First,
Not sure where your getting your admission stats about UNC.
Last year UNC received 31,953 applications of which 9,510 where admitted, that puts the admissions rate a 29.7%
This years app pool went up by substantially to 35,821 application, putting UNC-Chapel Hill’s admission rate at 26.5%.
http://uncnews.unc.edu/2016/02/04/the-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill-offers-early-action-admission-to-6948/
The admission for out of state at UNC is roughly 17%. It’s one of of the most competitive schools to get into OOS.
Second,
Comparing UCLA’s admissions rate to UNC-Chapel Hill doesn’t make sense.
(1) UCLA is on the west cost and in California, the largest state in the USA.
(2) UCLA is a much much larger school (30k undergrads vs 18k undergrads at UNC)
(2) The number of elite west coast universities is substantially smaller to the number of elite universities on the east coast. Hence schools such as Stanford/UCB/UCLA/USC can enjoy a sub 17% admission rate pretty easily.
(3) Massive immigration in to California from south of the border and Asia.
UNC’s current admissions rate (26%) is very comparable to universities such UVA (29%), Emory (27%) and CMU (23%) which are all peer universities on the east coast.
UCLA is a great university and if your heart is set on it then you should go there. But deciding to go to which school based on admission rate statistics is pure silly!