Ranked 30th in the U.S., UNC Chapel Hill is well known in many fields for research, the arts and medical studies. However, one of the most defining qualities of UNC – Chapel Hill is its students’ unique orientation toward service. The three main pillars of UNC- Chapel Hill are diversity, scholarship and service. In this case, diversity not only means racial, ethnic or regional, but diversity of experiences. While many top schools focus on well roundedness, Chapel Hill focuses more on unique individuals who have focused on one or two specific areas, to create a well-rounded campus experience. Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Patty Baum, states,
“UNC looks for pointy students to create a well-rounded environment”
Location
Chapel Hill’s Location in the North Carolina research triangle cannot be beat. Duke, UNC – Chapel Hill and NC – State (all located in North Carolina) create a triangle, geographically and are well known for bringing technological, medical and cultural expertise to the Raleigh-Durham area. While it is quite obvious that many students may prefer to attend schools in New York or California, North Carolina is understated, friendlier and still offers high rates of success in a variety of disciplines, without the chaos affiliated with overpopulated metropolitan areas on the coast. While UNC – Chapel Hill is located merely two hours from the beach; it still offers the opportunity for beach holidays, as well as access to several small cities. In addition, Raleigh-Durham is stated as having the highest percentage of PhDs per capita, meaning if you go to school here, intelligent people will surround you in every local neighbourhood.
Students at UNC – Chapel Hill
As the “purest example of a town defined by a university”, students at Chapel Hill are proud to go there. UNC – Chapel Hill’s campus is a place where you will often see many students wearing t-shirts and hoodies branded with its light blue and white logo. Therefore, school spirit is a common factor among students.
Value and History
For the last four years, UNC was voted #1 in terms of value in the U.S. In addition to being ranked high value for its cost, Chapel Hill is also the U.S’s first public university. Therefore, Chapel Hill has a long history and much experience in the realm of academia. The colonial buildings on campus stand tall and tell stories of its past, while its focus on groundbreaking technology in the medical field help bring it into the future.
Academics and Extracurriculars at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill is most well known for its programs in medicine, dentistry and public health; however, they take the arts rather seriously as well. Chapel Hill is known for having dance-a-thons, dance competitions, a cappella groups, and show choirs and all sorts of other theatrical activities on campus. However, these activities barely scrape the surface when talking about the various activities one can engage in on campus. There are over 700 clubs and organizations at Chapel Hill that one can join. Many of these are oriented toward service in one way of another, as students at Chapel Hill are a philanthropic bunch. As for sports, Chapel Hill has a rivalry with Duke University, where every year both schools stay up day and night for months to attain tickets to their home game. This is when Chapel Hill’s school pride really shines.
International Students at Chapel Hill
My tour guide, who was born in China, gave me lots of information pertaining to her experience as an international student and how she found it really easy to fit in at Chapel Hill. When she first started dorming, she was worried that she wouldn’t like her roommate, however, she later found out that the staff at Chapel Hill assign roommates based on a survey, which helps them to partner students up with someone with similar preferences and qualities.
Applying to UNC – Chapel Hill
When it comes to applications, Chapel Hill has a unique strategy. A high level of academic performance is the most important when deciding on acceptance, however, the next most important thing is your essay, and your extracurriculars. GPA and class rank are not very important to admissions officers, since they vary based on one’s environment and are not technically valid standards of success. Applying to UNC – Chapel Hill EA will not do much good, since both early and regular acceptance have equal admission rates.
Undergraduate Class Breakdown
- 82% of NC admitted are from NC.
- 18% are out of state
- 2% of them are international
- 2 students currently are from Australia. Admissions says they want more Aussies!
IB
IB is looked highly upon by UNC staff, however, they will accept students with other classes, as long as they can see you are challenging yourself. The goal is not to take as many AP classes as possible, but to take the best of what’s available to you.
Extracurriculars
Rather than leadership, Chapel Hill’s focus is on impact. You could be the president of five clubs, for example, but if you don’t talk about what you did for them, and how this experience changed you, then admissions will assume you didn’t do much. Chapel Hill also focuses a lot on service leadership. Being in charge of some sort of volunteering, and helping out a community is looked highly upon. Therefore, what is most important in terms of extracurriculars is not the title, but how one talks about their role and how they can demonstrate what they’ve accomplished.
“Chapel Hill looks for interesting and interested students.” Patty Baum States.
Testing
Chapel Hill does not require any SAT2s, however, if an applicant self reports these grades on the common app, they will be taken into consideration. In this case, 660+ is considered doing well. Math 2 can also award one credit, much like an AP exam can.
Essays
Often these cause large amounts of undue stress on students. Applicants feel they need to be the one pink pearl in a sea of white pearls. However, this is not always necessary. An admissions officer states, many students will write the same stories, about themselves, because many of them have lived similar lives. However, what is most important in application essays is a sense of perspective or an opinion unique to the applicant and their experiences. For example, instead of just saying, “I like helping people because it makes me feel good.”, ask yourself ‘Why do I want to help people? How does helping others make me feel, and what ignited this passion in me.’ Many 17 year olds don’t really think about this. Being able to think critically about ones experiences and to write about it in an eloquent way is what officers at UNC – Chapel Hill are looking for.
Recommendations
Recommendations are also a very influential part of the application package. Admissions officers wants to hear how a particular student is the most interesting, most thoughtful student the recommender has ever taught. Then they want a demonstration. They want to hear that a student forced them to be a better teacher, and helped them to realise why they became a teacher in the first place. A big no in recommendation letters is spending a whole paragraph talking about one’s credentials and how important they are. That is not the most important part.
What type of students are a good fit for UNC – Chapel Hill?
All in all, Chapel Hill is looking for people involved in their interests, who want to make an impact and can prove that. This motive can be overdone, however. For examples, patents are not always worthwhile, and neither are leadership positions if you have nothing to show for it.
If you have any more questions about UNC – Chapel Hill from an Australian/American perspective e-mail [email protected]
