Application Update -- Updated December 15

To all of our applicants, we thank you for your patience while we continue to carefully review our mail and attach all of your supplemental materials to your applications. We write today to give you an update on our progress.

As of yesterday at 5 p.m., we have reviewed 99 percent of our 14,000 first-deadline applications for completeness and we have forwarded nearly 12,000 applications to our admissions committee to be read. We are enjoying reading your applications and getting to know you.

If your missing items were sent to us on or after December 7, there is no need to send them again or call about them at this time. If the missing items were sent to us before December 7, we apologize that we must ask you to send them to us again. However, if you sent your missing items through Naviance, Docufide or CFNC, and your To-Do still shows these items as missing, please contact us and we will assist you.

If we have not received your missing items by December 23, 2010, the admissions committee will review your application on the basis of the information that is available and may, at its discretion, either deny your application for admission or withdraw your application from further consideration.

Please remember that school transcripts must be official copies received through electronic transmission or by mail; all other items may be emailed to uncsubmit@admissions.unc.edu or faxed to (919) 843-2326. Please be sure all correspondence includes your full name and your birth date.

For the latest on your application status, please continue to check MyUNC and this blog.

We appreciate your interest in us and your diligence in preparing and submitting your applications. We also appreciate your patience during this busy time. As a reminder, we plan to post decisions for first-deadline candidates with completed applications on MyUNC on January 21, 2011, with paper letters landing about the same time or shortly thereafter.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. You may email or call us at (919) 966-3621.

Congratulations to Our New Rhodes Scholars!

Carolina seniors Laurence Deschamps-Laporte and Steven Paul Shorkey Jr. have won Rhodes Scholarships, the world’s oldest and best known awards for graduate study. Since the Rhodes program began in 1904, Carolina has produced 47 Rhodes Scholars so far. This year marks the seventh time that Carolina has had two Rhodes winners in the same year – and the third year in a row.

Updated: With Rhodes districts reporting Sunday (Nov. 21): Among all research universities, Carolina ranks fifth in the number of Rhodes Scholars in the last five years, behind only Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton. Over the last 10 years, Carolina is tied for sixth, with the U.S. Military Academy and Duke University. In the last five, 10 and 25 years, Carolina has produced more Rhodes Scholars than any other U.S. public university.

Read more.

What We're Doing and Why It Takes Time

So far this year more than 14,000 students have chosen to apply to Carolina. We’re honored by the interest of these students and humbled by their achievements and potential. If you’re one of them, we’re grateful to you.

A lot happens between the time you hit the Submit button and the time we read your application. First we review what you sent us to make sure that everything came across intact. Then we match your application with the credentials – transcripts, counselor statements, recommendations, test scores – that others have sent us on your behalf. As we connect your credentials with your application, we check them off your to-do list.

All of this takes some time, not least because our applications, and the credentials that accompany them, tend to come to us more or less at once. This year 9,000 students applied within a week of our November deadline; their credentials came rushing right behind. The combined effect is sort of like a thousand owl-borne letters flying through the chimney of number four, Privet Drive.

We’ve made good progress in the two weeks since the deadline. As of 5 pm on Friday, we’d reviewed 11,000 applications for completeness – three fourths of the total and double the number we’d reviewed by last year on the same date. We’d also forwarded 5,200 applications to our admissions committee to be read – also twice as many compared to last year.

We still have plenty of work in front of us. For example, we think it will take us at least until December 8 to sort, scan, and match all the mail we’ve received through today. If you check your to-do list and see that something’s missing, and if you know that the credential has already been sent, please don’t resend it just yet; if it’s not connected to your application by December 8, you’ll have several other chances to see that it finds its way home.

We’re lucky to have great students at Carolina – and the interest of other great students who’re thinking about joining us. I promise you we don’t take your interest for granted. And I promise we will give you every reasonable chance to make sure that your application is complete.

In the meantime, thank you for your patience, and thank you for choosing Carolina.

--Stephen Farmer

Chat with Business Majors Tomorrow

Interested in learning more about studying business at Carolina? Join us tomorrow for an online chat with students in the BSBA program in the Kenan-Flagler Business School. You can get all your questions answered--about the curriculum, internships and other real-world experiences, study abroad programs, career placement, and more.

We'll also be available to discuss Assured Enrollment in Business.

Click here to join us online tomorrow (11/18) from 7:00 until 8:30 pm Eastern Time. We look forward to chatting with you!

International Education Week

It's International Education Week, so there are a lot of exciting events happening across campus that celebrate and promote global awareness. With more than 35% of undergraduates choosing to study abroad and a very active global education center here on campus, Carolina offers many opportunities for students to explore the world.

Check out the full listing of on-campus events taking place. I'm definitely planning to check out the exhibition of student study abroad photography in the FedEx Center. There are also a number of interesting lectures, films, and performances planned.

The U.S. Dept of Education has a Global IQ Quiz online, in case you want to test out your own knowledge of the world!

Update on Application Materials

To all of our applicants, thank you for your interest in Carolina. We look forward to reading your application and learning more about you.

We also thank you for arranging to have your supplemental materials sent to us. Whether these items have been submitted electronically or through the mail, you may monitor their status by viewing your To-Do List in MyUNC. As materials arrive and are added to your application, we will update this list.

We ask your patience as we work to assemble your application materials. Please note that it may take 4-6 weeks for your To-Do List to be updated. If we find that we are missing any critical items, we will be in touch with you. Please continue to monitor your MyUNC account for updates. For the latest information from our office, please visit the Admissions Blog.

Again, thank you for your interest in Carolina. If you have any questions, or if we may assist you in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Extraordinary Opportunity: Assured Enrollment in Journalism

When you apply to Carolina, you're automatically considered for a number of special opportunities. In addition to merit scholarships and the Honors Program, we also consider you for programs that match incoming students with some of exciting opportunities that exist on this campus.

We recently posted about Assured Enrollment in Business, and today we're focusing on a similar program we offer for students interested in Journalism. Carolina students generally apply to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication during their second year of study at Carolina. Each year, however, a select group of outstanding first-year students are offered assured enrollment in the undergraduate program in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication--widely acclaimed as one of the best such programs in the nation.

Students who are chosen for the program take two special first-year seminars focusing on journalism. In this way, students are able to start exploring their interest in journalism from the first day they step on campus. There's no obligation to pursue journalism if students' interests lead them elsewhere--they're always free to choose another major if they wish.

All applicants are considered for this program just by applying for admission--there's no separate application required.

Read more about Assured Enrollment in Journalism.

Explore the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Thank You for Your Patience

*Update: 4:34 pm: We are experiencing very high call volume, so we appreciate your patience. If you are unable to reach us, please remember you can continue to check this blog, our website, Ask Admissions, and our Application FAQs. You may find the answer to your questions about our first deadline in these resources. Again, we apologize for any delay you experience when trying to reach us on the phone.*

To all of our applicants (and anyone else) who is trying to reach us by telephone today, we apologize for the delay. Given the approach of our deadline, we are experiencing an unusually high call volume, and as a result, callers may be on hold a little longer than usual.

For an immediate answer to your question, you may find it useful to check Ask Admissions or the Application FAQs posted below.

If your question is not time-sensitive, you may also email us. We generally respond to most emails within 2 business days.

We appreciate your interest in Carolina, and we thank you for your patience.

Online Application Will Be Down Today from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.

*Update 10:07 am: We're pleased to report that our online application system is available again. Thank you for your patience; please continue to check this blog for the latest information from our office.*

We apologize for the inconvenience, but we will be taking down our online application system from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. today (November 1) for maintenance. For the latest information from our office, please continue to visit this blog.

As a reminder, if you have chosen our first deadline and your application is submitted (or postmarked if you are using our paper application) by today, November 1, at 11:59 p.m. ET (10:59 p.m. Central Time; 9:59 p.m. Mountain Time; 8:59 p.m. Pacific Time) you will be considered for our first deadline. Be sure to send the other required items as soon as possible; they may be submitted soon after the November 1 deadline.

We thank you for your patience and your interest in Carolina.

Frequently Asked Questions For Applicants

To all of our applicants, thank you very much. We appreciate all of your hard work to prepare and submit your completed applications. We look forward to reading your application and getting to know you. As a reminder, our first deadline for first-year admission (November 1) is quickly approaching.

To help, please see the list of FAQs regarding our application below. We will be updating these as necessary.

What browser will I need to use the online application?
Please see Technical Requirements for more information.

I sent in my materials, but my To-Do List hasn’t been updated.
Please be aware that application submission is at its peak, and our records managers are very busy preparing all applications and materials for review. Over the next few weeks, if we find that we are missing any item from your application, we will be in touch with you through email to let you know.

Please also be aware that if you have chosen our first deadline and your application was submitted (or postmarked if you are using our paper application) by November 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET (10:59 p.m. Central Time; 9:59 p.m. Mountain Time; 8:59 p.m. Pacific Time) you will be considered for our first deadline. Be sure to send the other required items as soon as possible; they may be submitted soon after the November 1 deadline.

I submitted a CFNC application, but it is not showing up on MyUNC.
Please note that it may take 4-6 weeks for your MyUNC to be updated with your CFNC application and for your application materials to be removed from your To-Do list. We apologize for any inconvenience.

How do I submit the Teacher Recommendation or the Counselor Statement?
If you apply using Carolina's online application online, you will be asked to provide the e-mail address of the teacher and counselor who will write a letter of recommendation on your behalf. We will then e-mail your teacher and counselor with easy-to-follow instructions.

If your teacher or counselor would rather submit a paper form or if you submit a paper application, please complete the applicant portion of the Teacher Recommendation and Counselor Statement forms and give them, along with an envelope, to your teacher and counselor. We require only one teacher recommendation and find one letter to be sufficient. If you have extenuating circumstances and plan to provide more than one letter of recommendation, we urge you to include all letters in one envelope. While we can confirm that we have received a letter of recommendation on your behalf, we regret that we cannot confirm the name of the teacher who submitted a paper recommendation.

Please note that CFNC applicants will not be prompted for an email address for teacher recommendation letters or counselor statements. Please download the forms as noted above.

I didn’t meet the November 1 deadline. What do I do next?
If you did not submit your application by our deadline November 1, you will automatically be considered for our second deadline. Please just be sure to submit your application by January 18. There is no need to contact us. You will then receive your decision by the end of March.

I selected Deadline 2, but I submitted my application by the November 1 deadline. May I be considered for Deadline 1?
Please email us to request that your deadline be changed. You will then receive your decision by the end of January.

Can I print out my application?
When you get to the submit page of your application, you will be able to view a report of your application before you confirm that your application is ready to be submitted. When viewing the application report, please use your mouse to right-click on the application, and choose the option to “Print.”

I had a problem when paying my application fee. May I go back and pay my fee online?
If you applied online and had problems with your payment, you may go back and update your application fee payment as follows. (We are sorry that this feature is not available for CFNC applicants.):

1. Log back into your MyUNC account. Click on your "My Application" link.
2. Click Continue on the page that indicates you have attempted to pay your fee.
3. Click the "Pay by Check" option. Note that the Credit Card option does not appear.
4. To pay by credit card, close your current webpage and repeat steps 2 and 3
5. The Credit Card payment option should be available now.

Do I need to complete a North Carolina residency form?
When you complete our online application, you will be prompted to answer a few simple questions that in most cases will fulfill our requirements for determining residency. If not, you will be prompted to select and complete an additional form when you submit your application. However, if you are not prompted for additional residency information, there is no need for you to submit it.

I started the first-year application, but I meant to start the transfer application. How do I change this?
Please email us and we will assist you.

I don't see my question posted here.
While we strive to do our best to update this page frequently, if you don't see an answer to any question you may have, please be sure to check this blog for the very latest updates from our office. For general questions about applying and Carolina, please also visit Ask Admissions. Regardless, no matter what question you may have, please don't hesitate to email or call us at (919) 966-3621.

Financial Certificate Update

*Update 10/29/10: The Financial Certificate is now available. If we require this form, it will appear on your To-Do List within your MyUNC account. Please note that this form does not need to be submitted prior to the deadline. Thank you!*

To all of our international applicants, we’re sorry for the delay in posting our financial certificate online. We hope to have it available very soon. We will email all of our international applicants as soon as we post it online. In the meantime, please know that if you are planning to apply for admission for our first deadline, the certificate may arrive after the deadline as long as you have submitted your application by November 1.

Thank you for your patience. Please let us know if we may assist you in any way.

First Deadline is Approaching!

Hard to believe but our first deadline for first-year admission, November 1, is just a week and a half away. If you're considering applying, I really encourage you to get your application in by our first deadline. Why, you ask?

1. It’s really not that hard to meet the deadline. You’ve still got 10 days. And the only thing that you need to have submitted by November 1 is the application itself, your essays, and the application fee. It’s fine if your transcripts, test scores, and recommendations arrive after the deadline. Also, keep in mind that any test scores from tests you take in November will be considered with your application, even if you are applying for the first deadline. So really, it’s just those pesky essays. Buckle down and get them done. You’ll be glad you did.
2. More chance for scholarships. The earlier you get your application in, the more time we’ll have to consider you for merit scholarships. Some scholarships require that you apply by the first deadline. Others don’t require it, but it gives the selection committees more time to do their work. This isn’t a hard and fast rule; plenty of scholarships are awarded to second-deadline applicants. Definitely do your research about all the different scholarships available, both through the University and from outside sources. But for the best chance of being considered for the greatest number of scholarships, it's best to apply by November 1.
3. You don’t want to spend your winter holiday filling out applications. I mean, who would? And if you’re applying to a lot of schools, it’s at least one application that you won’t have to worry about while you’re stuffed with holiday turkey.

Questions? Please let us know. We hope to see your application soon!

Extraordinary Opportunity: Assured Enrollment in Business

Over the next few weeks we'll be highlighting a few of the many extraordinary opportunities that Carolina offers to outstanding students. Today we're focusing on assured enrollment in the BSBA program in the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Students at Carolina who want to earn undergraduate degrees in business administration normally apply to the BSBA program during their sophomore years. Each year, however, approximately 40 admitted first-year applicants are offered assured enrollment in the BSBA program.

These students still spend their first two years immersed deeply in the arts and sciences, as do all our students. And they're not obligated to pursue the BSBA degree if their interests lead them elsewhere.

Given the high quality of the BSBA program at Carolina, this is a great opportunity. And like almost all of the opportunities we offer to first-year candidates, there's no special application for this one; if you apply for first-year admission, you'll automatically be considered.

Read more about assured enrollment in business.

Our Newest Transfer Students

We recently posted some details about the first-year class that joined us this fall, but we also wanted to give you some more information about the students who joined our sophomore and junior classes as transfer students. These students bring a variety of perspectives and backgrounds to Carolina, and our community is all the stronger because of it.

Transfer Applications to the College of Arts and Sciences for Fall 2010:
2,929 applied
1,189 were admitted
823 enrolled

Of those who enrolled:
71% enrolled as sophomores and 28% enrolled as juniors
52% are female, 48% are male
23% are first-generation college students

The average college GPA for enrolling sophomores was 3.38 and the average SAT (CR+M) was 1230. The average college GPA for enrolling juniors was 3.29 and the average SAT was 1172.

If you're considering applying to Carolina as a transfer student, I encourage you to check out Jacob's posts over on Tar Heel Blog. Jacob joined us as a sophomore transfer student last year, and has since been writing about his experiences here at Carolina. If you have questions about what life is like at Carolina from a transfer student's perspective, he is always happy to respond to your comments.

Visit Us on Facebook

For the latest updates from our office, you can always visit this blog, but starting today, you can also keep in touch with us by becoming a fan of our new Facebook page. As a fan, you may also comment on our posts and upload your favorite Carolina photos. Help us get it started by visiting today.

Helping Students Find Their Way to College

Four years ago, thanks to a grant from a wonderful organization called the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, our office launched the Carolina College Advising Corps, a program that helps students find their way to colleges that will serve them well.

The Carolina Corps hires recent UNC-Chapel Hill graduates -- smart young people who want to serve and change the world -- and places them as college and financial-aid advisers in schools across North Carolina. Our advisers help students look for colleges that will be good fits for their skills, talents, and aspirations. Then they help students complete admissions and financial-aid applications, search for private scholarships, and leap over any other hurdles that might stand in the way of their enrollment. This year our advisers are serving 56 high schools with more than 10,000 graduating seniors.

The Carolina Corps is part of the National College Advising Corps -- a consortium of similar programs based at other universities across the country. The National Corps, which is also headquartered here at UNC-Chapel Hill, was featured recently in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Our advisers are amazing people, and they're very good at their jobs. And although they love Carolina, they know that their mission is to help each student find the right fit -- a place where he or she can thrive.

That's what we want for every student -- and that's what we want for you, too. Please let us know if we may help in any way. And thank you, as always, for your interest in UNC.

Carolina Students Start Record Label

Funded by a $25,000 grant from the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, two Carolina undergraduates launched their own independent record label. Read more about the birth of Vinyl Records in Endeavors, the University's journal or research and creative activity, and the Independent Weekly.

Carolina Students Honored by BusinessWeek

New Media Campaigns, a website development and consulting business started by Carolina students, has just been named as one of the nation's Top 25 companies started by people under 25.

Carolina Senior in Wall Street Journal Blog: "12 Months to Save the World"

Read the post by Emily Noonan, a Carolina senior: "12 Months to Save the World."

Our Newest Students

We offer the following statistics as a way of helping prospective students know the quality and diversity of the friends they'd find if they joined us.

As impressive as these statistics are, they can't begin to describe the true potential of the students who most recently entered Carolina -- or their character, or their heart.

They can't convey the obstacles that many of our students have overcome, or the distance they've traveled, whether real or metaphorical, in order to find their home in Chapel Hill.

They can't describe the capacity of our students for friendship -- their willingness to reach out to one another, find common cause, and work together for the good of all. They can't describe their determination to change the world.

Nor can these statistics convey how we chose these students, because we know full well that students are people, too, and that people are more than the sums of their numbers.

Still, we think this profile says something about the collective strengths of the students who've chosen Carolina -- and why we're delighted that they did.

If we may help you in any way as you search for a school that's right for you, please don't hesitate to let us know.

FALL 2010 FIRST-YEAR ADMISSIONS

Applied 23,271
Admitted 7,540 (32% of those applying; 50% of NC applicants, 20% of others)
Enrolled 3,960 (53% of those admitted; 67% of NC admits, 29% of others)

FALL 2010 ENROLLED FIRST-YEAR CLASS

Academics

1st in high-school class 7.0% (of the 81% whose schools reported rank)
2nd in high-school class 5.0%
1st-10th in high-school class 42.0%
Top 10% of high-school class 78.2%
Top 20% of high-school class 92.0%

Average high-school GPA 4.47 (of the 91% whose schools reported 4.0 GPAs)
High-school GPA of 4.0+ 89.0%

25th-75th percentiles
—SAT Critical Reading 590-700
—SAT Math 610-710
—SAT Writing 590-690
—ACT Composite 27-31

Demographics

U.S. citizens 95%
Permanent residents 3%
Non-Resident aliens 2%

Female 60%
Male 40%

First-generation college 18%

Carolina Covenant Scholars 12%

States represented 40 (excluding North Carolina and the District of Columbia)
NC counties represented 93
Countries represented 24 (excluding the United States)

Sons or daughters of UNC alumni 18%

One race or ethnicity only 91%
Two or more races 7%
No race or ethnicity reported 2%

Of those reporting one race or ethnicity only
Native American 1%
Asian/Asian American 10%
Black/African American 10%
Hispanic/Latino/Latina 3%
Pacific Islander Less than 1%

Or those reporting one or more races or ethnicities
Native American 1%
Asian/Asian American 11%
Black/African American 10%
Hispanic/Latino/Latina 7%
Pacific Islander Less than 1%

Come Meet Us on the Road!

Each fall, we travel all across the state and country (and even beyond) to speak with prospective students about Carolina. We go to college fairs; we visit high schools; we talk to parents, counselors, and students. Our staff may get a little travel-weary by the end of it, but we all love getting to know the outstanding students that we meet along the way.

So are we coming to your neck of the woods? Check out our Tar Heels in Your Town site to find out. We will be continually updating these pages as we add more events throughout the coming weeks, so please check back if you don't see your area listed.

We hope to see you in your town!

Want to Join Tar Heel Blog?

UPDATE 9/22/10: Thank you to everyone who applied for the blog this year! We have now chosen our new bloggers for the year.

We're searching for a few good writers to join us over on Tar Heel Blog. We have some big shoes to fill as Berkley, Autumn, Calvin, and Brandon have all graduated and moved on to exciting new adventures.

If you are a current student at Carolina, please consider applying to join the blog. It's a great way to reach out to prospective students and share your story with them.

So are you interested? If so, fill out the short form below. Please also email a brief writing sample to me at jsizemore@admissions.unc.edu. The writing sample can be one of your college essays or any other short piece that you feel is a good representation of your writing.

Just let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Phone Service Restored

Thanks to everyone for your patience, and best wishes for a good weekend.

Phone Service Interrupted

As of 12:15 pm Eastern time, we're experiencing problems with the phone service in our office. We've notified technical support and hope to have service restored soon.

If you're trying to reach us right now, we're sorry. Again, we're working to restore service as quickly as possible.

Transfer Essay Questions

We have finalized the essay questions for the Fall 2011 transfer application, so now if you're planning to apply as a transfer student, you can get a head start on your essay. We require just one essay for transfer applicants, and we ask that you limit your response to about 500 words.

The full transfer application will be up in September, and the deadline is March 1, 2011. We'll let you know when the application is available online.

Fall 2011 Transfer Essay Questions:

1. People find many ways to express their inner world. Some write novels; others paint, perform, or debate; still others design elegant solutions to complex mathematical problems. How do you express your inner world, and how does the world around you respond?
2. Tell us about a group project in which you had to collaborate with your peers. How did it go?
3. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received or given?
4. If you have written an essay for another school’s application that you really like, feel free to use it as your short or long essay for us. Please be sure to tell us (a) what essay you are answering and (b) why you think this essay represents you well (your explanation will not be included in the word count).

Thanks! Please let us know if you have questions.

Nursing Application is Down

We are very sorry, but due to a technical glitch, the nursing application closed prematurely. We hope to have the application back up very soon.

To give you ample time to complete your application, we will be extending the deadline until tomorrow, Wednesday, August 11 at 11:59 p.m. We will also email you as soon as the application is up again.

If you have already completed and submitted your application, you do not need to do anything else.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience. If we may assist you in any way, please let us know.

First-Year Application is Up!

The online application for Fall 2011 first-year admission is now available through your MyUNC account. (Don't have a MyUNC account yet? Well, now's a great time to create one. You'll be able to complete your application online, and we'll send you important updates throughout the year through your account.)

We've recently created a new feature on the website: Five Reasons to Apply to Carolina. Check it out. You'll learn more about our outstanding community of students, the many special opportunities that are available to first-year students, and the value of a Carolina education.

Please let us know what questions and comments you have as you begin your application. We're here to help, so just let us know how we can serve you better.

--Julie

P.S. We're planning to have the transfer application for Fall 2011 up in September, so if you're planning to apply as a transfer, stay tuned. We'll let you know when it's available. Thanks!

Enrolling Students: AP and Other Test Scores

We recently imported all test scores for enrolling first-year and transfer students, and we are working to evaluate and post the credit that students will receive with these scores. The scores are not currently available to view on your MyUNC page, but we hope to have them up soon.

If you are an enrolling student and have not yet sent us your scores, please have the testing agency send us an official score report. If you have already sent us your scores, please be patient as we review and post this credit to your account. You can view details on what placement and credit we award for test scores by visiting our Placement Credit page.

We plan to have all test score credit evaluated and posted to students’ accounts by August 13.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Update on Missing Items

Yesterday we e-mailed all enrolling students a reminder about missing credentials that are required for enrollment. We followed up with an important clarification regarding immunization records that we'll repeat here.

If your To-do list includes immunization-related items, please note that you have until 30 days after the first day of classes (August 24) to submit these forms. If you are able to provide this information prior to this date, please do so.

To make sure that your enrollment isn't jeopardized, we need to receive all other admissions credentials as soon as possible and no later than August 2. We regret that if we do not receive these materials by August 2, we will cancel your enrollment.

If you already submitted your Community Standards form to our office, please do not submit an additional form at this time. Our staff continues to process these materials and will contact you directly if anything further is needed.

If your plans have changed and you no longer wish to enroll, please contact Mr. Michael Hamilton at mhamilton@admissions.unc.edu or (919) 843-9803 as soon as possible.

We're looking forward to welcoming you to Carolina in August. In the meantime, if we may be of any help, please don't hesitate to let us know.

Thinking about Essays

In the office lately, we seem to have essays on the brain. A couple weeks ago, we posted this year’s essay questions on the blog and that always prompts interesting discussions with students and among our staff about what makes a good essay. There are, of course, varying opinions on the subject, but I’d say we all agree that the best essays help us get to know the applicant as a person. We don’t get to meet all our applicants face-to-face, so I often think of the application as an interview—it allows me to get a glimpse of the walking, talking, breathing person behind the application.

First off, the nuts and bolts of our application essays: We require two essays, one about 500 words and the other about 250 words. We get a lot of questions about essay length—do you penalize for long essays, do you count words, etc. The answer is no, we do not count words, but we do really appreciate it if you’re able to stick close to the recommended word count. We read a lot of essays, and we can tell you that a longer essay is not a better essay. In fact, the best essays are concise, with nary a word to spare.

Now, what advice would we offer to students who are sitting down to write an essay for our application? Our director offered three or four hints for the essay in a post we shared a couple years ago, which is a great place to start.

I’d add the following tips, which comes from the collective wisdom of our counselors, each of whom reads hundreds or even thousands of applications each year.

• Show us, don’t tell us. For example, rather than just telling us “I am an adventurous person,” why not show us your adventurous spirit by recounting your latest adventure with colorful details and descriptive language. Showing is always more persuasive and interesting than telling.
• Focus. Don’t try to tell your entire life story (it’s impossible), but instead think about how you can communicate one little slice of life. Can you tell a story that will illustrate one aspect of your personality? Can you zoom in on an idea that you find compelling? Can you incorporate details that will be memorable to your reader?
• Remember it doesn't have to be all about you. Some of the best essays are about people or ideas outside the writer's own life--these essays can still tell us a lot about the person who did the writing.
  
• Be concise. Don’t use 10 words when five will do the trick.
• Abandon the thesaurus. I read essays where it is very obvious that the student wrote their essay, then replaced half the words with “smarter” words they found in the thesaurus. Let us hear your voice—speak to us as you would normally speak, and don’t use words that you don’t normally use.
• Don’t feel tied to the essay prompts. Use them as jumping off places, and feel free to let your creativity and instinct take you where it may. We work hard to come up with essay prompts that will inspire students to craft an interesting essay. But if your muse leads you elsewhere, go for it.
• Instead of trying to figure out what we want to hear, ask yourself how you can portray your unique voice and personality. This is your opportunity to show us who you are, and make us want to get to know you better.

Do you have any good advice for essays? Please feel free to share your opinions, and let us know if you have questions.

-Julie

New First Year Wins Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship

We'd like to say welcome to Tyler Crews, who will be joining us this fall on a full, four-year scholarship through the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. He was chosen from among members of the foundation's Young Scholars program, which supports high-achieving, low-income students through their middle and high school years.

Learn more about the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, and read more about Tyler, who is an aspiring trauma surgeon. We're grateful that wonderful students like Tyler find their way to us, and we're also grateful for organizations like the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation that support students as they realize their dreams of going to college.

-Julie

If You're Visiting Campus Today...

Vice President Joe Biden is also visiting campus today, so please note that there will be very limited street parking in front of our office. We encourage you to use the HWY 54 visitors parking lot, which is just a short walk from the office. Vice President Biden is attending a fundraising event at the Carolina Inn this evening.

Fall 2011 Essay Questions

We're still polishing up our Fall 2011 first-year application, which we plan to make available in August, but we thought you might appreciate a sneak peek at the essay questions. So if you have a little extra time this summer, why not spend it by getting a head start on your essays? Since the deadline is still months away, the pressure is off, so try to have a little fun. You might give yourself a daily time limit--perhaps you can spend just 10 minutes each day on this task--and before you know it, you'll have completed first drafts of both essays!

We'll ask you to write one long essay (approximately 500 words) and one short essay (approximately 250 words) but it's up to you to choose which essays will be your long and short ones.

1. People find many ways to express their inner world. Some write novels; others paint, perform, or debate; still others design elegant solutions to complex mathematical problems. How do you express your inner world, and how does the world around you respond?

2. It’s easy to identify with the hero—the literary or historical figure who saves the day. Have you ever identified with a figure who wasn’t a hero—a villain or a scapegoat, a bench-warmer or a bit player? If so, tell us why this figure appealed to you—and if your opinion changed over time, tell us about that, too.

3. Carolina students conduct original research and work to solve problems in almost every imaginable field. If you could spend a semester researching a specific topic or problem, what would you choose and why?

4. Tell us about a group project in which you had to collaborate with your peers. How did it go?

5. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received or given?

6. Tell us about a recent dream. What do you think it meant?

7. In our history various people have taken stands against injustice, or what they viewed as injustice, often at great personal risk. Have you ever taken a stand against something you considered unjust—or if you haven’t, do you have an idea of what it would take for you to take such a stand? Please explain.

8. If you have written an essay for another school’s application that you really like, feel free to use it as your short or long essay for us. Please be sure to tell us (a) what essay you are answering and (b) why you think this essay represents you well (your explanation will not be included in the word count).

We look forward to reading your essays and learning more about you. And yes, we do read every essay, one at a time. Because we can't meet you in person, your essays play a vital role in helping us understand who you are, how you think, and what you might contribute to the University community. Your essays will be evaluated not only for admission, but also for possible selection for the Honors Program, merit-based scholarships, and other special opportunities for first-year students.

Happy writing!

Online Enrollment Deposit Payments Down from 6/24 - 6/28

We apologize for the inconvenience, but we wanted to let you know that students will be unable to pay their enrollment deposits online from 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 24 through Monday, June 28 at 8 a.m.

This planned outage is necessary to allow us to upgrade this system.

Thank you for patience. As always, if you have any questions, please continue to visit this blog or call us at (919) 966-3621.

Update on Final Decisions for First Year Waiting List

Starting today and continuing over the next 2 days, we will be posting the final decisions from our first-year waiting list. Students whose decisions are not posted today should check their MyUNC accounts nightly between 5 - 7 p.m. All decisions should be posted by 7 p.m. on Friday, June 18.

To view your decision:

1. Log into MyUNC.
2. Under “AS Bachelor, 2010 Fall," select “View Official Test Scores, Outstanding Items, and Application Status.”
3. Your Student Center will appear. Under Admissions, select “Click here to view your decision.

In order to view your decision, please note that, if applicable, the pop-up blocker feature on your computer must be disabled.

Internet Explorer

1. In the menu bar, go to Tools and navigate down to “Pop-up Blocker Settings.”
2. Click on “Turn-Off Pop-up Blocker.”

Google Toolbar

1. Click the Google Pop-up Blocker toolbar icon.
2. The Pop-up Blocker icon should read “Popups are okay.”

Mozilla Firefox

1. In the menu bar, go to Tools and navigate down to Options.
2. Select “Content” tab or icon.
3. Uncheck box labeled “Block pop-up windows.”

AOL

1. Click on “Blocking Pop-ups” at the bottom right corner of the AOL window.
2. Uncheck box labeled “Suppress pop-ups from websites I visit.”
3. Click “Save” button.

Yahoo Toolbar

1. Click on the Yahoo Toolbar's popup blocker icon option arrow. This arrow is pointing down beside of the popup blocker icon.
2. Click on “Enable Pop-up Blocker” to uncheck.

Chrome

1. To allow blocked pop-ups when you're already on a site, follow these steps:
2. Click the “Pop-ups Blocked” alert at the bottom right-hand corner of the browser tab.
3. Select the pop-up that you'd like to allow.
4. If you'd like, select “Always show pop-ups” from (site).

If you're using Google Chrome Beta for Windows, the site is added to the exceptions list, which you can manage in the Content Settings dialog (go to Tools menu > Options > Under the Hood to open the dialog box).

If you're using Google Chrome Beta for Windows, you can also disable the pop-up blocker completely. Follow these steps:

1. Click the “Tools” menu.
2. Select “Options.”
3. Click the “Under the Hood” tab.
4. Click Content settings in the "Privacy" section.
5. Click the “Pop-ups” tab.
6. Select "Allow all sites to show pop-ups." You can make exceptions for specific websites by clicking Exceptions.
7. Click “Close” to save your setting.

Safari

1. Open the Safari menu and select the “Preferences” option.
2. In the window that displays, click on the “Security” option.
3. Remove the checkmark from the “Block pop-up” windows option.
4. Close the window.

Or, for an older version of Safari, try

1. Open Safari
2. Click on the Safari Menu
3. Uncheck “Block Pop-Up Windows”

Thank you for your interest in Carolina. For the latest information from our office, please continue to visit this blog.

First-year Waiting List Review

Thanks to all of those first-year applicants who have accepted a place on our waiting list. We appreciate your continued interest in Carolina.


This afternoon, we posted another round of decisions for our first-year students. We may make several additional admission offers over the coming weeks, so if you did not receive a new decision today, please know that your application is still under consideration and you do not need to take any action. You will remain on the waiting list and will receive full consideration for any additional space we have in the class. All students will have a final decision by June 30 at the latest.


If you were admitted from the waiting list, you may enroll and pay your enrollment deposit on your MyUNC. Once you've enrolled, you may apply for campus housing and register for orientation (CTOPS) through your MyUNC. Additionally, if you completed your FAFSA and CSS profile by the March 1, 2010 deadline, you should receive financial aid information by June 4, 2010.


Again, we appreciate your patience and continued interest. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Community Standards Forms for Transfer Students

If you are an enrolling transfer student, please remember that your updated Community Standards form is due by June 15. This form appears on your to-do list in your MyUNC account, and you may download the form here.

Please note that when you send the form, it will not immediately disappear from your to-do list. There is no need to re-submit the form; if we need additional information we will contact you.

As part of our responsibility to ensure a safe and secure campus community, our staff reviews each Community Standards form carefully in conjunction with each student's original application for admission. This process takes time, which means that there may be some delay between our receiving your form and when it is removed from your to-do list. If any additional information is needed after this review is completed, our office will be in touch. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience during this time.

Don't Forget to Sign Up for Orientation by May 28

On behalf of the Office of New Student and Parent Programs, we'd like to remind all enrolling students to be sure and sign up for Orientation. All new first-year students are required to participate in a two-day New Student Orientation Program to learn about the Carolina curriculum, gain insight on the expectations, responsibilities, and opportunities associated with being a Tar Heel, and register for classes.

The May 28 deadline to register is quickly approaching, so if you've haven't already registered, please click here for more information on 2010 Orientation Registration, dates and fees, checklists, FAQs, placement test information, and much more.

Beyond attending Summer Orientation, all new students are encouraged to take advantage of additional orientation-related programs designed to help with the transition to Carolina and to facilitate your success on our campus. To learn more about programs and opportunities to help you transition to living and learning in the Carolina community, please read the Orientation and Beyond brochure designed just for you.

We look forward to seeing you there. For more information, please contact the Office of New Student and Parent Programs at (919) 962-8304 or by email at orientation@unc.edu.

MyUNC Maintenance

The University is running a routine maintenance on the MyUNC system this weekend, so students will not be able to create new onyens or UNC guest IDs from noon on Friday, May 14 until midnight on Sunday, May 16. Other MyUNC functions will be working normally.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

First-Year Enrollment Deadline Extension

We have extended the first-year online enrollment deposit deadline to Monday, May 3, 2010 at 9:00 am ET. To secure your enrollment at Carolina, you will need to reply to us through your MyUNC account by this date. If you are mailing your enrollment deposit and reply form, the postmark deadline is Saturday, May 1, 2010. The deadline for applicants admitted from the waiting list is Monday, May 17, 2010.

First-Year Waiting List Review Has Begun

Thanks to all of those first-year applicants who have accepted a place on our waiting list. We know that the waiting is difficult, and we really appreciate your continued interest in Carolina.

We have now begun our work of reviewing the waiting list, and this afternoon we posted new decisions for a limited number of first-year students. We may make several additional waves of admission offers over the coming weeks, so if you did not receive a new decision, please know that your application is still under consideration. Students who did not receive a new decision today do not need to take any action at this point; you will remain on the waiting list and receive full consideration for any additional spaces we have in the class. All students will have a final decision by June 30, at the latest.

Again, we truly appreciate your patience as we finalize the first-year class. Please let us know what questions you have.

Update on Transfer Decisions

We write to share the steps to view decisions for transfer applicants when they are available.

To view your decision:

1. Log into MyUNC.
2. Under “AS Bachelor, 2010 Fall," select “View Official Test Scores, Outstanding Items, and Application Status.”
3. Your Student Center will appear. Under Admissions, select “Click here to view your decision.

In order to view your decision, please note that, if applicable, the pop-up blocker feature on your computer must be disabled.

Internet Explorer

1. In the menu bar, go to Tools and navigate down to “Pop-up Blocker Settings.”
2. Click on “Turn-Off Pop-up Blocker.”

Google Toolbar

1. Click the Google Pop-up Blocker toolbar icon.
2. The Pop-up Blocker icon should read “Popups are okay.”

Mozilla Firefox

1. In the menu bar, go to Tools and navigate down to Options.
2. Select “Content” tab or icon.
3. Uncheck box labeled “Block pop-up windows.”

AOL

1. Click on “Blocking Pop-ups” at the bottom right corner of the AOL window.
2. Uncheck box labeled “Suppress pop-ups from websites I visit.”
3. Click “Save” button.

Yahoo Toolbar

1. Click on the Yahoo Toolbar's popup blocker icon option arrow. This arrow is pointing down beside of the popup blocker icon.
2. Click on “Enable Pop-up Blocker” to uncheck.

Chrome

1. To allow blocked pop-ups when you're already on a site, follow these steps:
2. Click the “Pop-ups Blocked” alert at the bottom right-hand corner of the browser tab.
3. Select the pop-up that you'd like to allow.
4. If you'd like, select “Always show pop-ups” from (site).

If you're using Google Chrome Beta for Windows, the site is added to the exceptions list, which you can manage in the Content Settings dialog (go to Tools menu > Options > Under the Hood to open the dialog box).

If you're using Google Chrome Beta for Windows, you can also disable the pop-up blocker completely. Follow these steps:

1. Click the “Tools” menu.
2. Select “Options.”
3. Click the “Under the Hood” tab.
4. Click Content settings in the "Privacy" section.
5. Click the “Pop-ups” tab.
6. Select "Allow all sites to show pop-ups." You can make exceptions for specific websites by clicking Exceptions.
7. Click “Close” to save your setting.

Safari

1. Open the Safari menu and select the “Preferences” option.
2. In the window that displays, click on the “Security” option.
3. Remove the checkmark from the “Block pop-up” windows option.
4. Close the window.

Or, for an older version of Safari, try

1. Open Safari
2. Click on the Safari Menu
3. Uncheck “Block Pop-Up Windows”

Thank you for your interest in Carolina. For the latest information from our office, please continue to visit this blog.

Event Pages Temporarily Down

Please note that the event section of MyUNC is temporarily down, so admitted students do not currently have access to their event invitations. We're working on the issue, and should have it resolved very soon. Thanks for your patience!

Update on Decisions - How to View Your Decision

We write to share the steps to view decisions when they are available.

To view your decision:

1. Log into MyUNC.
2. Under “AS Bachelor, 2010 Fall," select “View Official Test Scores, Outstanding Items, and Application Status.”
3. Your Student Center will appear. Under Admissions, select “Click here to view your decision.

In order to view your decision, please note that, if applicable, the pop-up blocker feature on your computer must be disabled.

Internet Explorer

1. In the menu bar, go to Tools and navigate down to “Pop-up Blocker Settings.”
2. Click on “Turn-Off Pop-up Blocker.”

Google Toolbar

1. Click the Google Pop-up Blocker toolbar icon.
2. The Pop-up Blocker icon should read “Popups are okay.”

Mozilla Firefox

1. In the menu bar, go to Tools and navigate down to Options.
2. Select “Content” tab or icon.
3. Uncheck box labeled “Block pop-up windows.”

AOL

1. Click on “Blocking Pop-ups” at the bottom right corner of the AOL window.
2. Uncheck box labeled “Suppress pop-ups from websites I visit.”
3. Click “Save” button.

Yahoo Toolbar

1. Click on the Yahoo Toolbar's popup blocker icon option arrow. This arrow is pointing down beside of the popup blocker icon.
2. Click on “Enable Pop-up Blocker” to uncheck.

Chrome

1. To allow blocked pop-ups when you're already on a site, follow these steps:
2. Click the “Pop-ups Blocked” alert at the bottom right-hand corner of the browser tab.
3. Select the pop-up that you'd like to allow.
4. If you'd like, select “Always show pop-ups” from (site).

If you're using Google Chrome Beta for Windows, the site is added to the exceptions list, which you can manage in the Content Settings dialog (go to Tools menu > Options > Under the Hood to open the dialog box).

If you're using Google Chrome Beta for Windows, you can also disable the pop-up blocker completely. Follow these steps:

1. Click the “Tools” menu.
2. Select “Options.”
3. Click the “Under the Hood” tab.
4. Click Content settings in the "Privacy" section.
5. Click the “Pop-ups” tab.
6. Select "Allow all sites to show pop-ups." You can make exceptions for specific websites by clicking Exceptions.
7. Click “Close” to save your setting.

Safari

1. Open the Safari menu and select the “Preferences” option.
2. In the window that displays, click on the “Security” option.
3. Remove the checkmark from the “Block pop-up” windows option.
4. Close the window.

Or, for an older version of Safari, try

1. Open Safari
2. Click on the Safari Menu
3. Uncheck “Block Pop-Up Windows”

Thank you for your interest in Carolina. For the latest information from our office, please continue to visit this blog.

MyUNC is Currently Down

We’re sorry to report that MyUNC is currently down. We apologize for the inconvenience; please know that we are working to restore service as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience. For the latest information, please stay tuned to this blog.

MyUNC Still Experiencing Technical Issues

**Update: We're still working on resolving this issue. While many students should be able to fully access their MyUNC pages, students who log on with their ONYEN may not be able to view their test scores and decision letter. We should have this fixed very soon.
-Julie--Wed, 5:42 pm**

We're very sorry for the continued inconvenience but we've just learned that MyUNC is still not working properly and some students are not able to access their events, To-Do list, and other information.

We're working to address these issues and we hope to have them corrected very soon.

Please stay posted for the latest information. We'll post it here first.

MyUNC Technical Issue is Now Fixed

We're glad to report that the technical error on MyUNC is now fixed. After logging in, students should be able to once again view their "To-do" lists, test scores, events and other items in their account.

Thank you for your patience. Please continue to check this blog for the latest updates.

Admitted Student Access to MyUNC

Understandably, there has been some confusion among admitted students on how to access MyUNC. We can understand your confusion and we hope that this post will help explain the transition from your Guest ID to your ONYEN.

When you applied to Carolina and first created your MyUNC account, you did so with your email address, what became your Guest ID.

Now that you are admitted, you need to create your ONYEN (or Only Name You'll Ever Need), which is not only your user name for your UNC computer account but also serves as your unique identifier for access to important UNC services such as financial aid and housing.

To create your ONYEN, please visit onyen.unc.edu, and click on “Create An Onyen.” You will then be prompted to enter your last name and your Personal Identification Number (or PID). After entering this information, you will be immediately presented with an ONYEN, and you will be given the opportunity to modify it (if you choose) and to create a confidential password.

Please note that your UNC Guest ID (the username you used when applying for admission) will expire after your ONYEN is created. Once you create your ONYEN you will only be able to access MyUNC with your ONYEN.

Using your ONYEN and password, you may now log into onyen.unc.edu and manage your UNC email account (create an easy-to-remember alias or change your password, for example). You may access your email by clicking on “Webmail” at this same site or by visiting mail.unc.edu. Check your UNC email account regularly because from this point forward, the University will communicate with you through this new account.

If you experience any technical difficulties creating or using your ONYEN, the UNC Help Desk will happily assist you. You may contact them at (919) 962-HELP (4357) or through email at help@unc.edu.

And as always, if we can help in any way, please feel free to contact us.

MyUNC Outage on March 2

Please note that MyUNC will be down for routine maintenance on Tuesday, March 2 from 12:30 a.m. until 6:00 a.m. EST.

Please also note that transfer applicants must submit their applications by 11:59 p.m. EST on March 1.

We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions, or if we may help you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us at 919-966-3621 or through email.

Midyear Grades Deadline Extended to 2/26

In light of school closings caused by winter weather throughout the Northeast, we are extending the deadline for the submission of midyear grades until February 26, at 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

Last night we sent out an email to all students who are required to submit their grades informing them of the deadline change. Please note that if you have already submitted your midyear grades, we thank you, and no action is necessary is necessary on your part.

If you have received your grades but haven’t yet reported them to us through your MyUNC page, we urge you to follow these steps by February 26:

1. Log into MyUNC with your Guest ID, which is your personal email address.


2. View your "To-do" List.


3. Click on the "Midyear grades" link in your "To-do List," and follow the online instructions.

Once you submit your grades, the “Midyear grades” link will be removed from your To-do List.

If your midyear grades are not available until after February 26, please report your first-quarter or first-trimester grades instead. Please do not ask your guidance counselor to submit your grades on your behalf. Instead, we require that you report accurate and complete grades online.

If you have courses in progress, please enter "course in progress" in the explanation box. If you have numeric grades, simply enter the equivalent letter grade for each course based on your own school’s grading scale. In addition, please enter the actual grade that you earned in the explanation box beneath your grade.

As a reminder, all second-deadline candidates are required to submit their first-semester or first-trimester grades using this form, as are all first-deadline candidates who have been admitted or deferred.

If you have any questions, please contact us at unchelp@admissions.unc.edu or call us at 919-966-3621 during our working hours of Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

Midyear Grade Form Update -- The Latest

Thanks to all of you for your feedback on the midyear grade form. We are continuing to review your comments and working to resolve any outstanding issues. Additionally, we are also working to make the form more flexible to cover special circumstances.

We know that many of you have successfully entered your grades and selected “certify” and “submit.” In some cases, the midyear grades item is still showing up in the To-do list. If this has happened to you, we apologize. Please rest assured that we have your grades and we are working to resolve this issue.

Again, thank you for the feedback and your diligence in reporting your grades to us so promptly.

Update on Midyear Grade Report Form

We write to thank the many students who have begun reporting their midyear grades to us. We apologize for any confusion that our form may have created.

Unfortunately, we've discovered a minor glitch. For students with courses in progress or students who are adding courses, the form is requiring grades. If this situation applies to you, please select "pass" as your grade and type "course in progress" in the explanation box below your grade.

Many of you who have started entering your grades have posted some excellent questions. We hope that these answers will help you; if not, please let us know.

For those of you with numeric grades, simply enter the equivalent letter grade for each course based on your own school’s grading scale. In addition, please enter the actual grade that you earned in the explanation box beneath your grade. Note: If your school does not use pluses or minuses, it is not necessary to attempt to calculate this notation.

For security purposes, you are required to update your password every 3 months. If it has been this long since you created your Guest ID, you must update your password before you may access your account and enter your grades.

If you worked as a Teacher's Aide or took an equivalent non-graded course, please simply type "pass" for your grade and then enter explanatory text in the box below your grade such as "Served as Teacher's Aide."

If you have entered your grades, please note that you must select “certify” to complete this task. If you intend to return to the form, please select “save and return.” If you have inadvertently completed this task but wish to update your grades before February 19, please contact us and we will make the form available again in your To-do list.

As a reminder, all second-deadline candidates are required to submit their first-semester or first-trimester grades using this form, as are all first-deadline candidates who have been admitted or deferred.

If you have any questions, please email us at or call us at 919-966-3621 during our working hours of Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

Midyear Grade Form Now Available

Our midyear grades form is now available for students to submit their grades to us online.

As a reminder, all second-deadline candidates are required to submit their first-semester or first-trimester grades using this form, as are all first-deadline candidates who have been admitted or deferred.

If you are required to submit your grades, please follow these steps by February 19:

1. Log into MyUNC with your Guest ID, which is your personal email address.


2. View your "To-do" List.


3. Click on the "Midyear grades" link in your "To-do List," and follow the online instructions.

As a follow up, we're also sending an email with these same instructions to all students who are required to submit their grades.

Please note that if your midyear grades are not available until after February 19, please report your first-quarter or first-trimester grades instead. Please do not ask your guidance counselor to submit your grades on your behalf. Instead, we require that you report accurate and complete grades online.

If you have any questions, please email us at or call us at 919-966-3621 during our working hours of Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

Honors Program

Dr. Meredith is back, this time to describe how students are invited to join the Honors Program at Carolina, as well as how you can get involved even if we're not able to invite you to join the program as a first-year student.

Hello again, It is that time of the year when we start fielding questions about the Honors Program. Invitations were mailed early last week, and most students should have received them by now. Just as I did earlier with merit-based scholarships, I’d like to provide some information about the selection of Honors Program invitees and what that means for the students invited and those not invited.

In my earlier post, I described how the Admissions Committee reviews about 13,000 applications for each of our two deadlines. From this pool, we identify about 600 students per deadline for a faculty committee to review. This committee selects about 300 students to be invited to join the Honors Program in their first semester. At no point in this review are we making decisions based on your SAT, class rank or other numerical values. Your essays and recommendation letters are really the focal point. I won’t repeat my “mental wrestler” description but that’s what we’re looking for. As you can see, it is very competitive and in reality, a great number of very bright students are not invited to join the program in their first semester.

What does all of this mean? If you receive an invitation to join Honors, you will need to either accept the invitation or decline by notifying the Honors Program of your decision. If you accept the invitation, you will be contacted by the Honors Program about selecting classes, advising options and other opportunities and responsibilities.

If you were among the 4,000 admitted students who were not invited, do not despair. If you choose to come to Carolina, and we certainly hope you do, you will have the opportunity to do some amazing things that are not contingent on membership in the Honors Program.

• You can take a First Year Seminar with one of the top faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill. These classes are small, discussion-based seminars that allow for in-depth examination of the subject matter.
  
• You can participate in a connected learning community through the good folks in Housing.
• Get involved in undergraduate research EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT INTERESTED IN SCIENCE!!
  
• Take a couple of Honors classes. What? Yep, anyone with a 3.0 GPA can take an Honors class and about 1/3 of the seats in most Honors classes are actually students not in the Honors Program.
• Go see the world through our top ranked study abroad program
  
• Create your own study abroad program through the Burch Fellows program.
• Graduate with Honors. Work closely with a faculty mentor in your department to complete a senior thesis and you’ll graduate with Honors from Carolina.

And I’m not even close to being done. Hopefully you can see that there are plenty of exciting, rewarding experiences awaiting you at Carolina. If you find yourself still wanting to join the Honors Program you can apply after your first or second semester. Just contact the Honors Program for more information about that option.

Hopefully this helps clarify the whole invited vs. not invited situation. Not getting an Honors invitation is not a commentary on your value to us nor is it an indication that you were not worthy. Just as we don’t have room in the first year class for all of the outstanding students who apply, we don’t have room in the Honors Program for all of the amazing students who are admitted each year. Come to Carolina and experience all that we have to offer.

-David Meredith

Update on Midyear Grades

As you know, we had planned to make our midyear grade form available today. Unfortunately, we are experiencing technical difficulties with the form and are not yet ready to accept midyear grades.

We are working to make the form available as soon as possible. If we require your midyear grades, we will email you as soon as the form is available with complete instructions.

As a reminder, all second-deadline candidates are required to submit their first-semester or first-trimester grades using this form, as are all first-deadline candidates who have been admitted or deferred.

We thank you for your patience, and we encourage you to keep visiting this blog for the latest updates.

New Math Doesn't Quite Add Up

Yesterday morning the New York Times ran a story, "The New Math on Campus," which claims that the percentages of men and women at Carolina and many other colleges and universities are "skewing" something the story calls "dating culture."

I'm reluctant to complain about this story, because the reporter seemed like a nice guy when I talked with him, and because he no doubt has a tough and thankless job, especially nowadays. Still, I think the story gets a few things wrong.

The first is that this "new" math isn't so new. As I told the reporter, the percentages of men and women in the entering class at Carolina haven't changed for nearly thirty years. If these percentages are "new," then they're new in the way that, say, cable television or microwave popcorn is new. I'm waiting for the next big headline: Orville Redenbacher Is Changing How We Snack.

The second is that "dating culture," from what I can tell, has been skewed and on the skids for a pretty long time. My friends who have college-aged sons and daughters sometimes express amazement at the apparent dearth of dating at the schools their children attend. But the only thing amazing is their amazement, because dating on college campuses, regardless of the male-female ratio, has been dead for a long time. At the college I attended thirty years ago, which was then split evenly between men and women, most students seemed to date roughly once a year, and then only when a formal forced their hand.

The third thing that seemed off to me about this story -- and I'm just going to state this as an impression -- is that the students who were quoted don't sound much like the ones I know here at Carolina. Our students, men and women both, have too much going on, and too much going for them, to spend too much time time agonizing over whether Mr. or Ms. Right is right around the corner. They're too busy using the precious few years they have in Chapel Hill to do what matters most to them: study hard; serve humanity; solve the world's problems.

If you visit us and talk with these students, I'm guessing they'll tell you they lead happy, full, and meaningful lives. They're doing what they feel called to do in the world -- and they're doing it alongside classmates, men and women both, whom they like and admire and respect.

That's the real story here at Carolina -- and although it's not a new one, either, I think it's worth repeating.
____________________________________

This morning's Daily Tar Heel features the following reactions from students:

“I think in general the ratio is skewed, but the implications about dating are not true.”
Kelli Daffron, senior pychology and anthropology major

“I think it’s a little over-the-top. I think of Carolina girls as classier than that.”
Emily Noonan, junior business major

“I’m embarrassed by the things in that article. It’s dis-empowering, to say the least. It reduces dating to numbers.”
John Reitz, senior English and drama major

“That’s not the image we need to be portraying. Those quotes are really demeaning to women.”
Jordan Swain, senior communications studies major

Submit Midyear Grades Online Beginning Monday

Our new midyear grade form will be available on MyUNC beginning on Monday, February 8. All second-deadline candidates will need to submit their first-semester or first-trimester grades using this form, as will all first-deadline candidates who have been admitted or deferred.

To submit your midyear grades beginning on Monday, please log into MyUNC and view your To-Do list. Click on the "Midyear grades" link in your To-Do List, and follow the online instructions.

We had originally planned to deploy this form today but are postponing its debut because of planned maintenance of the ConnectCarolina system this weekend. We also want to make sure we deploy the form during our normal office hours so that we can help students with any problems they might experience.

Update for First-Deadline Applicants Awaiting Decisions

We're preparing to post another round of decisions this evening between 5 and 7 pm. Decisions will be posted on students' MyUNC pages, and can be accessed by clicking the "View Official Test Scores, Outstanding Items, and Application Status" link.

We've been working this week to resolve the decisions of our final first-deadline candidates, and after today's decision posting, all students whose first-deadline applications were complete as of 2:00 pm today should have a decision on their MyUNC page.

I'm still not seeing a decision. What should I do?
First, check to see if you have any missing items in your To-Do List. If you have missing items, please submit them as soon as possible by emailing them to unchelp@admissions.unc.edu. If you have a green dot and there are no missing items on your To-Do List, please give us a call. It's possible that you may have inadvertently chosen our second deadline when you started your application. If that is the case, you're still marked as a second-deadline applicant in our system, even if you submitted your application before Nov. 2. We have emailed these students with instructions to call us if they wish to change their deadline notification to first deadline, and we are reviewing the applications of students who requested this change.

We will not post any additional decisions over the weekend, though we will resume posting decisions for any additional first-deadline candidates whose applications become complete next week.

We appreciate your patience as we have finalized these decisions. If you have a specific question about the status of your application, please call our office at (919) 966-3621. We will be here until 5 pm Eastern Time today and then again at 8 am on Monday.

Update on MyUNC

Please note that MyUNC will be down for routine maintenance beginning Saturday, February 6, at 6 p.m. until 11 p.m.

Additionally, on February 12, from 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., we will not be able to accept online enrollment deposit or application payments by credit card.

We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions, or if we may help you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us at 919-966-3621 or through email.

Special Note to First-Deadline Candidates

To all of our first-deadline candidates who did not receive their decisions by January 31, we apologize. We realize that you have waited patiently for several months, and we can understand your frustration at having to wait longer. For those of you who are still without a decision, we have tried to reach you by email or telephone regarding the information we need to finalize your decision.

If you applied by November 2 and you still have not heard from us, please login to MyUNC to make sure that you do not have any missing items. These items will be listed in your “To-do” list. In order for us to finalize your decision it is crucial that you provide the missing item(s) as soon as possible. If you sent in a required missing item more than 10 days ago, and still do not have a decision, please contact us at (919) 966-3621.

In reviewing the remainder of these cases, we believe that there may have been confusion about deadline notification. A number of applicants who applied by November 2 selected our final deadline for their notification. Because these students applied prior to the first deadline, we emailed them several weeks ago and today to confirm that the second deadline was indeed their choice. If you received that email and did not have an opportunity to respond, or if you think this situation could apply to you, please call or email us so we can appropriately adjust your notification date.

If you are still awaiting a decision and neither of the above situations applies to you, or if you have any questions, please call (919) 966-3621 or email us. Again, we are sorry for the delay, but please know that we are working around the clock to resolve these issues.

Update on Decisions

To all of our first-deadline candidates, thank you again for your patience as we finalize and communicate decisions.

We are continuing to make decisions on all first-deadline candidates whose applications are complete. We will post any decisions we make during the course of the day between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. each day.

Any candidates whose decisions are not posted by this time are still under review, and we will notify them as soon as possible.

Important Note about Mid-Year Grades

We require mid-year grades from all first-deadline admitted and deferred candidates, as well as from all second-deadline applicants.

If we require your midyear grades, you will receive a mid-year grade reminder on your "To-do" list in your MyUNC account starting February 5. Please follow the instructions in your "To-do" list to submit your grades no later than February 19. Please report your most recent grades in all the courses you’ve taken so far this year. Most students report first-semester grades. If your school is on a trimester system, you may report your first trimester grades.

Since we will only accept midyear grades that you yourself report electronically, please do not ask your college counselor to send a paper copy on your behalf.

We will confirm midyear grades from all admitted students after we receive your official final transcript, which is a firm enrollment requirement.

Update on First-Deadline Decisions

As you know, we released the majority of decisions for first-deadline candidates with completed applications yesterday. Since this release, we've finalized the decisions for another round of first-deadline applicants, and we'll be posting these decisions by the end of the day. We’ll also be in touch with our remaining deadline 1 applicants who are still awaiting a decision to let them know the status of their application.

Again, thank you for your patience during this time.

Monday, February 1

We're grateful to the roughly 10,000 students who logged in between 5 am and 10 pm on January 31 to view their decisions. Thanks also for the patience of those who tried to view their decisions but for one reason or another could not.

We will reconvene early on February 1 to continue working through the issues that our first notification date with our new system revealed. If you called the Help Desk and left your name, and if we haven't already been able to resolve your status or contact you by email, we will do so as quickly as we can.

Please note: Because of the weekend snow and the prospect of ice in the early morning, classes will be cancelled on Monday, February 1, until 10 am. Our office will be open during our normal hours of 8 am to 5 pm. But since many of our staff members may have a difficult time getting to work until the roads are cleared, our phone service may be slower than usual through the early morning. We expect to be fully staffed by 10 am.

MyUNC Portal Service Restored

The MyUNC portal is again up and running. To log in, please visit MyUNC.

The Green Circle on Your Student Center

If you see a green circle in the Admissions section of your Student Center, it means that your application is complete and is currently under review. As soon as your decision is available, you will see a "Click here to view your decision" link next to the green circle.

Update on Problems with Online Decisions

Between 5 am and 3 pm today, 9,408 applicants logged in to view their decision letters. We've learned that at least 200 of these students weren't able to view their decisions after logging in, at least on the first try. Staff members from Information and Technology Services (ITS) have been working since midnight to resolve this and other problems, and I believe they're doing their very best. At the same time, I know that these bugs in our new system have made this a very frustrating day for many of you. I am sorry for this frustration and grateful for your continued patience.

Here's what we know:

1. The MyUNC portal has been down since around 1 am. We don't know when we'll be able to restore it. In the meantime, if you haven't viewed your decision already, please try logging in at ...

****Please note that MyUNC service is now restored. To log in, please visit MyUNC.****

2. Through 3 pm today, the ITS Help Desk (919-962-HELP or 866-962-4457) has received calls from roughly 200 students who'd been able to log in but not see their decisions. ITS is working to resolve the technical problem that seems to be preventing the decisions from loading; we will post an update when we hear that the problem has been resolved. In the meantime, if you've logged in without seeing your decision but haven't notified the Help Desk, please feel free to call.

3. Some students have reported on this blog that they were only able to see their decisions after they disabled popup-blocking software. ITS hasn't confirmed that this approach works, but it might be worth a try.

4. We mailed traditional decision letters on Friday. The weekend snow may delay their delivery, but they are in the mail and should begin to land on Monday.

5. Several hundred first-deadline applications -- most of them only recently completed -- are still being reviewed by our admissions committee. Beginning tomorrow, we'll notify students daily as decisions are made.

The University's new information system will in time make life much easier for all of us, and especially for students. But in the interim, there's no denying that it's made things harder, despite the best efforts of many people who are working around the clock. For the frustration and worry we've caused you, we are all deeply sorry. And we remain grateful for your interest in Carolina.

MyUNC Performance Problems

We apologize for the inconvenience, but the high traffic on MyUNC is causing significant slowdowns. If you are unable to access MyUNC at this time, please try again later. We appreciate your patience.

Thank You and Good Luck

I'm taking a break from shoveling snow -- yes, it's snowing in Chapel Hill -- to say thank you to all our first-deadline candidates, and good luck.

We know that you've been waiting for a long time, and we're sorry that we've had to presume upon your patience. For reasons that we've described elsewhere on this blog, we've needed more time this year than usual. But we've never forgotten how hard it can be to wait, and we hope this blog has helped.

The decisions we're releasing on January 31 are the culmination of many months of work on the part of many people here at Carolina. But we know who's worked the hardest: all of you. Thank you again, and again, good luck.

****CORRECTION ABOUT TRANSFER NOTIFICATION DATE****
In my haste yesterday, I misstated the date by which we'll notify transfer candidates of their decisions. We'll notify transfer candidates in April, not in August. I'm sorry for this error and the confusion I've caused.

How To View Your Decision Online

To view your decision, please follow these steps:

1. Log into my.unc.edu.


2. Under the "AS Bachelor, 2010 Fall” header, click on the "View Official Test Scores, Outstanding Items, and Application Status" link.


3. Your Student Center will appear. Under Admissions, click on the “Click here to view your decision" link.

Helpful Links:
Admitted Student Website
FAQs for Deferred Students

Tour Scheduling System

We're sorry but we're experiencing technical issues with our tour scheduling system on MyUNC. We are currently working to address these issues, but in the meantime, if you experience any difficulty signing up for an information session and tour, please contact our office at (919) 966-3621 and we'll gladly assist you.

For a our 2009-2010 tour schedule, please view our Visit Page.

We apologize for any inconvenience. We look forward to meeting you and sharing more about Carolina.

Final Deadline Reminder and Space-Available Status

As a reminder, the final deadline for first-year admission is tonight, January 19, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. If you do not submit your completed application by this time and wish to apply on a space-available basis, please call us at (919) 966-3621 and we will update your application accordingly.

About Merit Scholarships

Hi all. I asked my colleague Dave Meredith to write a bit about how students are selected for merit scholarships and the Honors Program. Dr. Meredith is the liaison in our office who works with the various faculty, offices, and selection committees who award merit scholarships and select students for the Honors Program. I hope this information is helpful, please let us know in the comments below what additional questions you might have. Thanks, Julie

It is about that time of year when we start getting a lot of questions about scholarships (including the Morehead-Cain and Robertson) and the Honors Program. I want to explain how the Admissions Office works with these offices to select students. To learn more about the characteristics and qualities each scholarship seeks, please visit their websites (Robertson, Morehead-Cain, University-awarded scholarships, Pogue, Honors Program).

When the Admissions Committee in our office reviews applications, we are looking for characteristics including academic excellence, impactful leadership, writing ability, and more. As we make decisions about which students we feel would be a good fit for Carolina, we also nominate students for further review by a number of other offices for scholarships and the Honors Program.

Each deadline, the Admissions Office receives between 10,000 and 13,000 applications. From this pool, we select about 600 students for further review by a team of faculty members. How do we select these 600 or so students, you ask? Great question! I can tell you it isn’t based on your SAT, class rank or even GPA. Of course the students we’re considering in this review are all incredibly accomplished students but all of the students we admit have a strong academic record. So for scholarship consideration, rather than focus on numbers, we look very closely at the essays and recommendation letters to find evidence of what I like to call “being a mental wrestler.” A mental wrestler is someone who likes ideas, is curious, and approaches topics from different angles. A mental wrestler has probably said something in class that caused the whole class to stop and say “Hmmm, I never thought about it like that.”

From this pool of 600-ish nominated students, a team of faculty will select about 300 students to invite to the Honors Program and 130 students to participate in Scholarship Day. Some students may be invited to both, but they are independent invitations. This process repeats itself in late winter for our second-deadline applicants.

We also nominate students for two external scholarships: the Morehead-Cain and Robertson. We are fortunate to be able to nominate about 40 out-of-state applicants for consideration by the Morehead-Cain committee and about 150 students (both NC residents and out-of-state) for the Robertson Committee to review. Once these committees have reviewed our nominees, they directly contact the students they select.

Beginning in 2010, we began nominating students for the Pogue Scholarship. We will nominate about 60 NC residents and about 15 out-of-state students for this scholarship. The Pogue Committee will then contact these students directly with further information about the review process.

Please note that all of the numbers I’ve included are averages over the past two to three years. We do not have strict quotas.

I hope this information clarifies how the Admissions Office assists with the selection process for these opportunities. Thanks.