I am completely bewildered. We are NC residents, my daughter has a unweighted 4.0/weighted 5.2, National Merit Finalist, ACT 35 single test, 1480 SAT, multi varsity sport, very involved, leadership with charity, works 10 hours/week. How is it that she was not even considered for honors at UNC. I don’t think you can be much stronger of a student or more involved. She was put into U. of Georgia automatically. Any thoughts??
Can she email admissions and ask for a reconsideration?
Because it’s very selective?
Kids like that also get rejected by the Ivies/equivalents all the time . . .
Did she get in to UNC?
UGa isn’t at the same level of selectivity as UNC.
I don’t really have a reply other than to say that I am sorry to hear that. It must be tough news for you and your daughter who is obviously very smart and hardworking. At the same time with her profile I am sure she will be a success wherever she chooses to attend.
nm
Wow, don’t know what UNC Honors standards are but with lower stats (but with very good ECs), we considered Univ of South Carolina’s Honors IB Program a sure safety, and he got in with more than free tuition merit. And USC is supposed to be one of top Honors. Maybe they thought she wouldn’t attend. Worth contacting admission. Either that or they must not have liked essays. Our kid didn’t really work on Honors essays too much either and just used UC essays with some changes.
It’s competitive, there are so many kids with high scores and great ECs, that makes you a typical high stat applicant. I am not saying this is your D, but for merit of many kinds (money or programs), a student has to stand out with a passion and/or unique perspectives and activities, not a laundry list of things that anyone else could also submit. When the application is similar to many others (has good scores, leadership, volunteers, etc) it ends up just looking like a good time manager more than an interesting and engaged student that has something unique to contribute if that makes sense.
^ I think @blueskies2day said it pretty well. I know a couple of kids who everyone assumed would be offered UNC Honors and yet weren’t. Stellar stats, accepted at Duke, Swarthmore and the like. Your daughter should try not to read anything into the decision other than it’s the just luck of the draw. And should your daughter decide to attend UNC, she can apply for Honors once she’s there.
Ditto this. UNC Honors is extremely unpredictable. Years ago I was offered a merit scholarship at Carolina but didn’t get into the honors program, so go figure. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
A bunch of years ago, my D, with very similar stats (1470, NM, 4.0 uw, 5.5ish weighted, etc), was admitted to Honors Programs at UMich, Boston U, and UDel, but not Rutgers—our state flagship.
Needless to say, Rutgers fell out of consideration. Her stats were considerably higher than the average for their Honors Program. I actually called, and they said she could re-apply for it and they’d reconsider. Uh, no. The message was clear. Three higher rated schools felt differently.
Yeah my D didn’t get Honors at UNC last year with similar stats and legacy. She got in OOS but nothing else.
Honors colleges/programs may also differ a lot by size.
Some are the size of entire mid-sized universities. Others only have a few hundred slots total.
I don’t know how big UNC Honors is, however.