When you call admissions and ask questions, there is a pretty good chance that you will be speaking with a student who works there. That explains the vague answers and inconsistencies. An admissions representative is not answering the main phone, and they are not providing these students with up-to-date data so that they can provide accurate information to waitlisted students. It’s not important to them, their class is filled. Admissions officers may not have even been there over the past few months- UNC hosts out-of-state events all over the country in an effort to get OOS students to commit.
As noted above, transparency would be nice (I agree with you), but the school does not owe anybody anything. The WL is for their benefit and most will not take the time to provide these details at regular increments.
UNC has moved on. Their orientations have begun, and those same students (many are admissions ambassadors) who may have answered the phone are likely also helping with orientation activities. There is a lot to do and get ready for so that their new students feel welcomed.
My daughter attended UNC. It’s a great school, but there are lots of great schools and no school is perfect. UNC owes their time and resources to their new and existing students. They need to make sure that their new students enjoy their orientation and adjust to their new school. If their new students have a great orientation experience, make friends, learn about clubs etc, there may be less “summer melt” and less need to turn to the WL.
It’s not unusual to feel as though “the grass is always greener on the other side,” but my advice is to try your best to move on and embrace the school that loves you. That is where you will succeed (and you will!).
If you get a phone call due to “summer melt,” it will be a pleasant surprise. My opinion is that it’s better to be a superstar at a school that loves you than to enter a school last minute off the WL, not even knowing if you will get into your major, etc.
I called and this is the information that I gathered. They sent out a round late last week, giving students about a week to accept or decline. So next week they’ll reevaluate and then send out another small batch (around 3rd week of June). I have a feeling this will drag into July.
I could not agree more. I have a question. If someone gets off the waitlist what actually happens? Is it possible you don’t get your major? And if you don’t get your major what happens? Does that mean if you accept you coming to the major they give you and then you transfer? What if it’s not even possible? So that’s why I think what you’re saying is very sage advice. I told my daughter who is waiting that she’s going to get the slim Pickens which means she’s probably not gonna get a dorm. She likes because that’s what’s left. She made out if you get the 101 classes because they’re probably full. But I also know she doesn’t want to talk to her safety, so I don’t know how to console her if she doesn’t get off the waitlist. We’re still waiting.
That’s what I said. I think they have more kids on the waitlist than we think. It’s crappy that they do this. My daughter is checking the portal and her email like every hour. It’s really not fair to the kids who are stressing out like my daughter who wants to be a Tar Heel so badly she can’t fathom being anywhere else.
Common data set 2021-2022 - last year’s is not available. But it also says on the common data set the waitlist IS ranked!! even my daughters college counselors told her it wasn’t ranked…So you can’t trust anything unc says, but you can trust the data
You do not apply for your major until sophomore year. Kenan-Flagler and the Gillings School of Global Public Health are very competitive and not guaranteed.
If you are accepted off the WL you would likely not get your first choice dorm and would need to take what is available.
Same goes for classes. My D chose her classes at orientation. They save spots for all orientation dates so that accepted students are not shut out. Not sure how this applies to WL students, whether they have spots available for orientation etc.
My D graduated already but did not know anybody who was accepted off the WL.
Coming off the WL means you are behind before even starting- part of orientation involved meetings on getting involved in research, etc., Isn’t it better to attend the school that loves you and start the semester like a rock star? I would develop roots at my school and if UNC admits you, take the time to ask a lot of questions about dorms, classes etc.
UNC is a great school, but there are many great schools.
This is scary to me. She’s already been rejected by the school.
She should have already committed, found a roommate and got attached to where she is going.
Getting in is having your lottery ticket scratch off miraculously showing you won $1,000. Highly highly unlikely. Could happen - but you know you know deep down inside it’s not going to.
Orientation started already. If you are accepted off the WL there is a possibility that you will not have a choice of dates, and may have to take what is available for WL’d students. What if you cannot make it?
If you look at the orientation schedule you will see that a lot gets packed into those 2 days.
You and your family are willfully participating in a process that is idiosyncratic and unfamiliar to you. That said said you can decline to participate or you need to accept that the process is beyond your control and the rules are what they are. Questioning the schools intent, honesty or attaching an emotional element to a large institution’s process is simply unhelpful and unhealthy.
You asked how to “console” your daughter. She is clearly a high achiever who has experienced a lot of successes. Her current situation is an ideal time to introduce the adult concepts of resiliency and reality.
For her own good she needs to now move on and prepare for and maximize the opportunity she does have and be pleasantly surprised if UNC comes through.
I suggest this knowing full well you are acting out of love (and an awareness that I don’t know your situation). My advice would be for you to as a parent lead by example and simply say I am done talking about and or thinking about UNC. I know easier said than done but perhaps she will follow your lead.
I went to the UNC Admitted Students Lunch with my twin brother, who was admitted, and I asked the AO there about how they choose the students. They choose students by filtering them down, and then send out the emails.
Students have been offered the chance to look at their application and read the comments made by the admissions officers. My assumption is that perhaps those who are WL also have these comments, which means maybe the work (ie “cherry picking”) has already been done.
Nobody truly knows what they look for when choosing off of the WL. Isn’t it nicer to attend a school that puts you on a pedestal from the very beginning?
