Ways to IMPROVE my chances for UNC

<p>I'm gonna be a junior next year but I want to know if my EC's, my past grades, and my future classes will be good enough for UNC. What SAT score would I need? What are ways to improve my chances for UNC? How can I show UNC that UNC is my #1 school? UNC is my dream school, I would give anything to go to Carolina!</p>

<p>Basic Info: Asian-American (Indian more specifically, but that probably won't help), resident in North Carolina (Wake County)</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA - 4.5 (weighted)
3.8125 (unweighted)</p>

<p>Class Rank (29/577) Top 5%</p>

<p>Classes: (block scheduling)</p>

<p>Freshmen Year:
Honors Geometry - B
Honors Algebra 2 - A
Honors English I- A
Honors Biology- A
Honors World History - A
Health/P.E.- A
Spanish 2- A
Computer Programming-A</p>

<p>Sophmore Year:
Honors Pre-Calculus-B
Honors Chemistry-A
Honors Civics & Economics-A
Honors English II-A
Honors Spanish 3-B
Honors Spanish 4-A
Sports Medicine I -A
Sports Medicine II - A</p>

<p>Junior Year: (The Classes I chose for next year):
AP Spanish Language
AP Statistics
AP Environmental
AP English III
AP US History (its year long with honors US second semester)
Honors US History
Honors Spanish 5
Honors Physics</p>

<p>Senior Year: (What I have in mind, although I haven't decided on the last 3 classes)
AP Calculus AB
AP Calculus BC
AP Spanish Lit
AP English IV
AP Psychology
???? (Elective)
???? (Elective)
???? (Elective)</p>

<p>E.C. Activities:I wasn't very active freshmen year :/
Key Club (1 year)
Track (2 years) - I'm not gonna continue on with this because I was to volunteer more and be more active in clubs. Plus, it's just not fun anymore.
Cross Country (1 year) - " " same as above
Indoor Track (1 year)- " "
Spanish Club (1 year) - 10th grade
Inducted into NHS
Inducted into Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica
Volunteering at Exploris Museum in Raleigh, NC - 22-23 hours a week during summer (I should have about 180 hours total at the end of the summer)
Volunteer at Library for 2hrs/week - scrub work :/
Junior Year - I'm gonna volunteer at Sylvan Learning Center/ Kumon Learning Center afterschool for a couple hours</p>

<p>I would appreciate the help.</p>

<p>You're instate, don't worry about it. The only places where it is hard to get into if you are instate is when you live in Chapel Hill and Charlotte.</p>

<p>I wish my school offered that many honors and AP courses. We don't have honors algebra, geometry, biology, chemistry, civics, or anything. Oh well. I will also be a Junior next year and wish to go to UNC. However, you have far better stats than me.</p>

<p>Your GPA already looks quite impressive and you have several AP's ahead of you that will raise it even more. As far as your EC's go, you seem to have some good volunteer work. I think your EC's are fairly decent. If you get a SAT score of 2000+, you should easily be accepted. You may also want to look into taking a few SAT subject tests. Possibly Spanish, US History, and definitely Math IIC (since they require it for placement reasons.)</p>

<p>Yeah luckly my school system (Forysth County, NC) offered almost every AP College Board offers at a seperate school that everyone could attend.</p>

<p>dont take so many ap courses...ITS SENIOR YEAR. i only took 3 ap's my hs career and ZERO of those were my senior year and i still got into unc chapel hill and i live in wake county. so do urself a favor and enjoy senior year ull be doing more than enough work in college.</p>

<p>why would you take calc AB and BC at the same time?</p>

<p>With block scheduling, you take 4 courses a semester which is a year long course. This means you will take 8 year long course a year. That being said, I see no need to take Calculus AB and BC; most students take one or the other even with a block schedule.</p>

<p>That is surprising that you got in with only 3 ap's total and you are from such a huge county. UNC is still pretty competitive for in state kids and I was surprised I got in with having 5 ap's over the course of my hs career.</p>

<p>yeah but i had a 4.5 and was like top 6% of my class my sats were decent at 1910. that just goes to show u that if your instate and have a decent grades with lots of ec's u can get in easy.</p>

<p>I only took one AP class and I am in-state, from Wake County... and I'll be a freshman at UNC this fall. So please, don't worry about it. Just keep your grades up.</p>

<p>Jesus, Wake county is way easier to get in from that forsyth. I'm on the low end of the competitiveness spectrum when it comes to getting into carolina from here.</p>

<p>is it really that much harder to get in if you live in charlotte?</p>

<p>It just depends on what you have to offer to the school. Keep in mind that it's OBVIOUSLY not just how many AP classes you are taking, although that is a factor in the admissions decisions, I'd assume. I mean UNC does also look for students with character... and not just the ones with the grades.</p>

<p>Yeah, from what I hear since Charlotte has such a massive system and EVERYONE applies to UNC, most guidance counselors tell kids that if you don't have a 4.5 of better you prob won't get in.</p>

<p>Which summer program would look better for college, Summer Ventures here in NC or Governor's School here in NC?</p>

<p>LOL ur a cubs fan...u loser</p>

<p>anyway, if you live in wake county, you're definitely getting in. don't even kid yourself.
also, governor's school looks TONS better.</p>

<p>what about union county? is it as hard as char-meck?</p>

<p>I suspect the difficulties in getting in to Chapel Hill are zip code- or high-school-specific and not just Charlotte in general -- or Union County. The area is very ethnically and economically diverse, depending on zip code.
UNC admissions reps have scheduled recruiting visits this fall to most private schools and some public schools in Charlotte. Some schools aren't on their list at all yet -- makes one wonder whether they have so many applicants from specific schools that they don't bother to recruit there. Wonder if it's the same near Raleigh.
I have no evidence of this -- it may just be a scheduling thing.</p>

<p>And in spring 2006, the Charlotte paper compared two applicants: one got in, one didn't.
The one who didn't get in had these stats:
1360 SAT, 41/458 ranking, 4.8 weighted GPA, youth orchestra (violin)
The one who got in:
1350 SAT, 36/458, 5.0 weighted GPA, Eagle Scout, wrestling team.
They were boyfriend and girlfriend. The guy got in.
So young women shouldn't consider Chapel Hill a safety. The school seems to be trying to balance its demographics despite a majority of applications from females.</p>

<p>To improve your odds: Be from a school or zip code in state that has an underrepresentation at Chapel Hill. Be male. Get at least a 700 on each part of the SAT. Keep up the grades.
And some say you must have physics on your transcript, if your high school offers it</p>

<p>I don't know of any student who went to governor's school, had good grades and decent SATs that didn't get in to Chapel Hill (in state). I even know of a couple who did governor's school with not so great SATs that were accepted.</p>

<p>I was unfamiliar with the scope of N.C. Governor's School. Six weeks free, only one visit allowed home. Perfect for demonstrating and practicing the independent skills needed for college. No grades, just learning for the fun of it. Geographic diversity across the state, but not many participants from the Great State of Mecklenburg last year. Perhaps, like Summer Ventures, it lacks local prestige because it's free. Or the six-week time commitment conflicts with other stuff.
On Summer Ventures: I know one person who did Summer Ventures, loved it and went on to Caltech.
My DD's high school had 50 acceptances at Chapel Hill last year, out of about 450-500 students. With that competition, I don't want her to depend on UNC as a safety without some hard work on her stats as a junior. And no wonder some students seek other schools to broaden their horizons. The irony: as parents and taxpayers, we committed to a state with great higher education, only to have children who want to spread their wings far away, with out-of-state tuition.</p>