UNC (sophomore transfer) - chances?

Hi all,

UNC-Chapel Hill is my dream school – would love to hear what you think of my chances.

I’m a non-traditional student, 27 years old, currently in community college out of state (Pennsylvania), though most of my family was born and raised in NC. Currently I have a 3.45 GPA with 24 credits, plus 9 more in progress this fall semester. Back in high school I scored a 2160 on my SATs (750 CR, 680 math, 730 writing).

To summarize my story: graduated high school in 2008 with an awful GPA (2.5) due to being in an abusive home environment, yet obviously had the ability as evidenced by my SATs. Went to the same community college, got poor grades, took seven years off, and finally re-enrolled last fall and have been successful since.

Currently I work as a caseworker for a public housing agency, interviewing and placing people into public housing – it’s extremely rewarding, being able to quite literally put a roof over someone’s head. I’m taking online classes in the evenings.

I will have knockout essays (writing is one of my greatest strengths) and my English professor has already said she’ll give a “best writer I’ve seen in many years”-type recommendation. My various interests all seem to revolve around language, for example, in my free time I’m teaching myself Icelandic. So, it fits that I’ll be a linguistics major.

My past is…checkered…to say the least, but do you think I’ve made enough of a turnaround to have a shot at getting into Carolina?

Thanks for your help,

Josh

Yay linguistics!!!

Go ahead and apply. Talk a lot about your background in the essays. I think you have a good chance.