I hope you are soon able to find some peace and excitement in your choices, because they are truly wonderful.
I have been following your journey from the sidelines and I am concerned that you are losing sight of some remarkable results. All of the people who are telling you that you have great options are not doing it to pump you up or give you lip service.
UNC has a single-digit OOS acceptance rate. That makes it a reach-reach for anyone applying outside of North Carolina. You keep acting as if it is in a dramatically different category than Yale or Wellesley or anywhere else that has given you a less positive decision. It is not. If itâs rankings that you care about, US News has it at #22. It is prestigious, selective, and well-rounded.
Whether or not you choose UNC is a totally different story, but you have validation â both an acceptance and a scholarship â that your application was exceptional from one of the most elite colleges in the country. Please, please, please stop obsessing about the minutiae of your application or asserting that your application must not have been strong. You have been around College Confidential long enough to know that many hardworking and qualified students get no reach acceptances at all.
You need hold tight until all of your decisions are released, then choose the best fit for you. It wonât be a perfect fit, even if it is Yale, so stop trying to make every college tick every box. They wonât. Enjoy your success, the remainder of senior year, and start making plans for a wonderful new adventure.
You initially had varied interests but if I am correct - public health?
Since you have affordable options, Iâd start to look at the catalogs - requirements, clubs, etc. for your areas of interest. Maybe ask to speak to a student from each major.
I totally understand your parents - but you want to ensure thereâs enough breadth - not just in the catalog but regularly offered, etc. Some might be more âStem-Yâ than others, as an exampleâŠif youâre off public health, then whatever you are thinking about today - given the schools that are possibilities (regardless of all the internal doubts). Some might have classes in the catalog but rarely offer them.
You need to apply to public health (Gillings) at UNC and it is quite competitive. That being said, the OP is a highly competitive applicant should he go that route.
In any case you can show your parents that ranking where UNC is ranked alongside Harvard.
UNC is a Public Ivy. (And the Chapel Hill area is less racist than the counties surrounding MSP, even if areas in that state are problematic indeed.)
Macalester is super well known nationally for anything political science and itâs ideally located for the MN legislature.
Truly no wrong choice.
Agreed that UNC is in one of the most progressive areas in the nation, and itâs one of the top 5 public institutions in the country. There is racism everywhere, and big cases make big news. The professor that was killed there earlier this year was killed by a grad student who was crazy. It wasnât a mass shooting. The case right after it would never have made national news (boyfriend with gun in fast food place on campus) had it not been for the earlier case. The case posted about was 15 years ago.
Yes, I am interested in public health/policy. Funny enough iâve actually looked at all of the links youâve provided. Iâve taken time to think and take my mind off of the decisions and feel a lot better. Everything isnât over because of a rejection/waitlist. I looked at the macalester coursework for the community health major and didnât like how health focused it seemed. I did like the policymaking class offered though! Thank you for your help.
Do you live close to Macalaster? If so, it might be possible to contact admissions and ask if you could sit in on some classes or perhaps shadow a student ambassador for a day.
^ though this wouldnât necessarily be needed since Mac offers 700+ courses each semester, of which you can only take 4. The difficulty is more ⊠havibg more classes you want to take, than classes you can take.
I think the opportunity becomes more important senior year if you want to take specialized advanced classes.
The only con for my daughter at UNC was the large instate presence. She thought everybody came in with a friend group and she would have trouble making friends. She never really considered this until we moved her in.
She was wrong about making friends. She had friends from all over the country (including NC) and met people from all over the world. She actually began to view her OOS status as a pro and not as a con.
Other than this, she didnât have any cons. Her friends from UNC are now working or attending schools all over the country.
My daughter was accepted to Gillings but changed her mind and left (changed her major). Despite leaving, she still participated in research within Gillings for over 3 yearsâŠif you have any general questions.
You have 2 great schools to choose from (maybe more?). I hope you get to pick the one that is best for you.
It means you could live abroad in conditions youâre unlikely to experience once in the workforce (thinking of expensive capitals like London, Dublin, Paris, Tokyo⊠which are too expensive for entry-level college graduates but, if covered by FA, are very accessible).
You could also get an internship with a foreign Parliament or state house that is making strides on the policy youâve been working on, because Mac has lots of international contacts. You could actually email the poli-sci dept and ask if they know of juniors who got an internships in the ⊠Parliament or with the ⊠Think tank.
(A very interesting Parliament right now is the Scottish one. Northern Ireland should be interesting with Sinn Fein poised to win in the Republic for the 1st time and currently ruling in the North. Not sure how their views would correlate with your policy, but itâs just an example of 2 stable English-speaking countries that are interesting right now.)
An update on my college results: rejected from jhu, usc, and northwestern lol, but waitlisted at emory college of arts and sciences (oxford deny) and vanderbilt! I am really greatful actually and hope I get off the vandy waitlist! Now I have ivy day and stanford left but that could be bleak.
Hi, I checked all of my decisions and I got rejected at every Ivy except Penn, which was a waitlist. I will write a loci for Penn and hope for the best.