Carolina born kids, lived here their entire lives. Our oldest was Summa Cum Laude, top 5 at number 4, nearly perfect GPA, all honors and AP classes, 33 ACT, four year varsity letterman in soccer, selected for competitive local Chamber of Commerce leadership program, civic clubs, church clubs, volunteer for veterans, attended summer sessions in leadership, etc, etc, and got the dreaded rejection email from UNC, after applying early action. The class profile states that 47% of NC residents made the cut (and I assume higher at early action), and their class profile average scores and grades were less than my kids. He was accepted at Wake, a similarly selective school, but the difference in cost to me is over $150,000 out of pocket (no scholarships, no aid, and I didn’t expect any). The youngest is looking at UNC for a medical track. Same GPA range, same indicative scores, starting varsity baseball in the 9th grade, headed to the same summer immersion courses for medicine. How do I improve what I thought were better than average chances to start with?
Any reason yor oldest did not apply EA? It is non binding.
Did apply EA:
Are there any majors at UNC that are more competitive than others, and did the older kid apply to such a major?
Another NC resident here. I’m surprised your oldest was not accepted with those stats. UNC does holistic reviews so I would focus on essays and choosing teacher recs very carefully. Maybe more community service and volunteering?
Good luck!!
There’s really no formula for “improving” Admissions when we never know exactly what the Admissions officers will be looking for every year. But, you seem to be on the right track now. Have them use their summers wisely to immerse themselves in their interests and have them glean impactful experiences they can use later on. During the year, a laundry list of clubs is not important but rather the LEADERSHIP and IMPACT you make in those clubs, because that is what is reflected in the essays and activities, which is something to hone in on. Make sure you don’t show but tell. On the additional “resume” section, don’t include a resume but rather write about an experience in which you connected with others and what you learned/gained from them or vice versa. Make sure relationships with teachers and advisors are developed over time so they can write meaningful recommendations. But, again, no one knows what UNC is looking for and in the end they make many eye-raising choices on some extremely qualified students, of which your children seem to be. I’m sure they have/will have other great offers.
@Wake2020Parent Wow, I cannot believe your son did not get in. My son applied EA in 2015 with less of what your son has and got in. I will say longevity in activities might be the key. My son was an Eagle scout so had been in cub scouts and boy scouts since second grade. In high school just a few clubs, but Robotics club all 4 years in which he became President. Other than that worked at Harris teeter in the summer. Nothing fancy. Maybe with second son he can do less but focus on a few that he will remain in most of his high school years.
It’s sad that there are so many highly-qualified in-state students that are not able to take advantage of this great university in their home state. Depending on where your child attended high school, that may have been the factor. My kids’ high school has a huge number of qualified applicants that seemingly all apply to UNC (even though many don’t plan to go there). It’s just done. I’ve heard from admissions people (privately) that there is a cap on our high school admissions (as well as other particular high schools in the state). So, 150 qualified apps? We’re only taking 60 - no matter what. Also, UNC will take a 2.2 GPA athlete that will put money
I am also surprised that your son did not get it. Generally a 33 ACT with a top 10% class ranking (I assume your son was top 10% if GPA was nearly perfect with all honors and AP classes), a good bit of EC activities and solid essays should have gotten in. As for your younger son, I am not sure if the summer immersion classes would necessarily help with the application chances. My advice would be to put work into getting the essays really strong if your son already has good GPA, ECs, and hopefully an ACT of 30+ the 2nd time would be the charm.
Essays may have been the problem. Maybe lukewarm or poor teacher recommendations, or both.
Yeah it had to have been the supplements imo. I’m really trying to rack my brain around how your son, IN STATE, with those stats, gets rejected. Really make sure your child works on those essays and recs early and gets those leadership spots as well.
@Wake2020Parent @Holden2016 : The UNC System has enacted rules to increase enrollment of students from North Carolina counties that have low population and/or are economically distressed: “By fall 2021, increase enrollment of students from Tier 1 and Tier 2 counties by 11% over fall 2016 levels (an average of 2% per year) to reduce the existing participation gap by at least half.”
(Counties are placed in “tiers” as follows: “The N.C. Department of Commerce annually ranks the state’s 100 counties based on economic well-being and assigns each a Tier designation. The 40 most distressed counties are designated as Tier 1, the next 40 as Tier 2 and the 20 least distressed as Tier 3. A county automatically qualifies as Tier 1 if it has a population less than 12,000 people or if it has a population less than 50,000 and a poverty rate of 19 percent or greater. A county automatically qualifies as Tier 2 if it has a population less than 50,000.”)
https://www.northcarolina.edu/sites/default/files/unc_strategic_plan.pdf
So the OP’s oldest son may have gotten caught up in directed increase in admissions from rural/distressed counties; and it wouldn’t surprise me that this will come at the expense of students who live in urban/wealthier counties. Although it seems that something else was going on; perhaps the issue also is with essays/LORs, as some of the other posters have suggested; or a combination of those things. It is a bit of a surprising outcome for an in-state student with his stats and ECs.
That is hard to understand. So sorry.
We are also instate. Our first was deferred and ultimately waitlisted/rejected by UNC, but the younger siblings got in. Similar academic stats, same high school, but the differences I’d say were personal qualities of passion and determination… and excellent writing that reveled something out of the ordinary. UNC seems to value service and impact … bringing something different to the community … over stats alone.
Turns out it was all for the best in our first one’s case. He shone where he went. (Maybe something came through in the app that actually did him a favor.)
Fortunately your kid is in outstanding place at Wake, but I totally feel for you on the cost!
Thanks for all the input. Probably boils down to a combination of essays, the new formula to over-represent poor and rural counties (we are on neither list) and a more competitive area of interest selection (business). The school is a small charter that only had one other student selected to UNC Chapel Hill , on a music scholarship.
You probably live in an over represented county, combined with average essays and recommendations. And this year, WF and NCSU tended to accept the same students (at our area schools) while it was much tougher to get into UNC. If you figure out the formula, let us know!
This terrifies me.
@Skrunch, don’t let the post scare you. I would think that even if a student were coming from an over represented county such as Wake or Mecklenburg county an ACT score of 33 (which puts a student in the 99th percentile)and a “near perfect GPA” along with some decent ECs should generally have a greater than 90% chance of admission in-state considering that 47% of in-state applicants are accepted. My daughter had an individual sitting score of 28 and a superscore of 30, GPA of 4.8, Top 7% of her class and was admitted this year. Asian female.
Lots of good advice here. When schools get lots of competitive applications (our DD 34/4.0/5.0 is barely in the top 20% of her school), the emphasis has to be holistic… and ECs too have to stand out and not just be participatory. The student needs to demonstrate commitment and impact in a few areas. Doesn’t have to be a long list (think kids try to pad their resumes and that is not lost on AO’s), but they really need to be plugged into activity/job/service that they’re truly passionate. Our DD had just 2 key ECs (tennis and art…neither which have anything to do with her major) but she was involved in them 12 months of the year (easily 500+ hrs), did her volunteer hours in these 2 areas, earned top State ranks/awards in both (in comparison, Ivies seem to look for some kind of National recognition/award), and applied it to just one competitive summer immersion thing her Junior year (NC Governors school) which had such an impact she wrote her CA essay on (so highly recommend your younger kids pick a discipline and apply to this program early Junior year.) In fact, I had no idea how these activities “molded her” (sounds so cliche) until I reviewed her all her college supplements. Practically every supplement she wrote used her experiences in these two areas to justify her points… traveling to weekend tournaments to small towns (organization and diversity), behaviors of her competitors (coping mechanisms and ethics/honesty), how visual art made her acutely aware (living in moment/inspiration/culture/how to take and apply criticism), etc. I also think odd and quirky are very much valued (the days of conformity to the purported “model” student are gone!) Many of the schools that DD was accepted announced lists of interesting facts on their incoming students including circus performer, bee keeper, standup comedian, furniture builder, published screenwriter, ukelele player (which all sound really fun but for sure required dedication and training, math, science, literacy, etc.)
My son was deferred early action to UNC, and was waitlisted during the regular admission period. He has VERY similar stats to original poster’s son. We also live in Wake Co. In his case, I can only guess that the strikes against him are the county we live in and possibly lack of leadership. (No class or club officer positions). Everything else seemed to be very strong. We are scratching our heads, but looking forward to his future successes at his 2nd choice school. Also, at his school it seems that mostly females were accepted. We only know of one male accepted/attending and he is the NHS president. I don’t know if this is because more UNC applicants are female or they accept more females vs. males? Or at least this seems to be the case at our son’s high school.
@my3sonshines: If you look at the UNC-CH Common Data Set, here, https://oira.unc.edu/files/2017/07/cds_2016_2017_20170411.pdf, part C1 gives you the number of males vs. females in the most recent applicant class for which these numbers have been compiled. Females were about 59% of the total applicant pool, and the same percentage rate for admitted students as well. Section B1 of the CDS gives the male/female breakdown for the overall undergraduate population, which is also about 59% female.
UNC expects NHS if for some reason you were not accepted into NHS it is a huge red flag for UNC.