<p>I thought they like GPA, or curriculum/schedule/grade trend/whatever you want to call it, more. But a lot of people on here have less than 3.5 uw GPAs, but uber-high SATs (or even just very solid SATs), and have been accepted. Likewise, people with 2150+, 3.7+ GPAs, have been rejected/deferred. I'm not complaining lol, I was ecstatic just to get deferred, and my new ACTs will help tremendously. But what, exactly, is UNC looking for?</p>
<p>PS..congrats to all accepted!!! I know how great it feels to breathe a sigh of relief... ;)</p>
<p>well i know they want the whole package lol, every school does. i took a really demanding courseload, my ACT score was low for OOS, so i'm sure that was the reasoning behind deferral. i was jst wondering in general, markt is right in that they accepted a very wide range of applicants</p>
<p>vc08, I had the same impression. I thought colleges would place greater emphasis on GPA, since it requires more discipline over the long run to maintain a high GPA, but I'm not so sure now (based on what I've seen at other colleges this year).</p>
<p>My DS was rejected by UNC, which was a stretch school for him (based on ACT). Stats: IS, URM, GPA 3.95 UW, ACT 23, lots of science and higher math courses. The rejection letter was very gracious and encouraging. </p>
<p>I think the bottom line is, when you have roughly 20,000 applications for 3,900 slots, you can afford to be highly selective on all the criteria.</p>
<p>Congrats to all who made it in, and good luck to those of you who were deferred!</p>
<p>Is it common that someone who got into Georgetown and Notre Dame gets deferred from UNC? This makes me less and less confident about my chances at Duke.</p>
<p>Yeah, maybe they want a mix of high GPA, and then take some who have the high SAT/ACT? Funny though, cuz at the info session they repeatedly said the standardized tests don't count nearly as much as grades/curriculum. But obviously that isnt true.</p>
<p>vc08: It's like the lottery. If you're a reasonable candidate, I think it's impossible to figure out why they choose one person and not another. I told my S at the beginning that he should just do his best on the application, choose his teacher recommender wisely, and then see how it turns out. He was rejected (OOS), and his stats look like those of many people on this forum who were accepted, deferred, and also rejected. My only wild guess (and it is a very wild guess) is that his GPA was not quite high enough, though I see some similar GPAs among accepted OOS students here. He wrote good essays, had excellent SAT scores, and (we assume) got a positive teacher recommendation. It just didn't work out. I would tell you--and everyone else who was lucky enough to be deferred!--to hang in there and let what will happen happen. I was sadder than my S about this, but it's almost 24 hours later, and I'm recovering. He'll go elsewhere and I'm sure be just fine. Good luck!</p>
<p>I got into UNC OOS but was waitlisted at Duke. That surprised a lot of people, but the acceptance rate for OOS is much lower than Duke's overall acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Oh well I'm glad the right school picked me :)</p>
<p>Looking at the decisions thread, it appears the most important thing is whether you live in the state of North Carolina or not. That seems to be more important than both GPAs and test scores. I think the boost you get for being in state is much bigger at UNC than other comparable public schools. Btw, I am OOS and applied regular decision.</p>
<p>so for OOS kids who get in, is there an advantage when you go? Does course/workload seem easier for OOS kids just because they had to (generally) meet higer standards for acceptance in the 1st place?</p>
<p>SarahWB08.. no there is no such "advantage". If you're prepared enough no matter what state you are from, there should be no problem in terms of courseload.</p>
<p>Give me a break, man. College is pretty difficult for everyone because of the temptations you face, not necessarily just because of the harder work load (though that is an element of it). No kid should walk into college thinking they're at any advantage, unless they've been living in small rooms where hundreds of their best friends are able to interrupt your focus at any (and I mean any) time of the day.</p>
<p>CollegeKid's point made me laugh. To think a public school would accept more of the in state students than out of state students. It makes you think that its purpose is to serve the state funding it first, or something crazy like that! Here's my point - it is beyond silly to speculate as to what UNC wants admissions wise from this forum for a few reasons. The first of which is that the sample size is absolutely tiny, and that point is self explanatory. The other thing I'd like to straighten out is that, though you have these kids' statistics in front of you, you do not know what about their application was what ultimately led the committee to accept, reject, or defer them. Perhaps some of the kids who were rejected, as well as having a stronger GPA than an SAT score, said something that made them come off negatively in their essays. Maybe the kid with the super SAT score also did something neat for the community.</p>
<p>You all, including myself, ultimately do not know the reasons behind the decisions. You can choose to trust what they have told you - that UNC does indeed read every application in its entirety, but looks (roughly in this order) at the relative rigor of the course load, grades received in those courses, extracurriculars, essays, teacher recommendations, and SAT scores. I feel that there's no reason to believe that UNC would lie to you about these things, because if what they say is true, then their ideal applicants should be more interesting than kids who never did anything except study for their standardized tests.</p>
<p>I personally believe that they like GPA more than SAT scores. If someone gets in that has a high SAT score but low GPA it could be for a different reason rather than based solely on GPA or SAT. That person could have wrote a brilliant essay or helped people in an amazing way. Their is no way to tell. If you have done the best that you possible can then their is nothing to worry about because you can change anything. Thats the way i look at it.</p>
<p>"To think a public school would accept more of the in state students than out of state students."</p>
<pre><code> - excuse the question if it's stupid, but don't they?
</code></pre>
<p>and vc08, although i have a 3.4, i've taken all honors and 6ish AP classes, so OTHER than GPA, a lot of stuff about my app is pretty solid (i think...). I didnt do anything ultraspecial, but i think the only thing that was REALLY lacking was my gpa. just citing myself as a case study.</p>