Yes she has the grades, the extra curricular, the service element all covered. I was more looking for what they look for the short answer questions. I feel like her essay is excellent. I just worry with her coming from a very rural area that it may hurt her. She didn’t have the same AP class opportunities as kids in the larger more urban counties. She has loaded up on community college classes and even took Latin as her foreign language online as she wants to be a surgeon and that was recommended for her to take.
As long as she has a balanced resume and consistent involvement with service/clubs/sports/job, then her SAT, essays and teacher recs are really all you can control along with her senior schedule. She should continue to take any AP/honor level courses if available. If not available in her school, UNC and other schools will know and absolutely take that into consideration. One additional option may be online AP, etc. Tour, reach out to a particular department and see if she can sit in on a class. Inquire about Honors Carolina. Any additional letter of recommendation she can have from someone who has a direct tie to Carolina will help (definitely recommend this to anyone applying from out of state). This all coming from a parent who has an out of state freshman starting in 2 weeks. In state and rural should absolutely help, but having two kids go through the process the last three years all I can really guarantee is that sometimes it’s just a crapshoot.
Is Iredell really a county up there with Wake and Meck as far as amount of qualified students? I would think there would be several counties with more than Iredell (Guilford, Forsyth, New Hanover, to name a few)
According to Department of Education statistics, that would indicate that approximately 13,000 in-state graduates earned admission for 2025-26. UNC admitted 4600 in-state students. Plenty of top kids go elsewhere, so the math may work out, but the odds are against you in Wake County unless your kid is near the very top of the class rank. We've watched it play out with friends/neighbors in recent years.
The plan is to grow by 5,000 undergrads, taking 500 more each year for 10 years, starting with this year’s enrolling class. Sustained growth which involves increasing infrastructure. Can’t be done overnight. Chancellor and BOT also acknowledge they turn away great students every year, both in and out of state.
Good luck, and remember that transferring from another school is always a possibility if she doesn't get in.
Best of luck as well! Dropping my daughter off off Friday. I hope you and your daughter experience the same excitement, but remember to celebrate every acceptance and that they end up where they belong (oldest is not at UNC but loves where she is). Their college experiences are what they make them, no matter where.
