Applying as an International First-Year Student

When you complete your Common Application, provide us with your personal email address to make sure our messages go straight to you.

• Extracurricular Activities
  Tell us about how you spend your time outside the classroom and why it’s important to you.

• Essay and Two Short Answers
  Your personal essay and short answers give us the chance to hear your voice and see you as a whole person, not just a student. When you respond, we hope you’ll be yourself and sound like yourself.

• Global Opportunities
  This section of your application is optional.
  In addition to considering applicants for fall enrollment, we are looking for students who want to go abroad before enrolling at Carolina through either the Global Gap Year Fellowship or Carolina Global Launch. If you’d like to be considered for either, indicate your interest in your application.
• Honors Carolina and Special Opportunities
  This section of your application is optional.
  You can express interest in a range of special opportunities including Honors Carolina, assured enrollment in professional or dual-degree programs.
• Application Fee or Fee Waiver
  The non-refundable application fee is $85, and if you can’t pay the fee right now, please talk with your school counselor about asking us to waive it. The bottom line: whether you apply with a fee or a waiver, we’ll be grateful to receive your application, and we’ll consider you with care, appreciation, and respect.

• Letter of Recommendation
  This letter should come from a secondary school teacher who taught you in a core academic area, like English, math, science, social science, or world language.

• Official Transcript
  Please ask your school to send us your official transcript, including an official English translation, by secure electronic delivery. To be considered for admission, we need the official transcript for your secondary (and, if applicable, higher secondary) schoolwork. Middle school transcripts are not required for admission.

• Secondary School Official Report
  You’ll need to submit a statement from an official at your secondary school – often a university counselor, advisor, or headmaster. This report cannot come from a private counseling company or agent.
  
• College and University Courses
  If you’ve taken courses for credit at a college or university, you are required to report them on your application and include the specific courses and grades in the UNC supplement, but you don’t need to send official transcripts when applying. If you’re admitted and choose to enroll, we’ll need official transcripts for these courses along with your final high school transcript before you begin classes at Carolina.

• SAT or ACT Scores
  On May 23, 2024, the Board of Governors of the UNC System updated the minimum admissions requirements to apply to any of the UNC System constituent institutions.
  • For students applying for the 2024-2025 academic year, students are not required to submit a test score.
  • For students applying for the 2025-2026 academic year, students with a weighted GPA of 2.8 or above (on a 4.0 scale) are not required to submit a test score. Students with a weighted GPA below 2.8 (on a 4.0 scale) are required to submit either an ACT or SAT score.
  • For students applying for the 2026-2027 academic year and beyond, students with a weighted GPA of 2.8 or above (on a 4.0 scale) are not required to submit a test score. Students with a weighted GPA below 2.8 (on a 4.0 scale) are required to submit either an ACT score of 17 or higher or an SAT score of 930 or higher.
• For the full UNC System policy, please visit www.northcarolina.edu/students/admission/.
• Most successful applicants (domestic and international) to Carolina have very strong grades in their core academic coursework and have well above a B+ average in their courses. If your school does not provide a weighted GPA on a 4.0 scale, but you have above a B+ average in your courses (weighted if applicable), you will not be required to submit an ACT or SAT. If you are an international student in a Cambridge-based or similar educational system, we consider your grades made in A-level or external exams for the purposes of this UNC System GPA-based testing requirement.
• At Carolina, testing is always one factor among many — always viewed alongside those many other factors, and never the sole or dominant reason we make our decisions. If you self-report test scores on your application, we will use those scores in your application review process, and if you are admitted, and choose to enroll, we will require that your official scores be sent directly from the testing service. If you self-report test scores from multiple testing dates, we will “superscore”, considering your highest score for each section among all of your testing dates.
  
• English Proficiency Exams
  If you do not hold U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status, we’ll ask you to share your English proficiency exam scores when you apply. We accept TOEFL (our code is C182), IELTS, Duolingo, Cambridge English C1 Advanced and Cambridge C2 Proficiency. These exams show us that you’ll be ready to jump into coursework taught in English. Strong applicants typically score the following, though please note that these are not minimums and testing is always one factor among many, and never the sole or dominant reason we make our decisions:
  • TOEFL or TOEFL iBT Home Edition –  100 or higher.
  • IELTS Academic – 7.5 or higher.
  • Duolingo – 130 or higher.
  • Cambridge English C1 Advanced – 185 or higher.
  • Cambridge English C2 Proficiency.