<p>as to the quote, yes, all public schools do, because they are req'd by state law (in-state students pay public school taxes for that state, so they are given priority).</p>
<p>as to the 'case study', thanks for the info lol, i wasn't specifically targeting anyone, just making observations in general. congrats again, i'm really happy for you!</p>
<p>I think that UNC really does have a holistic approach, but what I'd like to see is them telling us more of what they'd like to see in essays. Do they like creativity? Personality? Reasoning?I could cite a few schools for each.</p>
<p>I'd like to see every college put out several essays that they found outstanding.They wouldn't have to be about the same prompt, but it would give kids an idea of what UNC wants and introduce greater transparency into the admissions process. </p>
<p>As far as myself, I would say that my GPA was low(3.48 uw) but I will have taken 13 AP's and 6 IBs by the time I graduate so maybe courseload makes up for it.</p>
<p>As to standardized tests, I think it is looked at by college admissions more than they want to admit, especially at state schools, where they receive a staggering number of applications. It is the only truly national measure of intelligence. GPA is very variable from school to school, and even teacher by teacher. For example, an A at my school in AP Chem is very hard to achieve(#3 school in the country), while in other schools in my city, the AP Chem class is independent study, so everyone gets an A. Also, Class rank is just as bad. With a 4.25 Weighted GPA, I barely made the top 25% at my school, whereas a 4.25 would have been enough to get valedictorian at another. Plus, kids that have bad study habits in high school often get good ones in college, and vice versa.</p>
<p>My point is, I think Standardized tests are, and should be, just as important a factor in determining admissions as GPA. Just for full disclosure, though...I did pretty well:)</p>
<p>Regarding the quote, I was being sarcastic. It's silly to look at that as a bad thing. These are state schools, and therefore it is annoying when I find that people who have chosen to attend state schools complain that the kids within that state received preference during admissions.</p>
<p>The SAT is not a measure of intelligence, and it's hard to say exactly what it's supposed to measure. It was once an aptitude test, but now seems to have become an achievement test (in other words, you can study for it) that can be gamed. It is a foul test and colleges are beginning to wonder how to deal with it.</p>
<p>APs are fine when it comes to measuring kids across the country. You could argue that your performance on APs depend on your instructors, but what I learned is that anyone can teach themselves most AP material if given a good review and textbook. This is harder with say, Chemistry, definitely, but most of the APs can be learned through a lot of self motivation. I also think that the ACT is supposed to be better when it comes to being an aptitude test.</p>