<p>Would a letter or phone call saying that I would go to UNC if I got in off the wait list really help? I thought about it but was afraid the school might get irritated since the letter specifically said than only our final grades and no other new materials would be considered in the decision.</p>
<p>Like I said, I don’t know exactly what it would do. I can’t imagine a phone call would do anything, and you’d probably be lucky to get through in the first place, but a letter declaring interest couldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>sp8675,</p>
<p>I think big schools are used to getting “irritated” by people doing things that they’ve specifically indicated are not relevant or helpful (i.e., if they send a letter that says, “please, do not call us,” they are saying that because they can count on LOTS of people calling them and asking them questions they cannot answer). That doesn’t mean you should do something that you can imagine would irritate them. If I were you, I would follow the instructions of whatever letter you got about the wait list.</p>
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<p>This. UNC doesn’t play games with their acceptances. They’re not a private institution like Tufts, and they aren’t trying to manipulate their yield. They are a public, state university dedicated to serving the best and brightest. And between the unbeatable price and their top-notch merit scholarships, many top applicants choose UNC over the Ivies, Duke, and the like every year. The fact of the matter is that many shining stars are rejected every March, especially from OOS, and to blame it on your kid’s overqualification–well, that’s just not the way they do things.</p>
<p>You get a great SAT I score!
Actually I only get 2100 in SAT I but I am still accepted to UNC. So I guess it’s just the problem of your gpa.
It seems quite possible for you to be accepted from waitlist. Princeton review indicates that up to 40% of the waitlist students of UNC can get a chance.</p>
<p>Thank you Jessimo093! absweetmarie, thanks to you too I guess…</p>
<p>As a wait list candidate, would it be helpful to visit admissions to indicate interest? Is there anything that can be done to increase chances of being chosen off the wait list?</p>
<p>FWIW, we just got back from an information session. I didn’t take notes, but I’m pretty sure the admissions rep said they had almost 40,000 applications this year for just under 4000 spots. Approximately 19,000 of those were OOS applicants for about 750 spots. I can’t even remember what percentage of students are ranked 1st or 2nd in their class (12%, I think). He said they don’t look at GPA but do look at your choice of classes given the opportunities and your grades. He also said they are not looking for “well-rounded” students but those who clearly have a “passion” they have pursued enthusiastically. Test scores are important and need to be good, but they’ll take people with lower scores if they meet the other criteria better than those with perfect scores. Also, essays and the letter of rec weigh heavily. Just reporting what we heard…</p>
<p>40,000 , are you sure?</p>
<p>Dh & I are both pretty sure they said 39,000+, that it was a big increase for them, and it was due to this being the first year of using the Common Application.</p>
<p>I was able to find an official number: 29,200. Wow.</p>
<p>[The</a> Daily Tar Heel :: Common Application leads to 23 percent increase in applications at UNC](<a href=“http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2012/01/common_application_leads_to_23_percent_increase_in_applications_at_unc]The”>http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2012/01/common_application_leads_to_23_percent_increase_in_applications_at_unc)</p>
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<p>I wonder why they don’t report what % of students were top of their class?</p>
<p>NeedAVacation got it right. UNC places more value on passion and experiences than scores. It is evident by the type of students that do end up coming here- everyone seems to have a ‘place’ and a strong passion for something. Whether it be service, traveling, or politics, students here really all have a dedication to their ‘craft’, so to speak, and their level of involvement goes beyond ‘casual member’. Obviously not every single person is like that, but the admissions committee tries hard to find those kids that will stick to something and go far with it (granted, of course, that they also have the academics and other ‘fitting’ factors).</p>
<p>Honestly, I think a laundry list of activities in High School hurt students more than helps them unless they have a shining spot on their resume-- state-wide recognition for a service/sport/etc, or started their own organization with merits. Without that, their application really just reads more like ‘did a bunch of things, but didn’t really shine’. Leadership position or captain is not ‘shining’. You can rest assured nearly everyone else applying to the school was the president of something as well as treasurer of this other and captain of this thing. It’s harsh, but true. Nearly everyone here was top of the class, played a varsity sport (or did band), and was involved in who knows how many organizations. Those are hardly special qualities.</p>
<p>However, prod a little deeper and you find they volunteered in a hospital in Africa for a month in the summer, or got their school district to implement a recycling policy by starting an environmental organization. That type of stuff is what really stands out. So I would recommend that you identify an area you’re truly passionate about and find a way to show it. Everyone on the waitlist is probably strong enough academically, so what UNC now wants to know is what you can do for the school once you get here.</p>
<p>Don’t confuse this as saying you have have to be absolutely sure of what you want to do in the future, though. I’m not saying you will be chosen over another student because you KNOW you want to be a lawyer and they are undecided. Many people end up changing their minds once they get to college, anyway. It’s okay to not know. However, it’s not okay to be all over the place. What the university wants to see is that you have the drive to excel in those areas you’re passionate about, or that at least you’re committed to finding that something that inspires you. It may sound awfully simple if you feel you’re already ‘there’ but perhaps the reason you were waitlisted as opposed to accepted was because you didn’t communicate that well enough. Or it could be the complete opposite, you came off as a little too narrow minded. And even if you’re not ‘there’, try! Doing something is better than nothing, and they will definitely notice you tried as opposed to just hung back and counted on luck to get off the wait list.</p>
<p>Check out the common data sets. There’s a lot of information in there including how many students were taken off the waitlist, the accepted student ranks, GPAs, scores, etc.</p>
<p>[Common</a> Data Set - Office of Institutional Research and Assessment](<a href=“http://oira.unc.edu/facts-and-figures/data-summaries-and-publications/common-data-set.html]Common”>http://oira.unc.edu/facts-and-figures/data-summaries-and-publications/common-data-set.html)</p>