@amsunshine Our school does not use Naviance.
Do kids get into UNC from your high school. NO ONE gets in from ours. Even kids getting into Ivies and other top 20s get rejected from UNC.
@momtogkc I love all your info! How great that you could take your daughter and friends on a whirlwind trip. My daughter has an appointment for a Wake tour next week. They said we get 1 hour on campus and must be escorted the entire time- no wandering before or after the official tour.
@homedog at our suburban Pittsburgh high school with about 700 per class typically 25-30 apply each year and maybe I or 2 non athletes get in. And like your school we have kids that get into Ivies and other top 20âs that donât get in. Broke my D18âs heart.
Of course I told her when we visited and she loved it that if she really wanted to go she should take a year off, live with her cousin who is working as a nurse in Winston Salem. Change her driver license, work, voter registration, pay taxes in NC etc. Then apply in state and she would get in easily and would pay the incredibly cheap in state tuition. She laughed at me as did my wife. I told them I was dead serious. They laughed again. In January of 2018 she was crying when she got outright rejected EA with a 35 ACT, 4.00UW, 10 AP classes Varsity sport, musical⊠etcâŠetcâŠ
@momtogkc Funny when we toured W&M my wife and I loved and we both agree we would go ED. My daughter did not like itâŠWhyâŠit was too âold.â And in the information session they made a big deal about how it was the second âoldestâ college in America. And then there were all those old people walking aroundâŠSo funny what make a kid like a school or not like a school.
@homerdog We donât have Naviance so I donât know the numbers but I know a few kids did get in in the past couple of years. One of D19âs good friends is a sophomore there now. She had dreamed of going but knew she could never afford it. She decided to apply anyway and she ended up getting some scholarship that gave her a full ride plus extra money for traveling. I donât know which one it was but I know there are only a few for out of state kids. I was so proud of her - she has a single mom who knew nothing about college stuff and dad is not around. She worked non stop on Science Olympiad while also volunteering at the hospital, doing research with a local college professor (she emailed over 50 professors one summer trying to find someone who would work with a high school kid), working at a local restaurant often until 1am on school nights, self studied for ACT and got a 35 - just an amazing kid.
@burghdad We talked about you often on this trip! I didnât want to discourage D but I wanted her to be realistic. D19 never wanted to apply to super reaches because she didnât see the point, I wanted D21 to make sure she knew the odds. When I described your daughter she almost said forget it but since it is TO I think she might still apply. She knows it would be a long shot, and I donât even know if it would be her choice if she somehow got in, but I guess that is what a super reach is all about.
And if I told her to go live in NC for a year she would take me up on it immediately- she loves it there! 
@homerdog I checked our Naviance for UNC - our high school is one of the top schools in Colorado, very competititve, IB/AP, etc. Last few years Apply/Accept: 18/1; 30/1; 16/1; 16/3âŠ(and oddly in 2016 24/7). I had no idea it was that it was THAT hard to get into OOS! My kids werenât interested, thankfully (also thankfully because I went to Michigan and am still not over that (Fab Five) Final Four loss to them when Webber called the famous âTime Out That We Didnât Haveâ that became such a big deal folklore thing that when I worked on a project in NC a few years later every time I wore any M gear, people would do the time out hand gesture in my face, so clever/painful, but I digress :)).
Seriously, for us it looks like UNC sees the student is from our high school and just puts the app in the no pile. No one from our school brings much diversity to a campus. I just think wealthy, white, suburban students arenât really getting into UNC from OOS. Maybe part of it, too, is that they have EA and our kids try to use that with no success. UNC might think the kids at our high school wonât choose UNC in the end and will have lots of other choices. Who knows.
Our school used an outside service for transcripts but no Naviance in our district.
@smiles2122 Liked your fab 5 storyâŠUMich is no walk in the park for us OOS to get admitted. Another lottery pick school although kids from our HS do better there than UNC. D21 going to apply but I donât think financially it is going to work as they give no merit and OOS costs end up being over 60K
@momtogkc Thanks for the write up. Sounds like a great trip! I especially liked the info on U of Richmond. Iâd just encouraged S21 to investigate that one further. Heâd been pretty set on his list of 4 schools but I think the chatter is picking up among friends and heâs started to throw out other ideas. UNC Chapel Hill was one of them but the net price calculator + reputation for little merit means thatâs off the list. Iâd like him to consider Richmond although he may think itâs too small. Also put Miami U. on his to-consider list since it seems to have a lot of similarity in size and student profile to UVA.
He also didnât like the vibe of W&M but D23 is very interested in going there.
Iâm on his case to finish up the common app by this weekend. Once thatâs done he can submit to UDel and hopefully have an answer on at least one school soon. Then he needs to get to work on supplements.
Yes, about 50% of Duke undergrads are POC. They are big on having a very diverse campus with students from all over the U.S and world.
The town of Durham is close to Dukeâs East Campus (where in normal yearâs all freshman are housed). Itâs self-contained with itâs own residential housing, marketplace, library, theater, gym, etc. and a short 5 minute bus ride to the main campus. From the East Campus, freshman can walk to numerous coffee shops, restaurants, clubs, etc. Durham is a very good town for food, albeit a little gritty in areas. Since the campus sits on 8,000 mostly forested acres, the college is pretty sheltered from the city and surrounding community.
By the way, we absolutely loved Chapel Hill and actually stayed at the Carolina Inn next to UNC campus while visiting Duke! My D loved CH so much we did an unplanned campus tour and she applied last fall (did not get her results (pulled app) as she was accepted to Duke ED). Great school and one of the best college towns in the U.S. Agree, extremely difficult acceptance for OOS as they have to take 80% in-state students.
@momtogkc Thanks for your wonderful descriptions! I loved looking at colleges with my daughter back in 2016-17. Sad to miss that âbonding timeâ with the family with COVID although S21 is looking much closer to home for the most part. We will probably go out to Pittsburgh some time, which will probably be fun if itâs not too cold (had a great time there with D17). Tomorrow we are driving around University City in Philadelphia to take another look at Drexel from afar now that son has expressed interest in schools with co-ops/internships. Itâs a little less exciting than your trip, though, as we live 15 minutes away!
D17 was outright rejected from Chapel Hill as well. Great stats (high SATs, top of class, many awards, etc). I loved her essays too - I think thatâs what disappointed her the most, that she had worked so hard on the essays. I had to keep reminding her that itâs not personal; they are not rejecting her, just the application. No one seems to get into CH from her high school (although around 60 (out of 600) routinely get into Penn and I think 4 got into Harvard this year).
One girl from S21âs HS applied to UNC last yearâŠpredictably, she did not get in.
@momtogkc - You must have met the same security guard at Wake that we met in early February. Super friendly and asked us where we were from - when we said the West Coast - he said - âThere are so many gays on the West Coast, does that bother youâ? We were speechless!
BTW - I know 2 kids from our area that go to Wake and are quite happy. Only comment is coming from a very diverse tech area, they both commented on how kids donât blend as much together as they do in our area across racial backgrounds.
@coffeeat3 - I am actually speechless reading that about the WF guard. Comments. Horrible. Just horrible.
@momtogkc Thanks for the thorough reviews. I donât have a '21 but have a D23 and Iâm lurking here as we try to start the list of schools. I know both of our D19s go to Tulane but sadly D23 does not like NOLA (donât get me started because my husband and I love it very muchâŠ) Richmond is on her short list and so your review was extremely helpful. LACs and smaller schools are probably going to be where she naturally gravitates towards.
Iâm very sorry you didnât get to see Wake as that is my and my husbandâs alma mater and we both loved it and were sad when D19 wasnât interested after she got the Tulane acceptance. D23 however has indicated sheâs interested, so maybe it will work out. Itâs a beautiful campus and a very involved student body and they have been TO for many years - they always have believed in the holistic view of the student. Interviews and answers to the essays are very important there (my husband did a stint in admissions there for a while and has read his fair share of apps). As for âWork Forestâ, I guess I never thought of it in that context while I was there. I did work hard but played just as hard (glad there were no phone cameras or social media then) and it all worked out for me in the end. Maybe it has changed a lot since Iâve been there
Your D and her friends looked at some great schools in the region. Iâm hoping we get the chance with D23 here soon to look at some. Unfortunately, our Davidson tour scheduled for November has already been canceled 
Thanks everyone for letting me lurk- although I have another year or so until my D has to really hunker down, these discussions are very helpful as my daughter starts to make choices.
@123Mom123 - I had never mentioned it before and figured it was a fluke and he was trying to be âfunnyâ, as he laughed when he said it. Seeing the other comment today about masks and how to sneak in - brought it all back. I just asked one of my kids if they remembered the comment the same as me just to make sure. (I did say our cityâs name vs West Coast to the guard - so I was specific there, just not here)
The school was never a contender for all 3 of my kids and we were just touring as curious about it and were unfamiliar with North (and South) Carolina when we were in the area. It is a beautiful area and campus - and now I feel bad I didnât report him
@momtogkc Thank you so much for all the detailed reviews! Our D21 has done some but not all of those toursâgreat to have comparisons of the ones we havenât seen.
Regarding UNC oosâWow, this seems to vary a lot by HS. Our Naviance averages for 4 years for the high school: 27 acceptances/69 admits(39%), and the kids who matriculate (2-3 per year) are usually from the 2nd-4th decile as far as gpa(not that that matters significantly, just a fact). Wake is similar (23 of 50 accepted over 4yrs), but more actually enroll each year (4-5) and are usually 1st-3rd decile. IVY+ range schools vary somewhat but are roughly 7-20%accept rate with a more than half in the top decile, the rest in the second decile, rare below that but it happens.
@JESmom The nice thing about Richmond is that even though it only has 3,000 students the campus is very big so it feels like a bigger school.
@socaldad2002 Wow, 50% is great, it really was a nice change of pace and jumped out at me right away. I did see signs saying we were on West Campus but since I have never done research into Duke I wasnât sure where East Campus was or even what it was, it sounds nice.
@momandslp The bonding time was what convinced me to take D and her friends on the trip. We did so many trips with D19 and her friends and made such nice memories, I wanted D to get that experience too. Reading all of you talk about UNC chances I am thinking D21 might only want to apply if it doesnât give her too much stress, it would be a fluke if she got in although with this crazy year who knows!
@coffeeat3 OMG - that is really bad!! I donât know how I would have reacted to that one! 
@1923girls I wish we could have seen the campus, from pictures it looks amazing. Glad to hear the Work Forest label might be an exaggeration. What do you think about the area around the school? Like I said we didnât see anything alarming but I have heard that is why they have a gate. I know Fordham has a gate too and D19 applied there so it doesnât make a school drop off of our list, I was just wondering.
D21 loves NOLA, S23 not so much! It wonât matter anyway as he is not very concerned about his grades and he tells us he will go to a FL school (we have pre pay and itâs so cheap in state) so that he will save us money and we can buy him a boat. 
We have a school right in our town but I said itâs not even an option - I need him to at least get a few counties away from home!
@2Devils - Iâm Curious given your user name: are you and spouse Duke alumni?
Just like to keep a look out for those with possible Duke f/b. ?