HOW TO APPLY TO CAROLINA

We encourage students to use our online application, which is secure and easy to follow. It also allows you to pay by credit card and gives you immediate confirmation that your application has been received. For your convenience, we will accept either a paper or an electronic application.

To apply online, simply log into your UNC homepage, click on "Apply to School" and choose "Online Application."

If you'd rather not apply online, feel free to download the first-year application. Before downloading and submitting a paper application, please take ten minutes to create your UNC homepage, if you haven't done so already. This will help us notify you more quickly when we receive your submitted application.

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DEADLINES

The first-year application deadlines for Fall 2009 admission are as follows:

	Application Deadline	Decision Notification	Enrollment Deposit Due
First Deadline	November 3, 2008	January 15, 2009	May 1, 2009
Second Deadline	January 15, 2009	March 20, 2009	May 1, 2009

SAT/ACT Deadlines

Your testing should be completed by November for the first deadline or December for the second deadline.

If you have taken the October SAT or ACT and we haven't received your scores by the first deadline, your application will still be processed on time. We expect the scores to be posted by mid-November. If they are not accurately posted after that time, please contact the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. For the first deadline, we will also accept November test scores, which will be posted by mid-December. There is no need to have those scores rushed to us.

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APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

First-year applicants are required to submit the following:

• A completed application.

• Counselor statement and transcript.

• Teacher recommendation.

• Residency application, if you are a North Carolina resident.

• Test scores - SAT Reasoning Test and/or the ACT (including the writing section, which is offered with both exams). If you've taken any AP, IB, or SAT Subject Tests, please provides these scores as well. Please note that certain exam scores are used to place enrolling students in the appropriate math, English, and foreign language courses. For detailed information, visit our Placement Exams page.

• Essays - we require one long and one short essay.

• A non-refundable $70 application fee.

WHAT WE LOOK FOR

Admission to Carolina is highly competitive. For the Fall 2007 class:

• 20,064 applied
• 6,993 admitted
• 3,895 enrolled

Our admissions process is competitive, but we strive to make it fair and humane. We
don’t use formulas or cutoffs or thresholds; no one is automatically admitted or denied because of a single number. Instead, we read each application thoroughly, one by one.

What do we look for? It's hard to generalize. We understand that students travel many different roads to get to Carolina, and we celebrate the variety of interests, backgrounds, and aspirations that they bring with them. We know that not every talented student needs to be talented in exactly the same way.

At the same time, it’s fair to say that we seek excellence.We focus first on academic
excellence, using a variety of information—courses, grades, test scores, recommendations, essays—to help us assess performance and potential. We pay particular attention to the rigor of each candidate’s course of study.

Successful candidates typically take at least one course in each of the five core academic disciplines—English, math, social science, lab science, and foreign language—in each of their four years in high school. Many take the
most difficult academic programs available at their schools.

Beyond academics, we seek excellence in other areas: in the arts; in athletics; in
leadership, service, citizenship, and character. This list isn’t exhaustive or prescriptive; our candidates do things we’ve hardly imagined, and we’re more than happy to be surprised.

When we read your application, we’ll be interested in what you've done and what you
care about—those things that make you the unique person you are.

Refer to Facts and Figures and our Applying FAQs for additional information.

 

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