FAQs for Denied Students

I'm so sorry we disappointed you. We know how hard it is to receive this kind of bad news, and we really hate delivering it. Please know that it's not you, it's us. We have so many talented applicants – close to 31,000 this year – and space for just under 4,000 in our first-year class. We have to deny so many students who would do great things here.

Through our work with the Carolina Covenant, we've had the pleasure of getting to know Josh. He's an outstanding student who came to us as a junior transfer and is now earning his MBA through Kenan-Flagler Business School. Below is a little of his story:

I was not accepted to Carolina as a high school senior, but I knew that this is where I wanted to be so I decided to work hard and transfer. It was like a dream come true when I finally got my admissions letter and then found out that I could graduate debt free as a Covenant Scholar. Once I got to campus, I took advantage of the countless resources that are available to students. Thanks to the support of faculty and staff mentors, I was able to land a job in banking after graduation. It was during that time that I started thinking about getting my MBA, and I knew I wanted to return to Carolina. I applied to two business schools and received my acceptance letter to the other school first, but I knew that if I didn't get into Kenan-Flagler the first time, I was just going to work harder and try again the following year. Luckily, that wasn't necessary. I'll be graduating with my MBA in May, and I already have a full-time job lined up! – Josh

Josh is proof that there are many paths to Carolina. We hope you have an amazing college experience wherever you choose to attend. But if you're interested in transferring in a year or two, we hope you'll keep us in mind.

Is this decision final?
Yes, I'm afraid it is. We can't re-consider your application this year. However, if your heart is set on Carolina, there's always the option of transferring after a year or two at another school.

Why did you deny me?
There isn't a simple answer to this question because our review is holistic. We don't deny any student on the basis of a single number or a single grade, but instead we consider everything we know about a student. We review each application multiple times, and ultimately, we have to make a lot of hard decisions. The unfortunate truth is that we just don't have space for the many talented students who apply.

I have my heart set on attending Carolina one day. What should I do?
Each year we enroll approximately 900 transfer students into the sophomore and junior classes at Carolina. Transfer students bring with them a diversity of background and experiences that enrich our community tremendously, and we welcome them into the full academic and extracurricular life of the University. For more advice, please see Applying as a Transfer Student.

Please let me know what other questions you have.

FAQs for Waitlisted Students

For those of you we waitlisted, we're sorry to ask you to wait even longer for your final decision. We know you have already waited so patiently, and I know how frustrating this can be – particularly for those of you who applied early action.

If you accept a place on our waiting list, we'll consider you for any spaces that are available in the class after we hear back from our admitted students by the May 1 enrollment deadline. In the early part of May, we'll determine how many spaces are available, and we'll review the applications of all of the students who accepted a place on the waiting list. Since the list isn't ranked, there's no way to predict any student's chances of admission.

We'll begin making offers to waitlisted students by the end of May. We may make several rounds of offers, but we promise to have a final decision to all students by the end of June.

A list of FAQs was included with your letter, and you can also view it here. Please read it carefully as it should answer most of your questions, but feel free to post a comment below if you have others.

FAQs for Admitted Students

Good morning! Today I'm posting some FAQs for Regular Decision admitted, waitlisted, and denied students. The questions for admitted students are in this post; please scroll down for the waitlisted and denied FAQs.

I've been admitted! Yay! Now what?
Congratulations! We hope you'll decide to make Carolina your home for the next four years. We might be biased, but we think it's the best undergraduate experience to be had. We'll do our best over the next few months to help you find out all you can about Carolina, so you can decide if it's the right place for you. One of the best ways to get to know our community and the opportunities available here is to join us for one of our admitted-student events. An invitation to Explore Carolina and Carolina Bound was included with your letter of admission. In the coming weeks, you may also receive invitations to a variety of other events, so be sure to check your email regularly.

Our Admitted Student website has detailed information on housing, orientation and the steps you'll need to take when you're ready to enroll.

Will I receive any merit scholarships?
Most Regular Decision applicants who are being considered for a merit-based scholarship were invited to campus for our second Scholarship Day. At Scholarship Day, students took part in discussion sessions with faculty members and other scholars. After the event, final scholarship selections are decided. The majority of the merit-based scholarships offered by Carolina will awarded to the students who attended Scholarship Day.

If you aren't initially offered a merit-based scholarship, please know that at Carolina you will have multiple opportunities to earn a variety of awards once you arrive on campus. Read more about Scholarship Opportunities for Carolina students.

Am I being considered for Honors or any other special opportunities?
We will be sending an email to select admitted students this week regarding Excel@Carolina, a special program featuring nine extraordinary opportunities for outstanding first-year students. In the email, we will ask those students to indicate which of these opportunities they're most interested in. We'll then use those preferences as part of our final decisions about these opportunities. Students selected for other honors and special opportunities will be notified via mail and email throughout the spring.

What about financial aid?
All students who applied for financial aid by the priority deadline of March 1 will receive their aid in the weeks following the deadline. If you have not yet completed the financial aid application, please do so as soon as possible. The Office of Scholarships and Student Aid awards student aid packages as quickly as they can, but you can help by making sure they have all of the information they need. Check your To-Do List in MyCarolina to make sure they haven't requested more information. Also, create your Onyen and UNC email account, as that is how the Student Aid office will communicate with you. More info is available on the Student Aid website.

Want to get advice from current students?
In recent years, current students started a Q&A blog for new students called Carolina Advice. If you want opinions and answers directly from current students, it's a great resource to learn more about life here. You can also check out the Tar Heel Blog to learn even more about student life from the current student perspective.

Congratulations again on your admission to Carolina. We look forward to welcoming you in the fall!

How To View Your Decision When It's Available

Heads-up Regular Decision Applicants!

To view your decision online when it's ready, please follow the instructions below. Please note that due to the high volume of traffic on our server, you may experience delays. We apologize for any inconvenience.

1. Go to at my.unc.edu. 
2. Under Applicants, click on “ConnectCarolina Student Center.” 
3. Log in with your Guest ID. If you do not have a Guest ID, please follow the email instructions we sent to you. If you do not have these instructions, please email us at unchelp@admissions.unc.edu. 
4. Under Admissions, click on “Click here to view your decision in a new window.” Please make sure popup-blocking software is disabled.

In order to view your decision, the pop-up blocker feature on your browser,  if applicable, must be disabled. Below are instructions for disabling pop-ups in the popular browsers:

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
To allow blocked pop-ups when you're already on a site, follow these steps:

1. Click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar
2. Select "Settings"
3. Click "Show Advanced Settings" 
4. In the "Privacy" section, click the Content setting button
5. In the "Pop-ups" section, select "Allow all sites to show pop-ups."

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”

Monday FAQs

Happy Monday! Below are some of the questions we've been getting over the phones and via email recently.

I'm an Early Action applicant. When and how will I be notified of my decision?
Early Action applicants will be notified of their admissions decisions no later than January 30. Decisions will be posted to your ConnectCarolina Student Center, and a decision letter will also be mailed to your home address. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide an exact day and time when decisions will be released. Please bear with us, and be patient; the wait is almost over!

Will parents be notified of their child's admissions decision?
We do not send a separate notification to parents, but decision letters are mailed to the student at his or her home address.

I submitted my Regular Decision application. Is it too late to add information?
If you have an important addition or revision to your application, feel free to email it to us at uncsubmit@admissions.unc.edu. Please include your full name and date of birth, so we can easily link the information to your application.

I'm planning to change my course schedule. Do I need to notify Carolina?
Yes. It's important that you let us know if you make any changes to your schedule after submitting your application. Email us at schedule@admissions.unc.edu and let us know what changes you've made to your schedule, as well as the reason for the change. We'll include this information with your application.

How can I schedule a visit to Carolina?
We offer tours and information sessions nearly every day of the week, Monday through Friday, except for holidays. Please follow this link to schedule a visit. You are currently able to schedule a visit through May 2013, and our summer dates will be available soon.

7 Reasons to Apply to Carolina

Happy New Year! We hope your 2013 is shaping up to be the best yet. As a reminder, if you haven't already applied for first-year admission to Carolina, our final deadline of January 7, 2013 is just days away. You still have time, so why not make a New Year's resolution to apply to Carolina?

Need another reason? We'll give you seven. Carolina students not only dream big, they possess the initiative to make those dreams a reality. In the early days of this new year, we thought you might enjoy learning about how seven of our current students are taking advantage of the endless opportunities Carolina offers.

1. Alfredo interned at Goldman Sachs in New York.
2. Mallory pays it forward as co-president of Carolina Firsts.
3. Brandon is a tutor for Carolina's Summer Bridge Program.
4. Yu is the founder of Young Scholars International.
5. Madison spent two months in Jordan studying Arabic.
6. Whitney is completing an honors thesis related to mental health in adolescents.
7. Fedor will research biological noise in desensitization.

These are just seven of the countless Carolina students who are making their mark on the world in their own way. Read about more students.

If you applied to Carolina already, we thank you for your application, and we are enjoying getting to know you. Once you do apply, please log into your MyCarolina account to check the status of your application.

We wish you the best as you set your own goals for a happy and prosperous New Year.

Transfer Applications Due Monday!

Hello! Sorry for my long absence, but it's been a busy few weeks in the Admissions Office. We are just about finished reading first-year applications, though it will be a couple more weeks before we are able to finalize decisions on our second-deadline and deferred candidates. I'm sorry that I don't have any more news for those of you that are awaiting decisions, but grant us a little more time and we'll be sure to let you all know as soon as we can. I can tell you that we are on schedule for releasing second deadline decisions, so you will certainly hear from us no later than March 20.

The application deadline for transfer admission is right around the corner--12:00 midnight EST this Monday, March 2. Each year we admit around 900 transfer students to join the sophomore and junior classes. I really enjoy reading transfer applications and it's always a great way to end our reading season. Transfer students tend to have such interesting stories--many are non-traditional students going back to school after a long break, some have been in the military or workforce, some are taking a second crack at admission to Carolina having been denied the first time around, while others have just decided that they're ready for a change and Carolina offers them opportunities they'd like to take advantage of. We love this diversity and we know it enriches our campus with a multitude of fresh perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences.

Also coming up is the March 1 financial aid deadline! This is an extremely important deadline for both first-year and transfer applicants. You'll need to complete both the FAFSA and CSS/PROFILE by March 1 to receive full consideration for aid. Visit the Student Aid office to learn more.

Please let us know what questions you have!

Julie

Final Application Deadline Extended

This week has been a busy one for the UNC Homepage system. Many, many students logging in simultaneously has put it through quite a workout. We apologize for those of you who had delays logging in to see your decisions yesterday, not to mention those of you who were putting the final touches on your second deadline applications in order to meet today's deadline.

To accommodate those of you who have not yet submitted your applications, we have decided to extend the deadline until Tuesday, January 20 at 8am EST. Hopefully this will reduce some of the stress of finishing up, and let you complete and submit your applications with confidence.

We really appreciate everyone's patience during this busy time. Thank you!

-Julie