<p>I got a 35 on my ACT, and got a 2070 on my SAT. I didn't send the SAT, but sent the ACT. Should I send my SAT also? Would it help or hurt? Also, I was wondering whether its ok to send UNC any additional essays or rec letters. The FAQ says "rec letters are not neccesary", but thats vague language. Could really use any advice please.</p>
<p>Send it…</p>
<p>no don’t send it!!! A 2070 on the SAT is by no means weak, but a 35 on the ACT is simply phenomenal. That 2070 would only serve to weaken your application.</p>
<p>Thanks, also I was selected as a candidate for the US presidential scholars program. Should I/Can I write to them to consider that with my application. Apparently, they only select 3000 people nationally.</p>
<p>I disagree…I think the SAT would help. No expert; just a hunch.</p>
<p>Definitely send additional essays. They LOVE essays. DS sent “extra credit” essays. I think that helped.</p>
<p>DS’s SAT was 2100, which is a statistically insignificant smidge above yours. I really think the extra essays helped. That, and the fact that we live in the middle of nowhere (Middle-Of-Nowhere, NC :-)).</p>
<p>“Should I/Can I write to them to consider that with my application. Apparently, they only select 3000 people nationally.”</p>
<p>YES!! Give 'em all the positive info you can. That is a real honor; they need to know about it.</p>
<p>dadumdadum</p>
<p>What was your score breakdown and are you in state or OOS?</p>
<p>I am an in-state student. My ACT is 35 math, 35 science, 36 reading, and 35 english, essay score of 7:-( My SAT is 710 math, 690 reading, 670 writing with essay score of 9. Unfortunately my Essay score was low. Any advice would be greatly appreciated</p>
<p>What should the additional essays be about? One of the previous topics?</p>
<p>There has to be some area of concern or weakness in your application with a 35 ACT score which is really outstanding. Do you have any idea what it could be? GPA? Class rank? Teacher recs? Counselor rec? ECs? Essays? This is what needs to be your starting point in creating a game plan.</p>
<p>Do NOT send additional essays…they have 20,000 plus applications each with multiple essays…do the math…that’s over 40,000 essays to be read by a staff of 12-15…adding another essay could actually throw your application into the reject pile. A big part of admissions is how well people follow directions…I’ve had many Adcoms tell me that apps get rejected for not following directions, grammar and spelling errors, etc.</p>
<p>What will help you is any thing new that was not submitted with the original application…new honors or awards, a rec sent by someone who could shed new light on you that your other recs couldn’t…i.e. say you did a huge amount of volunteering outside of school or helped coach special olympic kids…the people you worked with here would know a side of you that your teachers don’t and could show something new and different to the Adcoms…another teacher rec would not be new or different info and would just aggravate the Adcoms who are already overworked…</p>
<p>Sending the SAT won’t significantly help but could possibly hurt with the low writing score…</p>
<p>Is your school’s college counselor experienced enough with UNC and do they have a good relationship with them in order to be able to call them and ask what they saw that caused the deferral? </p>
<p>Contact/send an email to your regional admissions rep and let them know your intent to attend if accepted and ask if there is anything you can do to increase your chance of admission. Your college counselor should be able to get you the name/email for this person.</p>
<p>Have someone else you trust take another look at your application and essays…make sure there aren’t any errors that you somehow missed.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions or concerns that you don’t want to share on the board, feel free to PM me…Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree with eadad. I’m in-state and our public HS always has strong acceptance rates (over 65%) at Carolina and I’ve paid attention to admission results over the years. ACT/SAT is not everything, but there is probably a red flag somewhere in your application. Your GC should call and ask for more information.</p>
<p>eadad: Do you really think that’s a low writing score for in-state applicants? Some of the accepted in-staters here had very similar scores.</p>
<p>I am new to this whole process, so I defer to you re the wisdom of sending essays. Now that you mention it, when DS sent his “extra credit” essays, he did ask first if that would be OK. He received an answer in the affirmative, so he went ahead. </p>
<p>His excellent teacher rec (from his Expository Writing teacher at Forsyth Tech) was all about what a good writer he was, so it made sense (IMHO) for him to send the extra essays. But every case is different. :)</p>
<p>Oh gosh, just thought of something. When DH taught at the Louisiana School for Math, Science & the Arts, he had a brilliant student who did not always apply himself (especially in classes he disliked), so his grades did not fully reflect his abilities. Result: Although he was accepted at Duke, he was wait-listed at Yale, his top choice. Well, he asked my DH for an additional recommendation urging Yale to admit him. DH was a little reluctant – he knew the kid’s weaknesses as well as his considerable strengths – but he went ahead anyway and wrote a glowing (albeit carefully worded) recommendation. Another teacher (English teacher) did the same. The strategy must have worked, because the kid was eventually admitted to Yale.</p>
<p>So, going on the basis of this anecdotal experience (not a reliable basis, I know), I would say that you are right, eadad…Additional teacher recs could do the trick!</p>
<p>The recs have to say something new…not a rehash or they are ineffective. That’s why you have to be careful with teacher recs unless from Debate coach, drama teacher, art teacher etc…someone who can tell a very different story than an English teacher might tell. Their message needs to be very strong and very different.</p>
<p>When my S was applying,Yale was his dream school. As a result we attended four info sessions over two plus years including one at Yale. At EVERY session the Yale Adcoms stressed two things…1) essays are VERY important in their process…they are the ONLY way we can differentiate between people and see the human being behind the numbers and stats and 2) sending more than the required number of essays or recs or sending supplemental DVDs etc will hurt rather than help you…two Adcoms actually came right out and said that the thicker files went to the bottom of the pile. I don’t think their message could have been any clearer. Since then I have met with numerous Adcoms who have said the same thing.</p>
<p>They are overworked and getting moreso every year and they often have to make what can be life altering decisions…I’ve stated here every year that any UNC applicant should spend a lot of time and craft well thought out and well written essays above all else. They really are the ONLY way an Adcom can get to know an applicant…and all too often essays are nothing more than pabulum that has been rehashed by thousands of people. They need to stand out and make the applicant stand out…make them want to meet the applicant or say we NEED this kid, because he/she is interesting and will add to the community.</p>
<p>When my S was admitted EA to Yale, his acceptance letter had a hand written note on it that said how much they had loved his essays…and his college counselors echoed the same thing. He took risks with one of them and it was really funny as well as offering real insight into who he really was. He took the same approach on several of his short essays for the Morehead and honestly some of his responses concerned me at first because they were certainly not conventional. He used the same risky/funny essay as one of his main essays…in fact, he had initially written it for the Morehead app and then used it on the Yale and other apps because it was so good and unique. His strategy obviously worked…he stood out, made them laugh and made them want to meet him.</p>
<p>Having now been through the undergrad admission process twice with my S and D, as well as med school and law school admissions processes I think I can safely say that following instructions is probably the first thing that everyone should pay attention to…it seems to be a first cut for many schools. Why would anyone knowingly want to hand them the knife?</p>
<p>Admissions to highly selective schools is already a crap shoot…even for the most highly qualified students…don’t lengthen the odds.</p>
<p>Just my $0.02…</p>
<p>Again, I defer to your much greater knowledge and experience in this area, eadad. I do think DS’s extra-credit essays helped him: So far, he has been accepted everywhere he applied, including UNC. But, again, he asked first whether it would be OK before he sent them. (And everyone said yes.)</p>
<p>LadyD</p>
<p>If I recall correctly, your S was/is home schooled…in his case I think the the extra essay might have been important to the Adcoms process which is why he got the okay from all the schools. If I also remember correctly, UNC was one of, if not the most selective school on his list. Both of those factors would contribute to the answer he received and might not/usually doesn’t apply to traditional students. That said…he was also VERY wise to have asked permission to submit the extra essay(s)…it certainly showed forethought and consideration of their task. Kudos to him for asking!</p>
<p>If I am wrong about the home schooling please feel free to correct me…I didn’t have time to go back through all the prior posts and was going off memory…hope I didn’t confuse him with someone else.</p>
<p>My advice was really aimed at those traditional students applying to UNC and other very highly selective schools…application numbers are skyrocketing and the already heavy workload for Adcoms at such schools is getting far worse. Why play Russian roulette with your chances?</p>
<p>I went ahead and wrote my additional essay, but now I’m not sure if I’m going to mail it. I already mailed a letter thanking them for their consideration and updated list of ECs, but I want them to see how motivated I am without giving off the obsessive vibe. I went ahead and emailed admissions to make sure it wsa okay to mail the other essay. How can you be certain that submitting the extra essay would be dangerous/cause them to reject you? Isn’t there anything we can do to set ourselves apart from the others who were deferred?</p>
<p>carolinahopeful</p>
<p>1) Wait to see of they reply and approve the additional essay. If ok, then by all means send it…better to ask and be told no than to send it and have it negatively impact you.
2) If, and only if, an acceptance would mean that you WILL attend…not pending Financial aid decision etc…then let them know via letter and/or email. Yield is still important and a letter of intent to matriculate could be a tie breaker if all else is equal. </p>
<p>That said… DO NOT game the process…by that I mean if you uncertain, are waiting for other schools’ decisions, whatever reason that would not guarantee that you would attend if accepted, then don’t send the letter of intent…it’s unethical and also not fair to others who would absolutely attend if accepted. “Collecting skins” is distasteful and really unfair to dedicated hopefuls who are still anxiously waiting for an admission.</p>
<p>eadad: You are correct; he was home-schooled. So, yes, that makes perfect sense. (That’s also why he took SAT IIs. We didn’t do AP classes, obviously, so SAT IIs were the only way we had to prove that we’d actually taught him something during all those years of home schooling. :-))</p>
<p>Thanks again…your reasoning is convincing.</p>
<p>Hmmm, so I can send them a list of any EC’s I have to add and to let them know that UNC is my first choice. </p>
<p>I’m also wondering if I can try a peer evaluation/reccomendation? My thinking would be that it’s different and would be from a totally different perspective then a normal teacher rec. But I also realize that it may mean nothing to them. Any thoughts?</p>