UNC Chapel Hill Biology 2023 Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
1

If anyone could let me know my realistic chances of getting into UNC Chapel Hill it’d be greatly appreciated!! I’m applying EA

highest ACT: 31
superscored SAT: 1410
GPA: 4.0812 (W)/3.675 (UW)
school doesn’t rank
state: nj
race: hispanic
gender: F
AP: bio (4) (not a lot of APs are offered at my school)
senior year courses: AP physics, AP spanish, US history 2 H, calc H, engish IV H
honors/awards: NHS exec board, national spanish recognition program, spanish NHS, presidential service award, honor roll (consecutive since freshman year), dance regional solo champion 3rd place, school honor society, dance team captain
activities: competitive dance, school ambassador, part of a team of dancers for special needs children, school musical (dance captain), NHS exec board member, future doctor club exec board
community service: junior volunteer at local hospital (all 4 years), organized drive for holiday cards for wounded vets (all 4 years), meals on wheel representative, church lector, eucharistic minister, NHS tutor
work experience: private and assistant dance teaching

good luck to everyone else applying!

2

Your “realistic chances” of admission to UNC-CH as an OOS applicant are pretty much those of most OOS applicatns: not good. This is due to the highly competitive nature of OOS applications there: UNC-CH admits OOS applicants in numbers that are calculated not to exceed 18% of an entering freshman class. See “Undergraduate Admissions” on Page 2, here: http://www.admissions.unc.edu/files/2013/09/Admissions__Policy.pdf. As a further example of the difficulty for OOS students to be admitted to UNC-CH, the entering Class of 2022 had a 13% acceptance rate for OOS applicants: https://uncnews.unc.edu/2018/08/17/carolina-welcomes-5095-new-undergraduate-students-to-campus/ (29,563 OOS applicants; 3,829 admits).

To improve your chances, I would focus on those things that UNC-CH considers to be “very important” admissions factors, which you have control over at this point in time. If you look at the UNC-CH Common Data Set, here, https://oira.unc.edu/files/2018/06/CDS_2017-2018_20180605.pdf , 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. Being a URM may inure to your benefit in the application process; but I don’t know that it’s something that can be quantified.

If you plan to apply EA, then there’s not anything that you can do to improve your GPA before you send in your application; I don’t know whether you plan to retake either the ACT or SAT, or whether your results would even be timely for the EA application; and adding ECs at this point may not come across as genuine. So, I would focus on having really good essays and LORs; perhaps emphasize your leadership abilities in your essays.

I don’t know whether 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; if so, you might peruse that data. I would also try to meet with a guidance counselor at your school as soon as possible to discuss application strategies for UNC-CH; 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.

3

I also applied EA to Carolina. I turned in my application last month and I don’t hear their decision until January. What are my chances?? So I can prepare myself for the worst?

In-state student
Ethnicity: Black
Gender: F
ACT: 30 composite, 34E, 26M, 33R, 29S, 8W
SAT: 1380, 690 on both parts, 15 essay
AP’s: World History 5, Psych 5, Calc AB 3, US History 4, Lang, 4, Seminar 3, Currently enrolled in AP Bio, Span Lang, Lit, Research

GPA:3.9 UWGPA, 4.45 WGPA
Rank 12/284 (top 5%)

EC’s: Choral program 4 years, Secretary of Acapella group 2 years in a row, Beta Club, National Span. Honors Society, HOSA, Future Teachers of America, Babysat from 9th-12th grade (which is why my EC list is so dry)

Volunteering: 200+hrs of service learning overall, Volunteered at organization dedicated to helping newly arrived refugees adjust to America (80 hrs), volunteered at local hospital (32 hrs), public library (20+ hrs), tutoring (10+hrs), teaching internship (100+hrs)
^^My volunteering experience is dry atm because I spent most of my time babysitting, but im working on it

Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction, Academics, Attendance, and Attitude in AP World History,A Honor Roll 2015-2017, Excellence in Beginner’s Chorus, Academics, Attendance, and Attitude in Honors Math III, Outstanding Achievement in Spanish II

Recs: 1 from health science teacher (I did really well in her class and dedicated a lot of time to HOSA), 1 from ap lang teacher (she wrote a rec for my questbridge app, plus I’ve had her class two years in a row), I entered the choral director into the common app but for some reason common app wouldn’t allow him to write a recommendation so I screwed :frowning: