a good shot. If it were earlier in the year, I would have really retaken the SAT for math only, but no point in it now.</p>
<p>Subject tests are recommended. Look at last years accepted board on CC and you will see correlation between having Subject Tests and higher acceptance rate. I know correlation doesn’t mean causation, but for OOS there are going to be students with strong SAT 1’s and subject tests, so you really are putting yourself at a disadvantage in an extremely competitive OOS pool…</p>
<p>I’ve actually heard that they go by the standard scale, but I’m really not sure on that either. My school specifically uses the standard scale, and I feel like UNC would have to because we do not have percentage grades or A +/- on our transcripts and I don’t see any other way that they can obtain that information in order to use the augmented scale for all the applicants?</p>
<p>I think more of the correlation that you’re seeing is that the stronger OOS students are opting to take subject tests. Granted, I’m not an expert on OOS admissions (or in state for that matter…) but when I asked about them in the spring, the person I spoke to in admissions made it seem like they didn’t make a difference on your application.</p>
<p>^ Hmm, I would think they use the augmented number scale instead of letter grades, since that is what DPI is really pushing the counties to adopt, but I see what you are getting at with counties that only use A,B,C,D,F, without an +/-, plus my guidance counselor said they use augmented, but she could be mistaken.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you. I realize that I should have taken the subject tests and it’s only my fault that I didn’t; my math score is abysmal but thats the way my brain works. I’m so unbalanced with regard to verbal skills vs. math skills. It’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>I applied for the TW scholarship too! Go us. I wish they would consider our writing in general admissions. I emailed to ask if they would accept writing supplements, but they said no…</p>
<p>Hey, TW buddy!! Let me know when you hear from them–I’ve been searching online for TW applicants and you’re the first I’ve found. </p>
<p>Seniornow–it’s a full scholarship from the creative writing program. I can’t afford to go to UNC if I don’t get it, so getting accepted means next to nothing without that scholarship.</p>
<p>Do y’all mean that UNC might re-calculate a student’s GPA in order to weight each AP class as counting 6 points (for an A) rather than counting the high school’s weight? I have wondered about what seems like a very high “middle 50%” GPA range for those accepted to UNC in prior years, but maybe this explains it.</p>
<p>^I think I read somewhere that they take the high school GPA at “face value” for purposes of admissions, but they say in the data they release that they use the “Weighted 4.0 system” to give out the average GPA, which could be one of 4 different grading scales that NC public schools uses (all of which use 6.0 as the highest value for AP classes.) If you want more info on the weighting system used by NC public schools I posted a link to the State Board of Education policy.</p>
<p>Would someone gently explain how this weighting works. I too find it remarkable that something like 90% of UNC’s entering freshmen have a GPA over 4.0. How is that even possible? Someone once told me that a C in an AP class gets weighted as a 4.0. Is that true, and if so, do the transcripts show the Cs? Does that mean a B is a 5.0? If this is the case, does anyone know how UNC handles transcripts of kids from independent schools where APs are not offered (thus no weighting) but the courses are likely to be equally or possibly more rigorous than APs Just curious.</p>
<p>Yes… The c for that AP class would be on the transcript. If a student takes the hardest classes offered to him, the college will know based on the counselor statement. Schools with 12 AP classes (thus kids with 5.2 GPAs) also have class ranks to keep the AP grade inflation in check.</p>
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