UNC Chapel Hill Early Action Class of 2030 Official Thread

Guys UNC usually releases a week before… could it be released today for In state or???

This is a new format for the EA Instate being this early and split from OOS - so I don’t know if we can use historical leases to tell us anything.

FWIW, the UNC Admissions Instagram page has posted a “Welcome to UNC” video on the day of EA decisions for the past two years, but I don’t know what time they posted them (could have been evening, after decisions out). I don’t see posts before the EA decision dates saying when they will be released. Our oldest didn’t apply to Chapel Hill so I don’t know if they send an email a few days beforehand or not. We certainly wouldn’t mind it today, but are expecting next week.

Yes, it also helped me write a really good Common App essay. I have no idea where on earth I would have gone with my essay if not for it.

I see the point and agree that it should be highlighted by the school. I checked the in-state 2025 data for NC State and UNCW and they don’t show the large preference to admit students with test scores like UNCCH. In fact, now that I think about it, on the in-person tour of NC State the speaker mentioned that they are truly test optional and they have data to back up that statement.

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Yes, like be honest about it, so kids know what to be working on after they take the school tour junior year or take the advice from their school counselors that give out information coming from the schools. Good work looking at the other NC schools to compare. I hadn’t done that yet, and that’s great information for students and families. Good luck to your kiddo!!

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Good luck to everyone regarding EA coming up. Just a note about TO/ submit. Submitting test scores don’t take precedence. Otherwise UNC would be mandatory test submit. They( tests) are an extra aspect of an application. Submitting a “ good” test but lower, say compared to your Wake county peers will be possibly detrimental. Schools also don’t assume- there are actually students that decide not to take the test, believing their 4yr of work in other areas suffice. There’s lots of scenarios. I have 2 students, almost exact applications in rigor, ECs rank. One had 99 th percentile test, one didn’t take it. Both accepted to UNC.

Anybody want to chance me?

lower middle class, single father household, white male

Bottom 20 county in NC (based off all available metrics)

GPA - UW4.0/W4.625

Rank - 1/~200

20 AP/Dual Enrollment courses, will graduate with Associate of Arts from local comm. college (high rigor)

1550 SAT/35 ACT

ECs:
Best one - Interning with a gov. affairs/lobbying group in Raleigh, placed in charge of lobbying ~30M for my school district (10M to higher ed, 20M to K-12), did so successfully. Worked w/ NC Governor and his Cabinet, a handful of NC Congresspeople, and ~1/2 of the NC state legislature on a variety of issues (IP law, pharma research, healthcare, K-12 education), worked with national Dem House leaders, to ensure that my region (Eastern NC/Black Belt) would be represented and acknowledged in their midterm strategy.

  1. Interned for my State Senator and Representative, fought for legislation relevant to my area, got a handful of concessions beneficial to my area into the state budget (though that still needs to be passed of course)
  2. Youth and Government for 3 years, Clerk for 2
  3. Coached my own track team 11th/12th due to staffing cuts. Did everything except driving the bus lol
  4. President of Student Government for 4 years, managed all spirit weeks, student events, etc.
  5. A handful of religious/volunteer clubs and groups around my area, spent weekends helping them out via food pantries, ticket management, etc.

Essays (basing these off independent feedback):

Main one - 7.5-8/10

Supplementals - 8.5-9.5/10

First rec letter - 9/10, from my (awesome) English teacher

Second rec letter - 8/10, a little informal from my history teacher but the passion is heavy

third rec letter - 10/10, from my boss, strong connections to UNC’s administration, lots of passion

Anything I’m forgetting?

Based on a lengthy history of UNC-CH declining perfect SAT/ACT scores, Very High GPA/WGPA students, High Rank - Vals and Sals… nobody should be told they are a ‘lock’ to get in to Carolina…
…however, your resume is about as close a one as I’d put serious money on in Vegas.

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Well said!!

In the running for Duke. Very high probability for UNC

how UNC chooses among those who submitted test scores and those who didn’t. What other factors would help test optional applications to be admitted. given that all the kids have reasonably good ECs how they can compare. Given that gpa usually be reasonably good for those with great test score (above 4 weighted) there must be a very compelling reasons to choose those who did not submit scores. Can anyone answer? can ECs by themself help you in admission?

if u do not get in I am not sure who would get in. Unless your courses taken, strengths and interests do not match with the program you are applying, there should not be a reason to decline. It appears everything it going for you. Good luck.

OOS legacy daughter (TO) from Colorado applied EA with decent stats but not elite (4.5 GPA, 10 APs, multiple honors classes, in 10% of class of 500, good recs and ECs. We know UNC is a long shot and hoping her legacy will give her a nudge. She also selected “Global Launch” for the Fall and said yes to a spring semester abroad too.

Anyone know if Global Launch helps tip a candidate? Also, how many additional LORs are worthwhile? She did a summer program and her leader was a UNC alum…wondering if she should request and add to her file.

I’ve seen anecdotally OOS std. scores used to determine admits( generally mid 1500s is not uncommon) Legacy definitely helps OOS- if I’m not mistaken upwards of 35% OOS are legacy. It’s an amazingly difficult accept but gl and you’ll know within a wk or less.

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Generally the application is quantified- each section is based on a numerical value. With scores, you’d have a higher numerical vslue that needs to be attained since it’s one additional section. TO, one less section and a different value scale. This is just an example but for instance 40 is total value for TO whereas 50 for submitted. So there is in theory a drawback to submitting a lackluster score if everything else is stellar. On the other hand if TO and you have a section that isn’t stellar, it’s difficult to offset your total since you have one less section( no test) and each of the other sections have more weight.

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got it but in general somebody with stellar GPA would also have atleast have decent sat/act score right. Otherwise GPA should be deemed inflated. I am saying at least a decent sat/act (around 1450 ball park). These score measures once proficiency in english, math and analytics. If you take these two parameters out,how can they make up for unless they are stellar in sports and universities want them for non academic purposes.

that is quite unfortunate given that it measures once efficiency. GPA can be inflated by taking many out side courses. Also kids in highschool tend to focus more on building fridenships and in the process loose sight of gpa. They are now a days more on Social media than ever before. they can not punish a kid who got 3.8/4.3 and stellar scores over someone say 4.5 and average sat/act. Mind you they can take sat/act multiple times.

That’s a bit of generalization which I don’t think is uniformly true.

So you have Grade Inflation (which is more A and A-, than in the past, for the same courses / same performance) and then you have Weighted Grading where a school offers honors, IB/AP/DE and they utilize their school or public school system weighting scales. And, of course, you can have Grade Inflation in the weighted courses as well.

I believe the current data reflects that HS GPA tends to be higher among girls than boys, and that test scores can be distributed fairly evenly - however there’s data which suggests boys who don’t perform quite as well in GPA have dis -coordinately higher test scores than the girls in that same GPA cohort. (Males may be under performing in their GPA, but show disproportionately higher test scores comparatively) - however I may be misunderstanding how that really distributes out.

There are enough folks with high GPA / high WGPA who have lower standardized test scores (SAT / ACT or AP) - we can see that from plenty of folks who post on CC but also reddit etc (if their numbers are taken at face value) - that I personally would argue against Test Optional scenarios - so that you have more parameters to assess - and more parameters where you can follow student /graduate outcomes to see which things are the best predictors of performance etc.

To be honest, with the way University systems have operated previously, and even with the different attempts to either adhere or evade the SCOTUS rulings, short of violating specific rights in the open, most schools can do their admissions process in whatever manner they wish to and there’s little the general public can do about it in the short term. (And to some extent, that’s a good thing to stop outsider reactionary responses from over reacting to things).

You can look at CDS reporting to see what the school -says- it’s evaluating as Very Important, Important, Considered and Not Considered. You can also look at the GPA break downs (which are difficult to assess because some schools will breakdown/reconfigure outside GPA to a systematic in house GPA number - and you may not know or understand the difference). as well as test scores - but also see in the test optionals what percentage of admitted students submitted scores etc.

And at least at Carolina, a student can request to see their application admissions assessment to see how it was evaluated and scored - but I think there is a time period wait on that (of like 6 months or a year).

thanks for you feedback. But with High GPA one can not have an abysmal score. Agree some may feel nervous may not be able to perform under timelimit. But even then they can not fall below reasonabily good score like say 1450. If they do, you will need to ask if their GPA is inflated. Mind you they can take multiple tests to improve their score.