For those wondering what UNC Chapel Hill looks for, my kid who is a student there was able to view their admissions file today. Child was in state in a competitive district. Here is what they passed along to me:
Rigor of schedule was rated, with a note that they were taking 4 APs senior year (11 total, all other possible courses were honors, no DE), Score given: 9 out of 10
In performance, the number of Bs was noted (3, two of which were in AP courses and were almost As), as were AP scores, Score given: 8 out of 10
There was an essay score, as well. 3.16 out of 4
Also noted on there was class rank (38/ 389), top 9.7% of class, ACT score 34
A scores was given for activities. Interestingly, their score (5 out of 10 â only 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 were possible) for the activity portion was not amazing, despite being a committed athlete with varsity and club commitments and leadership and big time commitment (not just one season), but that was their main activity at school aside from a few honor societies.
Two people reviewed the file, both recommended to admit. File was reviewed 10/17, so two days after the EA deadline closed. If I remember correctly, child submitted app around 10/1 and teachers had all materials by 10/1. Does it benefit students to submit before 10/15? Maybe?
The comments on the file noted a few things: extraordinary commitment to their sport, strong academic profile, enthusiastic LOR (including a quote that the teacher said their AP Research project was the best among the cohort). Interestingly, child went against the grain and had a social studies rec and an elective AP teacher do their recommendations as they were who knew them best. That appears to have been a great strategy.
Child said the people showing them the admission file said it isnât any one score theyâre looking for, but an overall fit and that both teacher recs said they went above and beyond what was required for AP courses independently and that really stuck out, and that kidâs essays fit the vibe of what they were looking for (confirming essays are read by humans as well as AI).
Hopefully this helps those looking to apply next year!
Perhaps 7 is reserved for state level championship or recognition, while 10 is reserved for national or international level championship or recognition? I.e. perhaps 5 is the best possible for school level or local level extracurriculars?
Interesting to see the relative weightings for UNC. Rigor, grades, activities all equally weighted out of 10 points.
This implies that rigor is just as important as the grades. And comparing GPAâs to other admitted/rejected applicants isnât all that instructive without also comparing the rigor.
Also, activities is weighted just as much as GPA and rigor. Again another reason why comparing your studentâs GPA and rigor to others is not informative without also knowing the activites comparision.
And, at the end of the day, my child said that is all part of it, but the people on the zoom said itâs the overall feel of the application and essays including recs that tell them if a student will be able to thrive at Carolina. Sounded like recs could make it or break it.
I donât know if this is helpful, but both Yale (voluntarily) and Harvard (by lawsuit) revealed information about how they scored activities. And while the details varied, big picture it seemed similarâlots of successful applicants ended up with ratings fairly close together in the middle of the practical range, and only a few got really high scores for activities (and not all of those got admitted!). The mental picture I have is of a relatively narrow bell curve with small tails.
I have personally interpreted this as supporting what they tend to say about activitiesâthere are many different sorts of good activities you can do, and for most kids they are really just looking for a meaningfully active kid who is likely to be meaningfully active in college too. But it is very hard to truly âimpressâ them with activities, in the sense you would get a much better rating than many other competitive applicants.
And thatâs fine! There are other ways to stand out, including by being interesting, self-motivated, a risk-taker, and so on (as opposed to being âimpressiveâ in the way people usually think of that term).
Or just by being someone who would clearly thrive at their college. And as you noted, that is the thing they tend to most care about, what holistic review is really all about.
That each category is on a 10 point scale does not necessarily mean that they are equal-weighted when the applicant is compared overall to other applicants.
More accurately, rigor, GPA, rank, test scores, and other more transparent and comparable stats (including hook status like legacy) show only an incomplete set of attributes for applicants to a college with subjective evaluation that includes many other things like extracurriculars, essays, and recommendations (in decreasing order of transparency and comparability for those outside of the admission office).
I think people underestimate the importance of outstanding teacher recs. Itâs one thing that canât be gamed. I always tell students that the best rec is from a teacher who knows them well, who likes them, who the student likes in return. Especially if the student has engaged in that class and has made an effort, regardless of getting a B. It doesnât matter that much if one rec is from a math teacher and the other is from a history teacher.
Interesting post. One thing to keep in mind however, OPâs kid was in state. Since UNC attracts a lot of OOS applicants and places pretty severe limits on OOS enrollment, I suspect that a different set of standard applies when UNC looks at OOS applications.
Super helpful. I have been wondering how much being a recruited athlete to swim at UNC with National cuts (for swimming) could make up for a transcript without APs (but high GPA and rigor from a College Prep). UNC is one of the schools my D27 is interested in exploring.
Only the coach can answer these questions. If your studentâs times are competitive for the ACC, they should reach out to the coach. The stronger the athlete, the more give there is on academics.
However, there is still a random factor in that some studentsâ best recommenders is not as good LoR writers as some other studentsâ best recommenders, and LoR rationing can exclude some students from getting their best recommenders. Students at elite high schools with dedicated college counselors likely have an advantage, in that the college counselors know the quality of teachersâ LoR writing and can steer students appropriately, and the teachers are probably trained in LoR writing and are not overburdened to the point of having to ration LoRs.
Maybe, but, at least in state, UNC admissions people know the reps of schools and districts and understand that about applicants and letters. I think the vast majority of teachers writing letters are often AP teachers, and those teachers know how to write a letter, especially with AI to help edit and rephrase. I teach at a private school and write HS letters, and have friends who write college letters and can say 1) we are overburdened too and 2) we get no special training. Maybe at some schools they do, but not all, and often we have less students and ALL of them are applying out, so the ratio ends up pretty similar.
Interesting you bring that up. My D is a swimmer and her teammate is elite (AA cuts, etc). This kidâs dream school is UNC. Good student but I donât think her academics matched her swim accomplishments. She and her parents had very deep conversations with UNC but in the end, it was times not scores, that mattered. She didnât make the number (in the pool, not classroom) that the UNC coaches were looking for, so sheâs going elsewhere (full ride D1 SEC). So agree with posts above-go through the coach first.
Also, it may be a blessing in disguise. UNC is a very challenging academic environment, so they may have struggled academically or not been able to complete the major they wanted due to the rigor.
And I think this depends on the sport. Smaller teams where students are sometimes better students may not care if youâre really good. You may be an amazing breaststroker, but there may be another equally amazing one with the grades and scores.
Not sure I agree with that for ACC teams, where the recruits for âsmallerâ teams are also high level athletes. And of course some athletes across all sports are high academic. There is a lot that goes into the mix when a coach is deciding which athletes to recruit, but I still standby what I saidâŠthe stronger the athlete, the more give there is on academics.