I don’t know about NC, but in 2024 the state of Virginia passed a law that all Virginia colleges could not consider legacy anymore. Lots of very unhappy alum there.
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As of the 2024 (updated Aug of 2025) entries on the CDS for UNC-CH;
Very Important:
Rigor
Important:
GPA
Class Rank
Application Essay
LORs
Extracurriculars
Talents/Abilities
Character
Volunteer Experience
Work Experience
Considered
Test Scores
First Generation
Alumni
AVG GPA admitted students 4.49
SAT25/75: 1400-1530
ACT Comp 25/75: 28-34
Class rank top 10%: 77%
Class Rank top 25%: 97%
(69% of admitted submitted class rank)
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Chance my daughter pls:
Wake county
Early college/dual enrollment based on info tech making it the top 1-2 high schools in the county )~80 kids per class
8 aps with only 1 B, otherwise all A’s
3.83/4.45 overall gpa, 3.88 uw/4.55 academic gpa
8 dual enrollment courses (cybersecurity track with pact certs)
Etc:school secretary freshman year, several career events, art club
Work: soccer ref every fall and spring for 3 years - now getting up to head ref at challenge and classic games
note:can’t play sports due to knee injuries
Assume solid lors and essay
What is her chances realistically applying instate?
Very Important:
Rigor: 8 AP / 8 DE
This should put her above the 50% of admitted students who have access to that level of AP/IB/DE .
Important:
WGPA: Above the 50% admitted
Class Rank:??
ECs:
Volunteerism, Leadership, Work Experience Solid but not elite
Considered:
Test Scores? Submitted?
First Gen?
Alumni?
I think Wake County is a tough sell (as is Mecklenburg) with so many high performing kids in solid High Schools concentrated here.
Class Rank can be helpful to tease the information out - especially if she’s in the top 3-5%.
To me your D26 and my D26 look comparable:
Wake County Magnet, high performing HS.
Rigor 13 AP/IB, 15 Honors
WGPA at the 50% admitted (3.88 / 4.48)
Summa Cum Laude
Test Scores at the 75%
ECs/Volunteerism: Assistant Soccer Coach 3 years, CrossCountry 4 years Varsity 2, Captain, Winter/Spring Track, Co-President/Co-founder Women in History Club, Vice President Book Club, Amnesty International, Key Club, Indiana University Kelley School of Business - Womens Leadership Institute.
Work: Summer Internship - Small Business Consulting - Operations / Finance / Sales.
Her ‘ding’ is that even with her GPA and Summa Cum Laude, she is -not- top 10% Class Rank at her high performing magnet HS.
So I’m inclined to give your D26 the same spiel I gave my D26 - you have excellent (but not elite) performance in each category, and given that it’s a remarkably well balanced resume, this probably puts you in the top 2-3% of all kids in your HS class across the nation. At UNC, this puts you in the competitive to highly competitive pool - unfortunately after getting into that pool - it’s probably a 50:50 or 60/40 shot that no-one outside of admissions can more reliably predict.
If your D26 has a top 5% Class rank, it may be higher.
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This is just a curiosity, how do kids take so many advanced courses? 15 AP and 13 Honors is not possible at my kid’s school. She took 28 classes in high school, 2 are PE, 4 are orchestra, and 1 is German…all of which are not offered in advanced class.
It’s just anecdata, but our kids go to a very large and competitive Wake county public high school. In last year’s class, there was definitely an uptick from the previous year in UNC acceptances/enrollments for kids in the top 10% (probably starts around a 4.4 weighted GPA). We assumed this was from UNC’s initiative to increase incoming class sizes.
She is test optional though her scores were respectable. Class rank is top 50% but this school has many high performers who self-select to go here. In a typical Wake high school, this would likely put her in the top 10-15% or higher. Older son was in the top 20% at a normal high school with a 4.25.
For those who aren’t familiar, we do year long courses - thus one AP course is both Fall and Spring.
So for my D26 with 13 AP/IB and 15 Honors in 4 years that’s 28 classes out of 32 that are AP, IB or Honors. She’s taken three standard weight HS level courses as a freshman and one as a sophomore. Everything else has been a weighted class.
Thus far, she has had a total of 3 B’s thru Junior year. This year she is taking 3 AP, 3 IB and 2 Honors classes. right now she is tracking to go between 7 / 8 or 8/8 As. The math on this would finish her out around 4.55 or 4.60ish at the end (which of course is late for almost every schools admissions profile).
Currently that configuration has her in the top 20% for her class. of 520ish students (they started with around 725 students as freshman).
Think about that for a second or two.
13 AP/IB, 15 honors : 28/32 are weighted classes with 3-4Bs … so 28/32 or 29/32 “As”… and that only puts her solidly in the mid teens% Class Rank.
One would hope that it being a Wake Co school with kids who’ve attended UNC-CH historically that they would do some kid of adjustment for one-off schools. But I don’t know how to gauge a top 50% (top 1/2 of class) student when 97% of admitted students are in the top 25%, and if you take out the academic low performers with hooks (some athletes)… I’d guess its like 100% come from the top 25%.
My daughter is at a special school on a community college campus where they take traditional high school ap courses plus dual enrollment courses, have an option to finish a 5th year for an associate’s degree.
I think my S26 is in this boat! In-state, 3.96 UW/4.47 W, 5 APs+4 DE (the rest were honors), private school no rank, test opt, unique ECs, excellent essays. My feedback to him was similar. You are a superstar and will be given serious consideration, your app won’t be “filtered out”. But what happens next is very unclear unfortunately.
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16 AP/DE is a plus. Wake county is a minus due to volume of competition. GPA is well within range. I honestly believe ECs are going to decide it; if student conveyed community impact with their contributions it’s tip scale towards accept. You’ll know in a wk or less. Gl
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Hi yall I would also like to add the fact I am from duplin county. If you look it up you’d be able to see why i belive these stats are half-way kinda impressive but i want to be completely honest I am so scared I will not get into this school i have wanted to go to since I was 8. My family hasnt been able to help me so i’ve been going through the process of applying to a bunch of schools by myself and I have been very very anxious about decision day. (I am sorry for mispelling’s I do have dyslexia)
Test optional is going to be the trickiest part for students like this. Not a deal breaker, but data shows that UNC loves a kid with a sold test score. Often people apply test optional when they should submit (in state). Many in state students with an ACT of 29-30 get in if their grades are high, whereas test optional get in at much lower rates. (75% in state who submit a test score get in, about 33% who are test optional get in.)
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This is very school and school district dependent and colleges get a school fact sheet that shows how many APs are available and other info so they can see how your child compares to the peers and offerings at their school.
For example our school has 8 periods a day, so kids can take 32 classes in high school (though seniors often take only 6 courses). At our school, 10-13 AP courses is the norm for the top 10% of the class, with mostly honors. For us, there are honors courses for upper level arts courses. Mine took regular art, but then could take honors art courses. She took 10 AP courses, 2 regular courses, one PE/Health, and 17 honors courses.
I was definitely concerned about test opt. But on the UNC in-person tour they were repeatedly explaining that test opt would not count against you. They were highly emphasizing the essays. Also looking at this data, it looks like less than half of the in-state admitted students submitted test scores last year (I know the enrolled students data on CDS had much lower test optional percentage).
Thanks for this explanation. I think the main difference is my daughter only took 28 classes (school policy) vs 32. And honors in fine arts where she didn’t do that for orchestra.
I still think they aren’t as forthcoming as they should be about test preferred. If you parse out applied/admitted. In-state students that submit a score are admitted at a rate of 70%+ while TO students are more in 33% range as Macxc1009 states. Basically, test scores more than double your chances. Plenty of kids still get in TO because so many apply without scores, but you’re up against a bigger pool of applicants. Then you’ve got about 25% of kids that submit scores that are not admitted, so that happens too, just at a lower rate. A lot of TO schools aren’t forthcoming with this data. If the admit rate is so much higher, test scores should move into the “important” column on the common data set for transparency. I am not saying this to discourage anyone, as there will be plenty of TO kids accepted and kids with high scores rejected dependent on a host of other variables, but I just wanted to call out their mixed messaging on test scores. They’re not the only school that does this.
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Most kids who don’t submit test scores have lower scores and likely lower GPA/rigor too compared to the pool which submit their test scores.
So, it’s only logical for TO kids to be admitted at a lower rate even if their TO status itself doesn’t cause any harm. They will still be compared to kids who submit test scores in other factors.
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Not my daughter with a 4.5 gpa 8 aps and 8 de.