essays that worked unc chapel hill

Just one more step to start saving colleges!

Sign up for an account or login to start your college list.

See the Essay That Helped This Student Get into UNC

Life of Pix/Pexels

Sometimes starting your college admissions essay can feel like a monumental task, and staring at a blank screen may only make things worse. To help inspire you, College Confidential is launching a series in which we share personal essays from students who were admitted to college during a prior admissions cycle. You can read the first in this series below. The student who wrote this as his Common App essay was accepted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and we are sharing it with his permission.

Picture this: A small, 13-year-old boy soaked in sweat, throwing his body onto a handrail in the blistering heat. Whereas the initial thought of this seems jarring, the reality was that everyone nearby continued to go about their business, not really noticing the kid.

That boy was me — on one of the most memorable days I had ever experienced.

As a beginner to the skateboarding world, I was trying repeatedly to master a trick that would allow me to take my board down a handrail and onto a ramp. Each time I attempted the trick, I landed on the hot concrete with a thud. However, the sound of my body hitting the pavement didn't rattle those around me — they'd probably tried the same trick themselves and had definitely seen newcomers like me working diligently to master it.

When I decided to take a break, I watched from the sidelines as the more experienced skaters made their way effortlessly across the ramps, performing kickflips and ollies with the ease of someone who was simply walking. But another dichotomy also struck me. Sitting on the sidelines, my brand-new skateboard and shiny new helmet were practically gleaming in the light of the sun.

When I had decided to try skateboarding earlier that month, I'd dipped into my allowance savings and picked up the equipment I needed. However, the most experienced skaters at the park were skating on the shabbiest boards that looked like they might splinter at any moment.

As I was making this observation, one of the gods of the skate park glided toward me. Everyone knew Steve — he was sponsored by a skate company and knew every possible trick. "Nice work," he said. I looked around to confirm he was talking to me. I couldn't believe he had noticed my attempts at working the handrail.

"I'm trying," I said, slightly embarrassed that he had seen me falling to the ground repeatedly. "Do you have any tips?"

He shook his head. For a minute I was feeling dejected, as if he didn't want to help me. "You're doing it the only way there is, man," he told me. "Just keep trying."

He patted me on the back and grabbed his worn-down board, hopping on it to drop back into the skate bowl. I looked back at my brand-new board. Ever since I was a child, I had always thought that skateboarders were some of the coolest people out there, and Steve's encouragement only solidified that belief.

It became clear to me that this was one sport where it didn't matter if you could afford coaches or fancy equipment — there was no way to get a leg up in skating without putting in the work. Skateboarding is the great equalizer — if you practice, you'll succeed — that's all there is to it. Even if I came from more of a place of privilege than some of the other skaters, the reality was that I was privileged just to be part of this community.

My experiences in the skating world have now spanned more than four years, and I have spent upwards of 12 hours at a time at that skate park. I've learned all the tricks I set out to master, but more importantly, I have developed a diverse and extensive group of friends. We may be from different backgrounds and neighborhoods, but what unites us is that we are all working toward the same goals, and we've forged deep connections along the way.

I have taken the lessons from the sense of community in the skating world into my other pursuits as well. Where there may be a group of very different people in any gathering, there will always be a thread that unites us, and I will consistently be looking for that connection.

If you'd like to share your college essay on College Confidential, please email us at [email protected].

Share Your Thoughts

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Check out our forum to contribute to the conversation!

College Admissions Expert

More on Applying to College

Authentic Voice in College Essays

That’s why you want to use your authentic voice when writing any college essay .

So what’s the problem? A student has shared an ess…

College Interview Prep Tips: Brainstorm, Research, Analyze, Generalize

I recently visited Washington University in Saint Louis and was lucky enough to set up an interview. By speaking with peers of mi…

Academic Index Scores: Why They Matter and How They're Calculated

Note: Click here for 10 Summer Programs You Can Still Apply For or keep reading to learn more about academic index scores.

7 Podcasts for Students Going Through the Admissions Process

Podcasts can offer a wealth of information to busy students, particularly when it comes to the college admissions process. We…

Avoid College Application Regrets: Tips For Getting It Right the First Time

Decision Day occurs each year on May 1st and is the deadline for students to inform the college of their choice of their intent t…

Get a student loan that goes beyond tuition.

Ascent offers cosigned and non-cosigned student loans with exclusive benefits that set students up for success.

Find Your Scholarship

Want to find money for school that doesn’t need to be paid back? Access insights and advice on how to search and apply for scholarships!

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 3 tips for writing stellar unc chapel hill supplement essays.

College Essays

If you're applying for admission to UNC Chapel Hill , you'll have to write a total of three essays as part of your application. Your UNC Chapel Hill supplemental essays are a great way to tell the admissions committee more about yourself while also showing your interest in UNC and your dedication to your education.

In this article, we'll break down what the UNC essay prompts are, what you should talk about in each, and offer tips for writing great UNC supplemental essays.

What Are the UNC Essay Prompts?

UNC Chapel Hill uses the Common Application for its admissions process. As a first-year applicant, you'll be required to write a total of three essays: one Common Application essay and two UNC-specific essays.

The UNC supplemental essays are two 200-250 word essays that respond to UNC-specific questions. There are a total of four UNC supplemental essays to choose from; you get to pick whichever two you would like to answer.

Here are the four UNC essay prompts:

• Describe an aspect of your identity and how this has shaped your life experiences or impacted your daily interactions with others?
• Describe a peer who is making a difference in your school or community. What actions has that peer taken? How has their work made a difference in your life?
• If you could change one thing to better your community, what would it be? Please explain.
• Former UNC-Chapel Hill employee, community service member, and civil rights activist Esphur Foster once said, “We are nothing without our history.” Her words are memorialized on the Northside Neighborhood Freedom Fighters monument. How does history shape who you are?

In the next section, we'll talk about how to answer each of the UNC supplemental essays.

UNC Supplemental Essays, Analyzed

Each of the four UNC essay prompts asks you to share about something in your life that the admissions committee wouldn't know from reading the rest of your application. The key to writing great UNC supplemental essays is to be personal and specific.

Let's take a look at what the admissions committee wants to know in each prompt.

Describe an aspect of your identity and how this has shaped your life experiences or impacted your daily interactions with others? (200-250 words)

To answer this prompt, you'll have to do three things. First, you need to identify a peer who's active in your community and making a difference. You can interpret the word “peer” loosely here if you want to. It could be someone your age or someone from your school, or just another person in your social group you’ve seen making a difference. 

No matter who you choose, you'll have to briefly explain who they are and what they're doing. This will help your readers contextualize why this person is important! And, as usual, it's even better if you can do this in a story format. Maybe you volunteered with someone from your dance class who also happens to be one of the most outspoken advocates for climate change in your city. Telling a story about your personal experience with them would take your essay to another level.

Finally, you need to be very specific about how the community builder you've chosen has impacted your life. While it's great if you have a close relationship with this person, you don't have to in order to write a great essay! Maybe your school’s student body president organized a group that cleans litter out of neighborhoods. While you don't know her personally, her group's hard work makes your life cleaner, and it helps people have more pride in their city.

Keep in mind that even though you're talking about another person, this essay should still showcase something about you. Pick a person who inspires you or shares your values, and explain why you think their work matters. Don't miss the chance to help admissions counselors get to know you better!

Describe an aspect of your identity (for example, your religion, culture, race, sexual or gender identity, affinity group, etc.). How has this aspect of your identity shaped your life experiences thus far? (200-250 words)

To answer this prompt, you're going to have to do a little introspection. The admissions counselors want you to write about one aspect of who you are , then explain how it has impacted your values, ideas, and experiences.

The good news (and maybe bad news?) is that there are tons of facets to your personality. The prompt gives you a few big areas you can focus on, but the trick is going to be to pick an element of your identity that you can tell a story about.

Let's say you identify as trans. That's probably a huge part of who you are! To write this essay, start by telling a story about how your trans identity has shaped you. Maybe you were elected homecoming queen after you transitioned, and it showed you how accepting yourself was the first step in being accepted by others. Whatever the case may be, using a story will be key to connecting with your audience.

And of course, don't forget to answer the second part of the prompt about how this part of your identity has shaped you as a person. Make sure you're making the connection for your reader! Don't just say you're the child of Palestinian immigrants. Explain how that has solidified your commitment to humanitarianism and economic equality.

If you could change one thing to better your community, what would it be? Please explain. (200-250 words)

While this prompt may seem serious, it doesn't have to be. You don't need to do in-depth research into your neighborhood and your city's politics, but you do need to pick a change that has personal meaning for you.

For instance, maybe you and your neighbors don't know each other well and you'd like to have a greater feeling of community with the people you live nearby. That reason has nothing to do with legislation, but would still make a big impact!

The key here is to identify the thing you would change, then explain why you would make that change. Going back to our example about neighborhood community, maybe the "why" is because it would help you support one another. Your neighbors could help each other with yard work, child care, and maybe even after school tutoring! By bringing people together, not only do you take some of the burden off of individuals, but it would form the bonds that help make neighborhoods happy, healthy, and safe places to live.

The last crucial detail you need to discuss in your response is how you would contribute to this change. Don't be afraid of dreaming big! You can easily integrate your explanation of how you’d contribute into your description of the change that you want to see. 

To the extent that you can, give concrete details about what you’d do to support this change . As much as this prompt is asking about your community, it’s even more interested in finding out how you perceive your role in your community--and whether you take that responsibility seriously. 

Former UNC-Chapel Hill employee, community service member, and civil rights activist Esphur Foster once said, “We are nothing without our history.” Her words are memorialized on the Northside Neighborhood Freedom Fighters monument. How does history shape who you are? (200-250 words)

This prompt is asking you to show your awareness of your place in the world beyond the things that are local to you, like your family, school, and hometown. Understanding how history has shaped who you are helps you be an ethical citizen and member of your communities--qualities that UNC is looking for in its applicants!

But “history” seems a little broad, right? The good news about that is that you can bring your own interpretation of the term “history” to your response here. You could look reflect on aspects of U.S. history, world history, or the history of a set of religious beliefs. You could write about something more personal, like your family history, or something pertaining to your academic interests, like the history of women in computer science!

The key here is to make sure you explain how a specific piece of history has shaped who you are --your identity and your views of the world. To do this effectively, you won’t be able to summarize the entire history of the United States or the legacies of second-wave feminism. You’ll have to incorporate one or two historical details into your story and dive deep into how they have shaped who you are. Because as the prompt says, we are nothing without our history!

3 Tips For Mastering Your UNC Essays

Hoping to write two amazing UNC supplemental essays? Follow these key tips to do so!

#1: Use Your Own Voice

The point of a college essay is for the admissions committee to have the chance to get to know you beyond what's featured in other parts of your application. Your admissions essays are your chance to become more than just a collection of statistics—to really come alive for your application readers.

Make sure that the person you're presenting in your college essays is yourself. Don't just write what you think the committee wants to hear or try to act like someone you're not—it will be really easy for the committee to tell you're lying.

If you lie or exaggerate, your essay will come across as insincere, which will at best diminish its effectiveness and at worst make the admissions committee think twice on accepting you. Stick to telling real stories about the person you really are, not who you think UNC wants you to be.

#2: Avoid Cliches and Overused Phrases

When writing your UNC essays, don't use cliches or overused quotes or phrases. The college admissions committee has probably seen numerous essays that state, "Be the change you want to see in the world." You can write something more original than that!

Each of the UNC essays asks you something specific about your experience or background. Your essay should be 100% you—you don't want the admissions committee to think, "Anyone could have written this essay."

#3: Check Your Work

Your UNC essays should be the strongest example of your work possible. Before you turn in your UNC Chapel Hill application, edit and proofread your essays.

Run your essays through a spelling and grammar check before you submit and ask someone else to read your essays. You can seek a second opinion on your work from a parent, teacher, or friend. Ask them whether your work represents you as a student and person. Have them check and make sure you haven't missed any small writing errors. Having a second opinion will help your work be the best it possibly can be.

Final Thoughts

Your UNC supplemental essays are your chance to show the admissions committee what makes you special and different from the other tens of thousands of students applying for admission at UNC.

In your essays, make sure you are authentic, well-spoken, and polished so you give the admissions committee the best possible understanding of who you are as a person.

What's Next?

Need more help with your scholarship search? Read our expert guide on how to find college scholarships .

Need help writing your Common App essay? Our tips will show you how to write a Common App essay guaranteed to make you stand out from other applicants!

How does UNC's selectivity compare with those of other top colleges? Get the answer in our guide to the most selective schools in the nation !

Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females.

Student and Parent Forum

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com , allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

• For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

The Admissions Strategist

How to write the unc-chapel hill essays 2020-2021: the tarheel guide (with examples).

Did you know that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the first public university in the country in 1789?

Now, ranked #5 in Top Public Schools by U.S. News and World Report, UNC-Chapel Hill has a 26% acceptance rate.

On top of a stellar application, well-written supplemental essays are essential to be a part of that narrow 26%.

UNC-Chapel Hill Supplemental Essay Requirements

When you complete the Common Application , you’ll choose one essay prompt to complete.

There are still two supplemental essays to write, for UNC-Chapel Hill specifically, before your application is considered complete.

• On the UNC-Chapel Hill website, the admissions staff states that they hope to learn “what being a member of such a community would mean to you.”

UNC-Chapel Hill uses the few hundred words you write in these supplemental essays to select students for admission, and also to select first-year students for merit scholarships and other opportunities. It’s important that you take the time to make every word count.

Click above to watch a video on UNC-Chapel Hill’s Supplemental Essays.

UNC-Chapel Hill provides three prompts to choose from for your supplement essays.

You will choose two to complete and submit with the rest of your application. Each of the essays must be 200-250 words.

Here are your three options:

• “Expand on an aspect of your identity – for example, your religion, culture, race, sexual or gender identity, affinity group, etc. How has this aspect of your identity shaped your life experiences thus far?”
• “If you could change one thing about where you live, what would it be and why?”
• “Describe someone who you see as a community builder. What actions has that person taken? How has their work made a difference in your life?”

UNC Supplemental Essay 1: Your Identity

Expand on an aspect of your identity – for example, your religion, culture, race, sexual or gender identity, affinity group, etc. How has this aspect of your identity shaped your life experiences thus far?

This prompt shows that UNC-Chapel Hill cares about what’s not going to show up on a piece of paper. They know that you’re so much more than what your application is going to tell them, and your personal identity is a large part of this.

It’s important to note that if you are not comfortable sharing this personal information, you do not have to. You can always choose the other two prompts and leave this one behind.

However, if you are comfortable sharing, there is something special about a person’s identity. Answering this question will show UNC-Chapel Hill a new side of who you are.

It will show them what shapes and forms you, as well as how you will add to the diverse community on their campus.

You may have listed your race, ethnicity, and/or gender on your application, but that doesn’t show the admissions team how this piece of you has affected your life and turned you into who you are today.

To start this essay, choose the piece of your essay that has most prominently affected who you’ve grown up to be.

You can write about more than one of these aspects if you would like to, but with only 200-250 words available, it may be smart to just choose one.

After sharing your religion, race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, or affinity group, it’s time to write about how it has shaped your life so far.

We recommend sharing only a few sentences on the personal aspect of your choosing, and saving the rest of your word count for how it has affected your life.

After all, this is what UNC – Chapel Hill is looking for. If they only wanted to know who you were, they would have just gone off the bubbles you filled in on your application. However, they want to gain a deeper understanding of who you are.

• Maybe you moved to a new country as an older child, and had to learn about and live in an entirely new culture. What have you held onto from the culture you were born into, and how have these qualities affected who you’ve become (even in a new country)?
• Do you identify with a non-binary gender? How has your gender identity shaped who you’ve become? Has it made you more independent as you stand up for who you are to those around you?
• Do you follow a religion that not many of your local peers believe in? What aspects of your religion have made you who you are today?

No matter what you choose to write about, make sure it’s a significant part of who you are. Take this opportunity to show UNC-Chapel Hill that your identity is so much more than a label, and that you will be an excellent addition to their wonderfully diverse and accepting college community.

Get personalized advice!

Unc supplemental essay 1 example.

Use this essay as a guide to writing this question. Never plagiarize. It’s a serious offense to copy someone else’s work.

I lived a happy childhood in Mexico. I clearly remember playing soccer in the streets with my neighborhood friends when my dad came outside and told me I needed to hurry in. I didn’t understand, but his tone was stern so I followed. That was the last time I’d ever play soccer in the streets of my small Mexican city. Violence had moved in, and our home was no longer safe. We abruptly moved to the United States to live with my aunts and cousins. I loved my aunt and cousins, but the change was hard. I had to learn a whole new language when I started school, and I missed my friends. I am thankful for my childhood in Mexico and for my family, because these parts of my life allowed me to keep my Mexican culture alive. I still live in the United States today, but I’m proud of where I came from. My culture provides a significant piece of my identity. To my culture, I owe my work ethic, my strong family ties, and my determination to build a better life for myself in the future. My culture will stay with me always, as I hold true to who I am and celebrate all of the things it’s given me so far.

UNC Supplemental Essay 2: Changing Where You Live

What do you hope will change about the place you live and why?

Whether you love or hate the place you currently live, this prompt can be intriguing. It is fairly vague and can be taken in a bunch of different directions.

At first glance, the question seems to be talking about your hometown. However, it literally says “where you live.” This could be about your physical house, your street, your city, your state, or even your country.

Keep in mind that you only have 200-250 words, so you want to make sure that the thing you’d change is extremely specific, even if you choose a large space such as your country or state.

After you choose what area you will write about, choose something you’d love to see change.

There are many ways in which an area can change. Consider choosing a difference that relates to your passions, concerns, or even your individual talents or skills. If you’ve done something to work on this issue already, be sure to include the steps you’ve taken so far.

• If you want to be a teacher after college and your elementary school lacks funding, wright about this issue and the negative effects it has had on your community. Let your passion for education and difference-making shine through.
• Maybe you’re a DACA recipient, and you’re feeling the stress of the country going back and forth on whether the program will be allowed to continue. Write about how DACA benefited your life, and how you plan to make your voice heard when it comes to keeping the program going for future generations.
• You may come from a large family living in a home that is much too small. Write about how this has affected your family and how affordable housing could make a difference in the lives of your family members as well as many others in your area.
• Maybe you love the place you live, but you know everything could be improved one way or another. Speak about how a beautification team could benefit the aesthetics of your town, bringing more families into an excellent city. Write about that vacant building across from the high school that could make an awesome youth center and the benefits that could come from its opening.

No matter what type of change you write about in this essay, remember to be creative and showcase your passions, concerns, talents, or skills, and if applicable, one of your past difference-making experiences.

When you take a vague, almost unrelated essay question and turn it into something that reflects who you truly are, UNC-Chapel Hill is sure to take notice.

UNC Supplemental Essay 2 Examples

In my hometown, houses are expensive. The minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour, and a mortgage on a medium-sized home in an average neighborhood starts at $250,000. I live with my parents and my 5 siblings. We share a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom home. If I could, I’d change the home we live in by moving us to one that has adequate space for us all. However, I understand why my parents have been unable to move us out of our home. To allow families like ours to afford living in a safe, fitting home, the housing market has to change. I also understand that even though my home is small, it is a safe place to live and that is much more than other members of my community have. If more affordable housing was available, our homeless resident rate would drop instead of rise, and more children could be able to grow up in healthy, stable homes. More affordable housing, whether that be through government housing, significant minimum wage increases, or a drop in the value of new homes, is a necessity in my hometown. On some level, it affects every member of our community. Fixing this issue would lead to better lives for every person around me. No potential change could be better than that.

UNC Supplemental Essay 3: Describe a Community Builder

Describe someone who you see as a community builder. What actions has that person taken? How has their work made a difference in your life?

When it comes to college application essays, you are likely expecting to write about yourself. This prompt has a unique twist, as it is asking you to share all about someone else.

Stephen Farmer, the Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions, has said in an admissions blog for the university he “thinks some of the best essays have come from students writing about something or someone other than themselves.”

Since they believe some of the best essays are written about someone else, it’s pretty generous of UNC-Chapel Hill to offer a question like this.

This prompt takes them a step further in figuring out who you are exactly and why you’d make a good fit for the UNC-Chapel Hill community.

It shows that they truly aren’t trying to stump you. They’re trying to give you access to prompts that spark your desires and passions because those aspects of your identity are just as important as the grades you earned and the extracurricular activities you participated in.

While you are writing about someone other than yourself, make sure that the person indirectly displays your passions, interests, or skills. Even though this essay prompt is not about you, your application still is.

• Maybe your science teacher is a community builder in your life. Talk about the real-world experience he has in the field, and how he brings that to the classroom. Share a quick story that shows his dedication to helping every student grow. Add in a section at the end that states your passion for science and research would not be the same without his guidance and support.
• Your best friend who spends every evening after school tutoring younger students could be your community builder. Write about the passion she has to make a difference in the lives of younger students. Your choice in friends will show the admissions team that you associate yourself with others that are on the path to success, and therefore would fit in well with the UNC-Chapel Hill community.
• It might even be your mom who is a community builder. Maybe you see her up late at night searching for the perfect host family for next year’s foreign exchange student. She may have opened up your own home to many students in the past until she was able to find their ideal match. She cares deeply about diversity, belonging, and educational opportunities, in hopes to better the future of kids around the world.

This essay is meant to be about someone else, so make sure that you use the majority of your word count to describe your difference-maker. You can consider taking the last 2 or 3 sentences to share how they’ve made a difference in your life (allowing the admissions team to get to know you, your passions, and your beliefs.

• Talk about how your science teacher has included you in research projects and sparked your interest in finding a cure for M.S.
• Mention how volunteering for your best friend’s tutoring program has taught you about dedication and your real opportunity to make a tangible difference in the world around you (even though your passion is in medicine).
• Describe what you learned throughout your mom’s years working with Foreign Exchange students. Share how the relationships she has helped you build have given you a more worldly perspective, and how that perspective is going to shape your future.

You can share these monumental details in just a few sentences when you make every word count, ensuring that the essay’s main focus is still about the community builder, not yourself.

UNC Essay 3 Example

After graduating from MIT with a degree in Computer Science and Molecular Biology, Mr. Smith spent 10 years working in a well-known lab studying evolutionary genetics. Later, he got his Master’s of Education and became our new science teacher at Roosevelt High. From the start, I knew that Mr. Smith was different. He didn’t just come to class and teach us lessons from a textbook. He would find an issue, and tell us to solve it. He would create an imaginary virus, and make us cure it. He shared stories of his real-life experience working in a lab and taught us about the real differences that scientists make in our world today. Mr. Smith also cared more about his students than any teacher I’ve had before. He didn’t care about grades; he cared about the level on which we were learning. He didn’t want us to circle the right multiple choice answer, he wanted to see our brains transforming. Mr. Smith got to school early and invited us for extra study time. If we had an interest, he’d create a lesson to let us learn all about it. He started a club that allowed future science majors to participate in real-life research projects, similar to what we will experience in college. Mr. Smith changed my life, making me the future scientist that I am today. He allowed me to find my passion for changing the world around me, one scientific discovery at a time.

Conclusion: Writing the UNC-Chapel Hill Essays

As has been mentioned a few times, these supplemental prompts are important. Here are a few last-minute tips to help you write your very best essays:

• Don’t forget to proofread your work
• No matter what you’re writing about (someone else, a change to your community, etc.) make sure it reflects who you are. The prompts may be about topics other than yourself, but they are still being used to allow the admissions team to get to know you .
• After you’re done writing, go back through your piece and make sure every word counts. With only 200-250 words available, not even one should be wasted.

When you follow these tips, you’re sure to write an excellent supplemental essay for UNC-Chapel Hill. Follow the directions, show who you are, and let your passion shine through. Take what some call a challenge and turn it into an opportunity to show this college who you truly are. Your spot in that 26% is waiting for you.

Learn how we can help you with college and career guidance! Check out our YouTube channel!

Click Here to Schedule a Free Consult!

Stay on track and ease your anxiety with our second-to-none college application assistance.

• Ethics & Honesty
• Privacy Policy
• Join Our Team

(732) 339-3835

[email protected]

UNC Chapel Hill Supplemental Essays 2023-24 – Prompts and Advice

July 28, 2023

Those hoping to enter the Tar Heel Class of 2026 faced tougher competition than at any previous time in UNC Chapel Hill history. To quantify this assertion, there were 57,219 first-year applicants for the Class of 2026 and the overall acceptance rate was just 16.8%–less than half the figure seen two decades ago. North Carolinians continue to enjoy a sizable advantage. In fact, in-state applicants were accepted at roughly a 40% clip while out-of-state applicants experienced just a 10% admit rate. The mid-50% SAT range for North Carolinians was 1340-1500 while the range for out-of-staters was a more intimidating 1400-1540. For all applicants, the UNC Chapel Hill supplemental essays will be of great importance.

(Want to learn more about How to Get Into the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill? Visit our blog entitled: How to Get Into UNC–Chapel Hill for all of the most recent admissions data as well as tips for gaining acceptance.)

If you want to have your strongest shot at one day donning the Carolina blue and white, you’ll need to find ways to stand out on your application. Through its two short answer prompts, the UNC-Chapel Hill supplemental section still affords an opportunity to showcase what makes you uniquely qualified for admission. Below are the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill’s supplemental prompts for the 2023-24 admissions cycle along with tips about how to address each one.

UNC Chapel Hill supplemental essays: Short answer prompts 2023-24

You’ll respond to each of the following two prompts in 200-250 words:

1) Discuss one of your personal qualities and share a story, anecdote, or memory of how it helped you make a positive impact on a community. This could be your current community or another community you have engaged.

This essay starts with an invitation to share a personal quality that you feel is essential for the admissions committee to know about. Next, you need to take that personal quality, situate it in a true story that involves the larger world, and explain how you made a positive impact on others. You may wish to “work backward” on this one. Think about how you positively helped a community in your life and then try to nail down which quality of yours ultimately had the most impact. This way, the audience will be able to clearly see your favorable quality in action versus you just explaining that you are empathetic, versatile, loyal, trustworthy, resilient, etc.

Additionally, as you consider your approach to this essay, it’s important to look at “community” as a broadly defined concept. Community can encompass anything from your high school, your neighborhood, a place of worship, your family, or even a club or sports team. Some words of warning with this one: this doesn’t need to be a grandiose vision. For example, you single-handedly solved the climate crisis and eliminated global poverty. You don’t have to be the lone hero in this tale!

UNC Supplemental Essays (Continued)

2) Discuss an academic topic that you’re excited to explore and learn more about in college. Why does this topic interest you? Topics could be a specific course of study, research interests, or any other area related to your academic experience in college.

Here, Chapel Hill is asking you to share your story of how you became interested in your selected discipline. You can structure the narrative of this essay as a soup to nuts chronicling of your entire journey toward your discipline of interest. Contrarily, you could share one or two vignettes that illustrate your burgeoning passion for engineering, history, French, computer science, business, psychology, etc. As you begin the prewriting phase, you may want to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your first strong memory relating to your future area of study?
• What fills you with wonder?
• What books have you read on the subject?
• Do you consume podcasts or documentaries related to your passions?
• Have certain online or print publications helped to fuel your interests?
• What subtopics of your prospective discipline most intrigue you?
• Did a teacher excite you about this topic or was it a parent/relative or outside mentor?

How important are the UNC Chapel Hill supplemental Essays?

There are eight factors that UNC Chapel Hill considers as “very important” and the essays are among them. In addition to the essays, UNC-Chapel Hill gives the greatest consideration to the rigor of one’s academic record, standardized test scores, recommendations, extracurricular activities, talent/ability, character/personal qualities, and state residency.

UNC Chapel Hill Supplemental Essays – Want Personalized Essay Assistance?

Lastly, if you are interested in working with one of College Transitions’ experienced and knowledgeable essay coaches as you craft your UNC supplemental essays, we encourage you to get a quote today.

• Application Strategies
• College Essay

Andrew Belasco

A licensed counselor and published researcher, Andrew's experience in the field of college admissions and transition spans two decades. He has previously served as a high school counselor, consultant and author for Kaplan Test Prep, and advisor to U.S. Congress, reporting on issues related to college admissions and financial aid.

• 2-Year Colleges
• Best Colleges by Major
• Best Colleges by State
• Big Picture
• Career & Personality Assessment
• College Search/Knowledge
• College Success
• Costs & Financial Aid
• Dental School Admissions
• Extracurricular Activities
• Graduate School Admissions
• High School Success
• High Schools
• Law School Admissions
• Medical School Admissions
• Navigating the Admissions Process
• Online Learning
• Private High School Spotlight
• Summer Program Spotlight
• Summer Programs
• Test Prep Provider Spotlight

“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”

— Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Nationally Recognized College Expert

College Planning in Your Inbox

Join our information-packed monthly newsletter.

I am a... Student Student Parent Counselor Educator Other First Name Last Name Email Address Zip Code Area of Interest Business Computer Science Engineering Fine/Performing Arts Humanities Mathematics STEM Pre-Med Psychology Social Studies/Sciences Submit

• Phone: (617) 993-4823

• January 14, 2022

How To Write the UNC-Chapel Hill Supplemental Essays (2021-2022)

Welcome to the UNC-Chapel Hill supplemental essay prompts for the 2021-2022 college application cycle! Here’s everything you need to know to write the best supplemental essays possible.

UNC-Chapel Hill is a top-notch school that is getting even more difficult to get into, especially for a school in a state system. Because of its highly-ranked academic programs, it is considered a Public Ivy, or a public institution that offers an academic experience similar to that of an Ivy League university. That’s why it’s getting increasingly hard for applicants, particularly out-of-state applicants, to be admitted since no more than 18 percent of out-of-state first-year undergraduate students may enroll on UNC campuses.

But one way you can stand out in your applications is through your essays. UNC-Chapel Hill states that they “aspire to build a diverse and inclusive community at Carolina and believe that students can only achieve their best when they learn alongside students from different backgrounds.” It’s important that you keep this in mind while you write your supplemental essays, which include 2 short answers and 4 fill-in-the-blank questions.

Short Answer Prompts

You’ll choose two of the following prompts to respond to in 200-250 words:

Describe a peer you see as a community builder. What actions has that peer taken? How has their work made a difference in your life?

This is a good chance to show admissions officers about what you admire in others and the goals that you potentially have for yourself. What does a “community builder” look like to you? How do you define your community? What kind of work do you consider to be most impactful? All of these questions will help admissions officers understand what you will contribute to the UNC-Chapel Hill community. Share a story or share an anecdote about a time a peer’s work made a difference in your life, and use specific, vivid details to help bring this story to life.

While many students write about a peer they met through community service (and highlighting service can have a positive effect on a student’s chances of admission), there are many different activities and roles you can talk about. Maybe a soccer teammate stepped up to lead you to victory this year, or a friend in your dance class always stayed afterward to help other students rehearse. How do they inspire you to follow in their footsteps?

Describe an aspect of your identity (for example, your religion, culture, race, sexual or gender identity, affinity group, etc.). How has this aspect of your identity shaped your life experiences thus far?

This is kind of a variation on the “diversity” essay that many schools ask for i.e. how you would contribute to their school’s diverse student body. It also sounds similar to this popular Common App prompt: ​​“Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, please share your story.”

While answers you’ve previously written for similar questions can be repurposed here, you’ll want to tailor it more for the school. Research what UNC-Chapel Hill values in its community. Read their mission statement , comb through different extracurricular groups, and see what kind of school spirit they foster in students. Write in bold detail about the part of your identity that has shaped your life so far, and then look forward to how you can make unique contributions to UNC-Chapel Hill’s diverse student body.

If you could change one thing to better your community, what would it be? Why is it important and how would you contribute to this change?

Again, another essay asking about your impact on a community — it’s not an accident that the instructions say that they “hope to learn what being a member of such a community would mean to you.” And even though they’re asking you to look ahead and discuss what you might do in the future, this is still a good time to mention your past contributions to your community.

What is a problem you see in your school, town, state, or country? What have you done so far to address it, and what work is left to be done? Why does it matter to you so much, and what is your personal relationship to this community? Show them how passionate you are about making a difference in the lives of others. Even though this idea of “community” can be vague, your job is to be specific so that your story and point of view come to life on the page.

Former UNC-Chapel Hill employee, community service member, and civil rights activist Esphur Foster once said, “We are nothing without our history.” Her words are memorialized on the Northside Neighborhood Freedom Fighters monument. How does history shape who you are?

This could become an essay that’s very similar to the identity essay above, so keep that in mind if you select both prompts. But “history” can be interpreted to mean many different things — your family history, the history of the place where you grew up, the history of your religion or culture. Think about larger trends and ideas that have been passed down for generations. Is there a piece of wisdom that is still shared in your family today? How does this kind of history impact what you want to do with your life?

Fill-in-the-blank Responses

You’ll complete all four of the following fill-in-the-blank responses in 25 words each:

One family tradition I cherish:

Think back to your family holiday celebrations and the things you looked forward to the most. Even if your family doesn’t have traditions, consider writing about the lessons that your family members have taught you and how you may pass this down to future generations.

This I believe:

Interpret this in the way that makes the most sense to you. Whether it’s a quote that has inspired you over the year or a religious/moral belief, try to concisely describe how the belief has shaped your life.

The quality I most admire in myself:

Take pride in your abilities and accomplishments, but make sure it doesn’t come off as too braggy. How can you use this quality to help others and make a positive difference?

The protagonist I most identify with:

This gives readers an insight into the stories that have been important in your life. Think about the characters that embody what you value most — selflessness, bravery, confidence, etc. Choose a character in a book that actually resonates with you, instead of a character that you pick just because it “sounds good.”

Looking for some help in writing your UNC-Chapel Hill supplemental essays? Schedule a free consultation with one of our college application consultants today.

• College Applications , Supplemental Essays , The College Essay

How Your Extracurricular Activities Can Boost Your College Application

The Best Internship Opportunities for High School Students

Weighted vs. Unweighted GPA: What’s the Difference?

• Partnerships
• Our Insights
• Our Approach

Our Services

• High School Roadmaps
• College Applications
• Graduate School Admissions
• H&C Incubator
• [email protected]

Terms and Conditions . Privacy policy

©2024 H&C Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Application Essays

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you write and revise the personal statement required by many graduate programs, internships, and special academic programs.

Before you start writing

Because the application essay can have a critical effect upon your progress toward a career, you should spend significantly more time, thought, and effort on it than its typically brief length would suggest. It should reflect how you arrived at your professional goals, why the program is ideal for you, and what you bring to the program. Don’t make this a deadline task—now’s the time to write, read, rewrite, give to a reader, revise again, and on until the essay is clear, concise, and compelling. At the same time, don’t be afraid. You know most of the things you need to say already.

Read the instructions carefully. One of the basic tasks of the application essay is to follow the directions. If you don’t do what they ask, the reader may wonder if you will be able to follow directions in their program. Make sure you follow page and word limits exactly—err on the side of shortness, not length. The essay may take two forms:

• A one-page essay answering a general question
• Several short answers to more specific questions

Do some research before you start writing. Think about…

• The field. Why do you want to be a _____? No, really. Think about why you and you particularly want to enter that field. What are the benefits and what are the shortcomings? When did you become interested in the field and why? What path in that career interests you right now? Brainstorm and write these ideas out.
• The program. Why is this the program you want to be admitted to? What is special about the faculty, the courses offered, the placement record, the facilities you might be using? If you can’t think of anything particular, read the brochures they offer, go to events, or meet with a faculty member or student in the program. A word about honesty here—you may have a reason for choosing a program that wouldn’t necessarily sway your reader; for example, you want to live near the beach, or the program is the most prestigious and would look better on your resume. You don’t want to be completely straightforward in these cases and appear superficial, but skirting around them or lying can look even worse. Turn these aspects into positives. For example, you may want to go to a program in a particular location because it is a place that you know very well and have ties to, or because there is a need in your field there. Again, doing research on the program may reveal ways to legitimate even your most superficial and selfish reasons for applying.
• Yourself. What details or anecdotes would help your reader understand you? What makes you special? Is there something about your family, your education, your work/life experience, or your values that has shaped you and brought you to this career field? What motivates or interests you? Do you have special skills, like leadership, management, research, or communication? Why would the members of the program want to choose you over other applicants? Be honest with yourself and write down your ideas. If you are having trouble, ask a friend or relative to make a list of your strengths or unique qualities that you plan to read on your own (and not argue about immediately). Ask them to give you examples to back up their impressions (For example, if they say you are “caring,” ask them to describe an incident they remember in which they perceived you as caring).

Now, write a draft

This is a hard essay to write. It’s probably much more personal than any of the papers you have written for class because it’s about you, not World War II or planaria. You may want to start by just getting something—anything—on paper. Try freewriting. Think about the questions we asked above and the prompt for the essay, and then write for 15 or 30 minutes without stopping. What do you want your audience to know after reading your essay? What do you want them to feel? Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, organization, or anything else. Just get out the ideas you have. For help getting started, see our handout on brainstorming .

Now, look at what you’ve written. Find the most relevant, memorable, concrete statements and focus in on them. Eliminate any generalizations or platitudes (“I’m a people person”, “Doctors save lives”, or “Mr. Calleson’s classes changed my life”), or anything that could be cut and pasted into anyone else’s application. Find what is specific to you about the ideas that generated those platitudes and express them more directly. Eliminate irrelevant issues (“I was a track star in high school, so I think I’ll make a good veterinarian.”) or issues that might be controversial for your reader (“My faith is the one true faith, and only nurses with that faith are worthwhile,” or “Lawyers who only care about money are evil.”).

Often, writers start out with generalizations as a way to get to the really meaningful statements, and that’s OK. Just make sure that you replace the generalizations with examples as you revise. A hint: you may find yourself writing a good, specific sentence right after a general, meaningless one. If you spot that, try to use the second sentence and delete the first.

Applications that have several short-answer essays require even more detail. Get straight to the point in every case, and address what they’ve asked you to address.

Now that you’ve generated some ideas, get a little bit pickier. It’s time to remember one of the most significant aspects of the application essay: your audience. Your readers may have thousands of essays to read, many or most of which will come from qualified applicants. This essay may be your best opportunity to communicate with the decision makers in the application process, and you don’t want to bore them, offend them, or make them feel you are wasting their time.

With this in mind:

• Do assure your audience that you understand and look forward to the challenges of the program and the field, not just the benefits.
• Do assure your audience that you understand exactly the nature of the work in the field and that you are prepared for it, psychologically and morally as well as educationally.
• Do assure your audience that you care about them and their time by writing a clear, organized, and concise essay.
• Do address any information about yourself and your application that needs to be explained (for example, weak grades or unusual coursework for your program). Include that information in your essay, and be straightforward about it. Your audience will be more impressed with your having learned from setbacks or having a unique approach than your failure to address those issues.
• Don’t waste space with information you have provided in the rest of the application. Every sentence should be effective and directly related to the rest of the essay. Don’t ramble or use fifteen words to express something you could say in eight.
• Don’t overstate your case for what you want to do, being so specific about your future goals that you come off as presumptuous or naïve (“I want to become a dentist so that I can train in wisdom tooth extraction, because I intend to focus my life’s work on taking 13 rather than 15 minutes per tooth.”). Your goals may change–show that such a change won’t devastate you.
• And, one more time, don’t write in cliches and platitudes. Every doctor wants to help save lives, every lawyer wants to work for justice—your reader has read these general cliches a million times.

Imagine the worst-case scenario (which may never come true—we’re talking hypothetically): the person who reads your essay has been in the field for decades. She is on the application committee because she has to be, and she’s read 48 essays so far that morning. You are number 49, and your reader is tired, bored, and thinking about lunch. How are you going to catch and keep her attention?

Assure your audience that you are capable academically, willing to stick to the program’s demands, and interesting to have around. For more tips, see our handout on audience .

Voice and style

The voice you use and the style in which you write can intrigue your audience. The voice you use in your essay should be yours. Remember when your high school English teacher said “never say ‘I’”? Here’s your chance to use all those “I”s you’ve been saving up. The narrative should reflect your perspective, experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Focusing on events or ideas may give your audience an indirect idea of how these things became important in forming your outlook, but many others have had equally compelling experiences. By simply talking about those events in your own voice, you put the emphasis on you rather than the event or idea. Look at this anecdote:

During the night shift at Wirth Memorial Hospital, a man walked into the Emergency Room wearing a monkey costume and holding his head. He seemed confused and was moaning in pain. One of the nurses ascertained that he had been swinging from tree branches in a local park and had hit his head when he fell out of a tree. This tragic tale signified the moment at which I realized psychiatry was the only career path I could take.

An interesting tale, yes, but what does it tell you about the narrator? The following example takes the same anecdote and recasts it to make the narrator more of a presence in the story:

I was working in the Emergency Room at Wirth Memorial Hospital one night when a man walked in wearing a monkey costume and holding his head. I could tell he was confused and in pain. After a nurse asked him a few questions, I listened in surprise as he explained that he had been a monkey all of his life and knew that it was time to live with his brothers in the trees. Like many other patients I would see that year, this man suffered from an illness that only a combination of psychological and medical care would effectively treat. I realized then that I wanted to be able to help people by using that particular combination of skills only a psychiatrist develops.

The voice you use should be approachable as well as intelligent. This essay is not the place to stun your reader with ten prepositional phrases (“the goal of my study of the field of law in the winter of my discontent can best be understood by the gathering of more information about my youth”) and thirty nouns (“the research and study of the motivation behind my insights into the field of dentistry contains many pitfalls and disappointments but even more joy and enlightenment”) per sentence. (Note: If you are having trouble forming clear sentences without all the prepositions and nouns, take a look at our handout on style .)

You may want to create an impression of expertise in the field by using specialized or technical language. But beware of this unless you really know what you are doing—a mistake will look twice as ignorant as not knowing the terms in the first place. Your audience may be smart, but you don’t want to make them turn to a dictionary or fall asleep between the first word and the period of your first sentence. Keep in mind that this is a personal statement. Would you think you were learning a lot about a person whose personal statement sounded like a journal article? Would you want to spend hours in a lab or on a committee with someone who shuns plain language?

Of course, you don’t want to be chatty to the point of making them think you only speak slang, either. Your audience may not know what “I kicked that lame-o to the curb for dissing my research project” means. Keep it casual enough to be easy to follow, but formal enough to be respectful of the audience’s intelligence.

Just use an honest voice and represent yourself as naturally as possible. It may help to think of the essay as a sort of face-to-face interview, only the interviewer isn’t actually present.

Too much style

A well-written, dramatic essay is much more memorable than one that fails to make an emotional impact on the reader. Good anecdotes and personal insights can really attract an audience’s attention. BUT be careful not to let your drama turn into melodrama. You want your reader to see your choices motivated by passion and drive, not hyperbole and a lack of reality. Don’t invent drama where there isn’t any, and don’t let the drama take over. Getting someone else to read your drafts can help you figure out when you’ve gone too far.

Taking risks

Many guides to writing application essays encourage you to take a risk, either by saying something off-beat or daring or by using a unique writing style. When done well, this strategy can work—your goal is to stand out from the rest of the applicants and taking a risk with your essay will help you do that. An essay that impresses your reader with your ability to think and express yourself in original ways and shows you really care about what you are saying is better than one that shows hesitancy, lack of imagination, or lack of interest.

But be warned: this strategy is a risk. If you don’t carefully consider what you are saying and how you are saying it, you may offend your readers or leave them with a bad impression of you as flaky, immature, or careless. Do not alienate your readers.

Some writers take risks by using irony (your suffering at the hands of a barbaric dentist led you to want to become a gentle one), beginning with a personal failure (that eventually leads to the writer’s overcoming it), or showing great imagination (one famous successful example involved a student who answered a prompt about past formative experiences by beginning with a basic answer—”I have volunteered at homeless shelters”—that evolved into a ridiculous one—”I have sealed the hole in the ozone layer with plastic wrap”). One student applying to an art program described the person he did not want to be, contrasting it with the person he thought he was and would develop into if accepted. Another person wrote an essay about her grandmother without directly linking her narrative to the fact that she was applying for medical school. Her essay was risky because it called on the reader to infer things about the student’s character and abilities from the story.

Assess your credentials and your likelihood of getting into the program before you choose to take a risk. If you have little chance of getting in, try something daring. If you are almost certainly guaranteed a spot, you have more flexibility. In any case, make sure that you answer the essay question in some identifiable way.

After you’ve written a draft

Get several people to read it and write their comments down. It is worthwhile to seek out someone in the field, perhaps a professor who has read such essays before. Give it to a friend, your mom, or a neighbor. The key is to get more than one point of view, and then compare these with your own. Remember, you are the one best equipped to judge how accurately you are representing yourself. For tips on putting this advice to good use, see our handout on getting feedback .

After you’ve received feedback, revise the essay. Put it away. Get it out and revise it again (you can see why we said to start right away—this process may take time). Get someone to read it again. Revise it again.

When you think it is totally finished, you are ready to proofread and format the essay. Check every sentence and punctuation mark. You cannot afford a careless error in this essay. (If you are not comfortable with your proofreading skills, check out our handout on editing and proofreading ).

If you find that your essay is too long, do not reformat it extensively to make it fit. Making readers deal with a nine-point font and quarter-inch margins will only irritate them. Figure out what material you can cut and cut it. For strategies for meeting word limits, see our handout on writing concisely .

Finally, proofread it again. We’re not kidding.

Other resources

Don’t be afraid to talk to professors or professionals in the field. Many of them would be flattered that you asked their advice, and they will have useful suggestions that others might not have. Also keep in mind that many colleges and professional programs offer websites addressing the personal statement. You can find them either through the website of the school to which you are applying or by searching under “personal statement” or “application essays” using a search engine.

If your schedule and ours permit, we invite you to come to the Writing Center. Be aware that during busy times in the semester, we limit students to a total of two visits to discuss application essays and personal statements (two visits per student, not per essay); we do this so that students working on papers for courses will have a better chance of being seen. Make an appointment or submit your essay to our online writing center (note that we cannot guarantee that an online tutor will help you in time).

For information on other aspects of the application process, you can consult the resources at University Career Services .

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Asher, Donald. 2012. Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way Into the Graduate School of Your Choice , 4th ed. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Curry, Boykin, Emily Angel Baer, and Brian Kasbar. 2003. Essays That Worked for College Applications: 50 Essays That Helped Students Get Into the Nation’s Top Colleges . New York: Ballantine Books.

Stelzer, Richard. 2002. How to Write a Winning Personal Statement for Graduate and Professional School , 3rd ed. Lawrenceville, NJ: Thomson Peterson.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

• Search All Scholarships
• Exclusive Scholarships
• Easy Scholarships to Apply For
• No Essay Scholarships
• Scholarships for HS Juniors
• Scholarships for HS Seniors
• Scholarships for College Students
• Scholarships for Grad Students
• Scholarships for Women
• Scholarships for Black Students
• Scholarships
• Student Loans
• College Admissions
• Financial Aid
• Scholarship Winners
• Scholarship Providers

Student-centric advice and objective recommendations

Higher education has never been more confusing or expensive. Our goal is to help you navigate the very big decisions related to higher ed with objective information and expert advice. Each piece of content on the site is original, based on extensive research, and reviewed by multiple editors, including a subject matter expert. This ensures that all of our content is up-to-date, useful, accurate, and thorough.

Our reviews and recommendations are based on extensive research, testing, and feedback. We may receive commission from links on our website, but that doesn’t affect our editors’ opinions. Our marketing partners don’t review, approve or endorse our editorial content. It’s accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted. You can find a complete list of our partners here .

How to Respond to the 2023/2024 UNC Supplemental Essay Prompts 

Ginny Howey is a former content writer at Scholarships360. Ginny graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2022 with a degree in Media and Journalism (Advertising/PR focus) and minors in Entrepreneurship and Spanish. Ginny’s professional experience includes two summers as a writer intern at global creative consultancy BCG BrightHouse. More recently, Ginny worked as a content marketing intern for Durham-based software engineering bootcamp Momentum, where she gained SEO skills. She has also written freelance articles on emerging tech for A.I. startup Resultid.

Learn about our editorial policies

Cece Gilmore is a Content Writer at Scholarships360. Cece earned her undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Arizona State University. While at ASU, she was the education editor as well as a published staff reporter at Downtown Devil. Cece was also the co-host of her own radio show on Blaze Radio ASU.

Cari Schultz is an Educational Review Board Advisor at Scholarships360, where she reviews content featured on the site. For over 20 years, Cari has worked in college admissions (Baldwin Wallace University, The Ohio State University, University of Kentucky) and as a college counselor (Columbus School for Girls).

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the country’s oldest state university. Apart from its star-studded basketball program, UNC Chapel Hill is known for offering top-notch academics. If you want to become part of the next class of Tarheels, focus on crushing your UNC supplemental essays. Your responses should convey your distinct voice and why you are a great fit for the school. Keep reading to learn more about how to best respond to the prompts! 

The UNC supplemental essay prompts

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wants to know how you’d contribute to the campus community. They ask that you respond to the following two prompts in up to 250 words each. 

Discuss one of your personal qualities and share a story, anecdote, or memory of how it helped you make a positive impact on a community. This could be your current community or another community you have engaged.

Ultimately, this question is asking you to discuss any community service you have done. This could include a wide array of activities ranging from typical community service such as picking up litter around your neighborhood to starting a club at your high school. This prompt also specifies that it can be any type of community that you have engaged in, so feel free to get creative! Some examples of communities can be your high school, your neighborhood, a place of worship or a sports team. Think about any group you have aided and what exactly you did in order to help them. Be sure to pick a story, anecdote or memory that paints you in a positive light and reveals a lot about you as a person! Remember, ultimately UNC asked this question in order to know more about you and your personality so be sure to have it shine through in this response! Once you have described your story and how it impacted your community, take it one step further by detailing how you hope to change your future UNC community in a similar fashion. For example, if you discuss starting a recycling club at your high school, you can end your response with detailing how you hope to start a similar club at UNC to help reduce the environmental impact the university will have. Connecting back to UNC will give you some bonus points with the UNC admissions officer reading over your response! Overall, be sure that you are painting a picture in your response rather than just stating your contributions to a community. 

Questions to consider

• What have you done or participated in in order to benefit your community?
• What do you hope to bring to UNC to help better the UNC community?
• How did helping your community make you feel? Would you do that action again? 

Apply to these scholarships due soon

$10,000 “No Essay” Scholarship

$2,000 Sallie Mae Scholarship

“Get Inspired” TikTok Scholarship

Niche $25,000 “No Essay” Scholarship

TikTok Diploma Frame Giveaway

$25k “Be Bold” No-Essay Scholarship

“Jump for Joy” InstaScholarship

“College Here I Come” Essay Scholarship for High School Seniors

$2,000 No Essay CollegeVine Scholarship

Discuss an academic topic that you’re excited to explore and learn more about in college. Why does this topic interest you? Topics could be a specific course of study, research interests, or any other area related to your academic experience in college.

Upon first glance of this prompt, it seems like the perfect opportunity to dive into why you selected your major and what you are passionate about within that field! However, it is encouraged to discuss your major but it is not required! Rather, you can discuss an interest beyond your major. Ultimately, it is a personal preference on what you decide to write about! When selecting a topic to write about, you should try to be as specific as possible. Do not just say “psychology” rather say “developmental psychology, specifically nature vs nurture in children.” Being specific allows you to truly showcase your passion and can allow you to discuss specific UNC classes, clubs and professors that relate to this specific niche interest in a field. Remember, one of the best ways to describe your passion for a subject is through a story! So, provide a natural and captivating response that details your passion through a narrative. Once you complete this narrative, you should then be connecting back to UNC. Try to choose 1-2 UNC resources you are interested in taking advantage of such as a specific club, research lab or professor’s class that connect to your academic interest. 

• What are you academically passionate about? What are you hoping to major in in college? 
• Why are you interested in this field of study? Is there a personal connection? 
• What resources are available that you are excited about at UNC? 

Final pointers for acing the UNC supplemental essays

To know which essays to choose, consider brainstorming bullet points for each question. Strive to share compelling personal anecdotes and also reveal key pieces of your identity not shared elsewhere in your application. With these tips, you should have a great start on nailing your UNC-CH supplemental essays! 

Additional resources

Once you have completed your UNC supplemental essays and revised them to tell your stories succinctly, read up on how to choose a college. Supplemental essays are just one component of the college application process. Scholarships360 has plenty of resources to help with other aspects, such as our articles on everything you need to know about work study   and navigating different types of student loans.   While you are applying to colleges (and before and after too!), make sure that you apply for all the scholarships you are eligible for! 

Start your scholarship search

• Vetted scholarships custom-matched to your profile
• Access exclusive scholarships only available to Scholarships360 members

Frequently asked questions about writing the UNC supplemental essays

How important are the unc chapel hill supplemental essays, when are the application deadlines for unc chapel hill, can i get creative with my unc chapel hill supplemental essay answers, scholarships360 recommended.

10 Tips for Successful College Applications

Coalition vs. Common App: What is the difference?

College Application Deadlines 2023-2024: What You Need to Know

Trending now.

How to Convert Your GPA to a 4.0 Scale

PSAT to SAT Score Conversion: Predict Your Score

What Are Public Ivy League Schools?

3 reasons to join scholarships360.

• Automatic entry to our $10,000 No-Essay Scholarship
• Personalized matching to thousands of vetted scholarships
• Quick apply for scholarships exclusive to our platform

By the way...Scholarships360 is 100% free!

UNC Chapel Hill Guide

The Ivy Scholars guide to UNC’s culture, admissions, and other essential information for prospective students and their families.

Location: Chapel Hill, North C arolina

Mascot: Rameses the Ram

Type: Public Research Institution

Population: 30,000 (19,000 undergrads)

Jump to Section:

Statistics  

Natl. Rankings  

Admissions Info

Academics  

Special Programs

Student Life  

Financial Info  

Fun Facts     

About UNC Chapel Hill

Among the nation’s oldest and most prestigious state universities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the only public institution to grant a degree in the 18th century. With a strong program of academics, a proud athletic tradition, and a commitment to research, UNC is one of the South’s preeminent institutions.

UNC Chapel Hill Statistics

Year Founded: 1789

4-Year Graduation Rate: 81%

Gender Distribution: 58% female, 42% male

Acceptance Rate: 24%

Residency: 85% in state, 10% out of state, 5% international

Location Type: College Town

Schedule System:  Semesters

Student/Faculty Ratio: 13:1

Average Class Size:  20

Demographics: 62% Caucasian, 11% Asian, 11% Other or Unknown, 8% Black, 8% Hispanic

Need assistance with the college admissions process?

National rankings.

US News Rankings:

• #5 Top Public Schools
• #8 Undergraduate Business Program
• #10 Best Value Schools
• #29 National Universities
• #42 Undergraduate Research
• #61 Best Undergraduate Business Programs
• #63 Most Innovative Schools

Independent Rankings:

• #8 Public Colleges per Forbes
• #13 Best College Newspaper per The Princeton Review
• #19 Best Value Colleges per Forbes
• #21 Best Value Colleges per The Princeton Review
• #33 National Universities per The Times of Higher Education
• #45 Top Colleges per Forbes
• #54 World Universities per The Times of Higher Education

UNC Chapel Hill Admissions Information

Application Deadlines:

• Early Action: October 15th
• Regular Decision: January 15th
• Transfer Deadline: February 15th

Notification Dates:

• Early Action: End of January
• Regular Decision: End of March
• Transfer Deadline: End of April

Acceptance Rates:

• Transfer: 34%

Average Applicant Pool: 39,700

Average Number of Applicants Accepted: 9,700

Average Number Enrolled: 4,400

Application Systems: Common App

Average GPA: 3.83 weighted

SAT Scores: 25th% – 1450, 75th% – 1560

ACT Scores:  25th% – 33, 75th% – 35

*Test mandatory. Writing sections are not required.

Demonstrated Interest:

UNC does not consider demonstrated interest.

Recommendation Letter Policies:

One recommendation from a counselor and one from a teacher in an academic subject are required.

UNC Chapel Hill Essay Prompts:

• Common App Personal Statement (650 words)
• Expand on an aspect of your identity  – for example, your religion, culture, race, sexual or gender identity, affinity group, etc. How has this aspect of your identity shaped your life experiences thus far?
• If you could change one thing about where you live, what would it be and why?
• Describe someone who you see as a community builder. What actions has that person taken? How has their work made a difference in your life?

UNC Essay Writing Tips

Special Notes:

• Students applying as Music or Dramatic Arts majors are required to audition.
• State law requires at least 82% of each year’s admitted class be from North Carolina.
• Students choose and apply to their major after their first year, including applications to schools beyond the college. All schools beyond the college may only be applied to by transfer students or current UNC students.
• Around 800 transfer students are admitted each year, and must enter as juniors or seniors.
• Students must use the Common App.
• Transfer students must submit official transcripts from high school and every college attended. They must answer the same short answer prompts as first-year applicants.
• The school does request standardized test scores. They also require one letter of recommendation, although they will allow for an additional one to be included.
• The school does not offer interviews.
• Professional Schools have additional transfer requirements.

UNC Chapel Hill Admission Strategy

Admissions Criteria:

The criteria the school considers very important are: course rigor, test scores, essays, extracurriculars, recommendations, talent, character, and state residency.

The criteria the school considers important are: GPA, class rank, and volunteering.

The criteria which are considered are: legacy status, first-generation status, and race/ethnicity. Chapel Hill considers legacy status more than most other state schools, and around 17% of students are legacies. This does not mean admission is automatic for legacies, but it is a leg up.

Recruited athletes do have an advantage in admission, although this does depend on level of talent and how heavily they are recruited.

What is Chapel Hill Looking For?

The school uses holistic admissions, and every application is read and considered in full before a choice is made on it. They have no automatic cutoffs or thresholds for grades or test scores which will cause automatic acceptance or rejection, although it is much harder to get in with poor academic performance. They discuss this admissions philosophy here on their website.

They are looking for smart, motivated, and curious students, who will both benefit from and add to the community at the school. They want students who will succeed and contribute both in and outside the classroom, and stellar academics alone are not enough to gain admission. That said, 41% of in-state students who apply were accepted last year, while only 13% of out of state students were.

Out of state students are capped at 18% of the student body by law in North Carolina, thus leaving the school very little flexibility in admitting out of state students. It is therefore much easier to gain admission for in-state students, although they are still held to the same academic standards. The school also attempts to ensure students from around the state are admitted, meaning it is easier for students from less inhabited counties than those from more urban areas.

The school has an ongoing commitment to increase the number of low-income students admitted, both via recruitment and new scholarship initiatives. Race and socio-economic status are both considered when admissions decisions are made, although neither is generally the deciding factor. They also have a new commitment to enrolling and supporting veterans or their dependents.

Chapel Hill Strategy:

For in state students, ensuring you are one of the top students in your school is very helpful for your application chances. The school does compete with elite schools around the country for the best students from North Carolina, and their 41% yield rate reflects that. Being a competitive applicant to top colleges generally and a resident of the state makes your chances of admission much higher.

For out of state students, it is much more difficult, but not impossible, to gain admission to the school. Only one letter of recommendation from a teacher is accepted, so if you are requesting letters from multiple teachers, carefully select which one will provide the best view of you as a student and a person. They want to see who you are in a classroom, and what your impact is, in order to understand academic success and potential.

For the essays, authenticity is one of the traits they look for most. The essay should sound like you, and be unique enough to not get lost in the crowd of other essays. The more personal and less generic the essay is, the better it will be received. 

Recruited athletes have the best chance of out of state students, but this is a small demographic generally, and only students who truly excel in a sport should consider this a viable approach.

UNC Chapel Hill Academics

• College of Arts and Sciences
• Gillings School of Global Public Health
• Kenan-Flagler School of Business
• School of Education
• School of Information and Library Science
• Hussman School of Journalism and Media
• School of Nursing
• Eshelman School of Pharmacy
• Students may only enter the College of Arts and Sciences. They may enter other schools after their first year by filling out an additional application. This requires a meeting with an advisor.

Core Requirements:

• Courses taken in four areas outside of the major: Foundations (6 courses), Approaches (8 courses), Connections (8 courses), and Supplemental General Education
• Comprehensive General Education Information

Courses of Study: 

• 71 Majors Offered
• Option to double major
• Popular majors include Communications, Biology, Psychology, Economics, and Health & Physical Education
• Changing a major within a school is relatively simple, changing majors into a different school requires applying to that school, and may be contingent upon being able to meet all graduation requirements in time.
• Minors Offered
• Course Catalog

AP Credit Policies:

• UNC awards credit for scores of 3, 4, or 5 on most AP exams and scores of 4 or above on most IB higher-level exams.
• Comprehensive AP Credit Information

Honors Programs:

• Honors Carolina All incoming students are automatically considered for the honors program with no additional information needed, while current students are able to apply to join the program. The program allows access to honors classes, seminars, and research and mentorship opportunities, plus graduation honors.
• Departmental Honors (contact individual departments for more information).
• Graduation Honors Students may earn distinction or highest distinction based on GPA
• Academic Honors Societies

Research Availability:

• The Office for Undergraduate Research serves to connect students with research opportunities on campus.

Study Abroad: 

• Study Abroad Options

Business Options: 

• The business school offers a single major, but students may choose up to two areas of emphasis within that to explore fields of business that interest them.
• There is also a minor , which is open to students who are not in the business school but wish to pursue business.

Pre-Med Options:

• While there is no dedicated pre-med major, the majors offered by the School of Public Health try to prepare their students for medical or other professional schools. Students may also major in various scientific fields.
• Pre-Health Advising

Pre-Law Options:

• Pre-Law Advising Program
• Philosophy Department Pre-Law

Computer Science Options: 

• The Department of Computer Science offers both a BA and a BS in the field, with BS aimed more towards continuing studies and the BA for students who wish for CS to be a second major or focus.
• They offer a combined BS/MS program which allows students to graduate with both degrees in as little as 5 years.
• CS Student Organizations

Additional Specialty Programs: 

• Baccalaureate Education in Science and Teaching (UNC BEST)
• Inter-institutional Programs
• Joint Biomedical Engineering Program
• Robertson Scholars Program
• APPLES Service Learning
• Dual Degree Programs

Programs for High Schoolers:

• Summer School allows high school students to apply for and take courses at UNC during their Summer term.
• Summer Enrichment Institutes are short programs which allow students to experience what life is like at UNC.
• Summerfuel is a pre-college program which prepares high school students for the transition to college life.

Student Life at UNC Chapel Hill

School Motto: Light and Liberty

Mission and Values:

• Mission: Our mission is to serve as a center for research, scholarship, and creativity and to teach a diverse community of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to become the next generation of leaders. Through the efforts of our exceptional faculty and staff, and with generous support from North Carolina’s citizens, we invest our knowledge and resources to enhance access to learning and to foster the success and prosperity of each rising generation. We also extend knowledge-based services and other resources of the University to the citizens of North Carolina and their institutions to enhance the quality of life for all people in the State.
• Values: Boldness, Excellence, Responsibility, Service, Relationships, Diversity, Leverage, and Improvement
• Additional Information
• Student Testimonials: ( Niche , Unigo , Grad Reports )

Residential Housing System:

There are 32 residence halls across campus, which are grouped into 15 communities. First years are required to live in first-year-experience halls. Upperclassmen may choose from a variety of halls or living learning communities, which focus on various academic or social aspects. There is some apartment style housing available to upperclassmen as well.

Housing Statistics:

• 94% of freshmen live on campus
• 46% of undergraduates live on campus at any given time.

Campus & Surrounding Area :  

• Dominated by two large quads, the campus is divided into three: North, Central, and South campuses. The campus has a lot of green and open spaces.
• Located in the college town of Chapel Hill, points of interest include the Morehead Planetarium , a lively downtown , and a number of fine restaurants . 
• Safety information: ( UNC , College Factual )
• Virtual Visit

Transportation:

• Commuting students are able to forgo a parking pass to receive a free bus pass . The school also offers other commute alternatives .
• Shuttle system for transit around campus.
• Parking Information

Traditions:

• Rushing Franklin – Students rush onto Franklin street in a joyous mob to celebrate sporting victories, often starting bonfires as well.
• Dance Marathon – A 24 hour no-sitting no-sleeping marathon held every Spring in order to raise money for a children’s hospital.
• Old Well Magic – Legend states that drinking from the old well before your first class of the year will bring good luck, and even a 4.0.
• Arts Everywhere Day – One day in Spring campus is filled with art installations, performances by more than 60 student groups, and interactive art activities.

Student-Run Organizations:  

• Organization Database
• Sample Organizations ( Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies , Clef Hangers , Residence Hall Association )
• D1 Athletics Athletic Coast Conference (Good Men’s Basketball and Women’s Soccer)
• Intramural Sports
• Club Sports
• Main Rival: Duke University

Greek Life:  

• 18% of undergraduates participate in greek life, including social, academic, and service organizations.
• There’s frequent live music in town.
• The town of Chapel Hill has a small but vibrant nightlife scene, and many bars and restaurants . 
• Sporting events are also social events, with tail-gating and afterparties being quite common. 
• Frat and apartment parties are a common weekend occurrence, although Chapel Hill isn’t as prominent a party school as some state schools.

Financial Information

Yearly Cost of Attendance:

• Total: $51,970
• Tuition and Fees: $36,000
• Room & Board: $11,526
• Books: $972
• Personal Expenses: $3,472

Financial Aid:

Around 47% of students receive financial aid, with the average award being $19,000. Students are required to submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the CSS profile to be considered for aid. While financial aid applications will not be processed until after a student is admitted, they recommend starting early. All incoming students are automatically considered for need-based grants.

Additional Financial Aid & Student Loan Information

Scholarships: 

There are additional merit based scholarships available, some of which require additional applications. These include the Morehead-Cain and Robertson scholarships. The school also accepts outside scholarships, and offers work-study opportunities to help students cover personal expenses.

• The first dormitory in the US was built at UNC in 1795.
• UNC was the first publicly chartered university under the US constitution, was the first state-sponsored university, and is one of three universities claiming to be the oldest public university in the US.
• The university was forced to close during reconstruction due to the number of casualties suffered during the Civil War among the student body and the town of Chapel Hill.
• The university’s honor code for academic violations is entirely student run and adjudicated.
• The ram mascot, named Rameses, dates back to 1924, when a student brought a ram to a football game, and the kicker rubbed its head for luck before kicking the winning field goal.
• The school keeps changing their main rival, as the fortunes of their rival schools change. It has been Duke, UVA, and NC State.
• President Jame Polk and 13th Vice President William King both graduated from the school.
• Notable alumni include Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm.

Ivy Scholars is the leading educational consultant in Sugar Land, Texas, providing admissions coaching, test prep, and more to help students enroll at top tier schools.

Get In Touch

Call us now: (281) 215-5148

Houston: 4265 San Felipe St, Suite 1100, Houston, TX 77027

Get Started

Subscribe for updates, © all rights reserved.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – UNC Essay Guide 2020-2021

In this UNC-Chapel Hill Essay Guide, you’ll find tips on how to best respond to the supplemental essay prompts for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more guidance on personal essays and the college application process in general, sign up for a monthly plan to work with an admissions coach 1-on-1.

Founded in 1789, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) is a public research university based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. UNC consistently ranks among the nation’s top public universities, placing #29 in U.S. News and World Report’s 2020 Best Colleges Rankings. The university’s acceptance rate of 22% also ranks it among the most selective public schools. It has an undergraduate enrollment of 19,117 students, with a 13:1 faculty to student ratio.

Regarding student life, various publications rank UNC, a suburban town surrounding the UNC campus, among the best college towns in the nation. 20% of students participate in Greek life, while many others participate in UNC’s extracurricular offerings, ranging from the Institute of Politics to the student newspaper. UNC-Chapel Hill is also well-known for its sports teams, such as its nationally-renowned basketball team.

Prompt 1 (No word limit, Optional): We hope you’ll share with us the activities that you’ve found especially worthwhile. We also hope you won’t feel compelled to tell us everything you’ve ever done or, worse yet, to do things that mean little to you just because you think we expect them. Low-profile pursuits can be just as meaningful as ones that draw more attention, and fewer activities can be just as good, and sometimes even better, than more activities. For example, although starting a new club can be a great experience and helpful to others, so can caring for siblings, parents, or grandparents, working outside the home to put food on the table, or being a good and caring friend. For these reasons, although we’re glad to receive complete résumés, we don’t require or encourage them. Instead, if you choose to submit something that goes beyond what you’re providing through your Common Application, keep it brief; focus less on including everything and more on choosing and explaining the things that have meant the most to you; and upload it here.

What can you showcase in this prompt.

This prompt is very detailed and mostly self-explanatory. Essentially, UNC is providing you an opportunity to provide more details about your most meaningful activities and experiences.

How is this different from the Activities Section on the Common App? First of all, you are asked only to share the activities that are most meaningful to you. Second, you can share activities that may not typically have a place in the Common Application. For example, the prompt lists caring for your family members and being a good friend as worthwhile experiences to discuss. Finally, you are able to provide some detail about these activities and why they are meaningful to you.

As such, this is different from a resume. Rather than providing a short description of your accomplishments and responsibilities, you are describing your most meaningful activities.

How can you approach writing this essay?

There are multiple ways to approach this prompt. You could do a bullet point list with the activity title, a short description for the activity, what you took away from this experience, and why you find it meaningful.

If being a member of a sports team is meaningful and has helped you develop self-discipline, you can describe that here. If you’ve chosen a work experience, you can describe what you learned from that job and how it has shaped your perspective, or your future career/studies. For example, working as a cashier at a fast food restaurant may have been valuable because it helped pay the bills for your family. Or, working as a camp counselor might have made you passionate about teaching and education.

Despite the lack of a word limit, be sure to write with focus and concision . If you choose to do a list, then keep the description accompanying each activity to a few sentences or less. Aim for a page or less if you are writing single-spaced. Don’t feel pressured to describe too many activities and experiences: focus on the ones that are most meaningful to you.

Prompt 2 (200-250 Words, Mandatory): Please choose two of the prompts below and respond to each in 200-250 words.

1. tell us about a peer who has made a difference in your life., what can you showcase in this essay.

This is an opportunity to discuss your relationship with a peer, whether that be a classmate, friend, or other person who is around your age. Through this, the admissions committee can glean valuable insights about how you interact with and learn from peers. For example, is there a close friend who struggled through difficult personal circumstances and has inspired you? A peer who you work with in a club who has significantly shaped the way that you think today? A classmate who helped you when you were struggling through a class?

Keep in mind that you are the one applying to colleges with this essay, not your peer! Although you should share details about your peer, you also should focus on your perspective as you write this essay: what do you appreciate about this peer? What have you learned from him/her? How has this relationship shaped you?

Ideally, you should discuss peers with whom you have a meaningful degree of familiarity or interaction. For example, if you discuss a classmate who has inspired you, but with whom you have spoken once or twice total, it will be hard to share many meaningful insights. On the other hand, discussing a peer with whom you have worked with for a year or two on the robotics club will likely yield more insights and experiences. Or, a peer who tutored you over several months when you took a difficult science class.

For those who may be wondering, this essay prompt does not limit you to discussing only peers who were a positive presence in your life. While a positive relationship may be the most obvious angle, you also can write about peers who have created negative experiences. The risk in this type of essay is that depending on how you describe your peer, you may come off as overly negative and vengeful. For example, writing about how you find one of your classmates annoying because of a personal dispute may not work. On the other hand, writing about a bully in high school who you stood up to and how you grew from this experience may work better.

2. What do you hope will change about the place where you live?

This is an opportunity to describe your community and your vision for how it can be better. Through this essay, the UNC-Chapel Hill admissions committee can learn more about your values, awareness of your community, and approach for envisioning change.

This is not a policy brief! Don’t worry about providing a bullet point list of your proposals for changing your community. Rather, focus on describing the relevant parts of your community first. You can do so most effectively through specific examples and anecdotes.

For example, if you want to focus on improving civic engagement in your community, you could write about examples of peers struggling to find volunteering opportunities because no community center exists in your area. Or, if you want to write more broadly about attitudes of people in your area on certain issues, you could describe specific conversations you’ve had with these people.

Then, you can describe what you hope can change about these aspects of your community. A general description works, but it’s more helpful to be specific about what you want to change, why, and what impact it could make. For example, if you write about political partisanship in your area, you could supplement this with, “I hope that my community will become more open to discussing difficult political issues together because XYZ. The community that I envision is one where XYZ.”

This essay is also a good opportunity to highlight work you have already done to improve your community. It’s fine if the issue you discuss is not one you have personally worked on, but if you have prior experience, feel free to share it. For example, if you choose to write about lack of access to affordable housing, and you have worked on this issue before, feel free to discuss that briefly.

3. What is one thing that we don’t know about you that you want for us to know?

This is an opportunity to describe any type of perspective, interest, or experience that can show a new side of you to the admissions committee. Do you like collecting different U.S. coins as a hobby? Do you have a particularly close relationship to one of your siblings? Did you move many times in your life to different cities? Do you have specific ideas of how you want to use your UNC-Chapel Hill education in the future? Any of these aspects could help admissions officers paint a fuller picture of you.

Start by mapping out different aspects of your interests and background that are not captured in your Common Application: hobbies, life experiences, etc. As you do this, think about what each of these aspects can demonstrate about you as a person. Once you narrow down on your topic, you can consider a narrative-type essay that uses anecdotes and stories to show the reader the aspect of you that you’d like to share, and how it has shaped you today.

For example, if you choose to write about moving to different places many times in your life, you could start with an anecdote about packing up your belongings (yet again) as you prepare to move out of X city. Then, you could segue into a reflection of how the experience of moving has been one of the few constants in your life, and how this has shaped you.

4. What about your background, or what perspective, belief, or experience, will help you contribute to the education of your classmates at UNC?

These types of “background” essays ask about different aspects of your upbringing, views, and experiences that can offer valuable perspectives to the UNC community. Many of my college peers will attest to the fact that much of our learning took place outside of the classroom: building relationships and learning from our diverse peers. This is your opportunity to showcase what unique value add you can provide to the learning environment at UNC-Chapel Hill, both in and out of the classroom.

First, it may be useful to do some research on UNC-Chapel Hill’s student body to understand if there are parts of your identity and experience that may be unique. But don’t feel a need to limit yourself to demographic diversity.

Are there perspectives, beliefs, and experiences you feel can contribute to your peers’ learning? For example, were you a volunteer firefighter, or worked as a car mechanic as a part-time job? Did you play a large role in helping support your family and raising your siblings due to challenging personal circumstances? Are you the only one in your family who has a particular political or ideological leaning? Focus on the aspect of your background and experience that is most meaningful to you – one you feel can contribute to the UNC-Chapel Hill learning community.

As you write this essay, make sure to offer specific examples when you can! For example, if you write about faith, you can describe specific experiences you have had because of your faith identity, traditions that are meaningful to you, and what insights you would hope to share with your peers at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Second, make sure that what you write about here is not duplicative of your Common App essay. If you already wrote about a particular aspect of your background, such as racial identity or your family circumstances, in the Common App, it may be most useful to describe another aspect of you in this essay.

This UNC-Chapel Hill essay guide was written by Jesper Ke , a UNC – Chapel Hill admit and Harvard Class of 2019 graduate. If you want to get help writing your UNC – Chapel hill application essays from Jesper or other CollegeAdvisor.com Admissions Experts , register with CollegeAdvisor.com today.

Personalized and effective college advising for high school students.

• Advisor Application
• Popular Colleges
• Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice
• Student Login
• California Privacy Notice
• Terms and Conditions
• Your Privacy Choices

By using the College Advisor site and/or working with College Advisor, you agree to our updated Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy , including an arbitration clause that covers any disputes relating to our policies and your use of our products and services.

Academic Scholarships

• UNC is proud to offer Academic Scholarships to a small number of outstanding students each year. All students who are admitted to UNC are automatically considered for these scholarships; no additional application materials are necessary.
• Some Academic Scholarships take financial need into consideration. Others are completely need-blind. For fullest consideration for Academic Scholarships, we recommend submitting your CSS Profile by January 22 .
• For answers to our most common questions about Academic Scholarships, please visit our FAQ page . You can also contact us via email !
• In addition to these Academic Scholarships, UNC also offers the Carolina Covenant Scholars Program , Kessler Scholars Program , Kenan Music Scholars Program , Thomas Wolfe Scholarship for Creative Writing , and the Chancellor’s Science Scholarship . We are pleased to host private foundations like the  Morehead-Cain and  Robertson scholarships. These scholarships may require supplemental applications, interviews, or financial aid information. Please contact those programs directly for further information.

Viewing Scholarship Offers

Students selected for Academic Scholarships will see the scholarship offer in their MyCarolina portal. Academic Scholarship offers will be extended at the same time as admission to Carolina, as will some University Scholarship offers. Students will receive the official name of their academic scholarship offer by late May.

The University offers academic scholarships based on a detailed and holistic review of the student’s application for admission. There is no minimum GPA or test score required for consideration, nor is there any GPA or test score that guarantees a scholarship offer. Criteria include academic achievement, leadership qualities, commitment to service and potential for success at the University. If you are an academic scholarship recipient, you will receive automatic consideration for the University’s Honors Program.

The Blue Sky Scholarship is awarded to exceptionally qualified students from middle-income North Carolina families who qualify for financial aid but do not meet the requirements for the Carolina Covenant that demonstrate extraordinary hard work and character. In addition to their scholarship, recipients also receive a $2,500 Carolina Works work-study offer and a one-time $2,500 enrichment opportunity grant to use for study abroad, internships or research. Students who apply and submit a FAFSA along with their application to UNC (by the Early Action or Regular Decision deadline) will be considered for this renewable award.

Blue Sky Scholars are automatically invited to join the UNC Scholars Program. Blue Sky Scholarships are renewable for up to four years (eight semesters) of undergraduate study at Carolina.

Carolina Scholarships are awarded to students who show outstanding academic achievement in high school and strong potential for continued leadership and engagement at Carolina. To be considered for the Carolina Scholarship, simply apply for admission by either the Early Action or Regular Decision deadline. For fullest consideration we recommend applying by the Early Action deadline.

Carolina Scholars are automatically invited to join the  UNC Scholars Program. Carolina Scholarships are renewable for up to four years (eight semesters) of undergraduate study at Carolina.

College Fellows and Tar Heel Merit Scholarships are awarded to high-achieving students from North Carolina. Recipients demonstrate outstanding academic achievement in high school as well as supplementary extra-curricular achievements. To be considered for this opportunity, apply for admission by either the Early Action or Regular Decision deadline.

College Fellows and Tar Heel Merit Scholarships are renewable for up to four years (eight semesters) of undergraduate study at Carolina.

Colonel Robinson Scholarships are awarded to high-achieving students from North Carolina. Recipients demonstrate outstanding academic achievement in high school and strong potential for continued scholarship and engagement at Carolina. To be considered for the Colonel Robinson Scholarship, simply apply for admission by either the Early Action or Regular Decision deadline. For fullest consideration we recommend applying by the Early Action deadline.

Colonel Robinson Scholars are automatically invited to join the  UNC Scholars Program. Colonel Robinson Scholarships are renewable for up to four years (eight semesters) of undergraduate study at Carolina.

These scholarship awards are supported by the General Alumni Association and its members. These scholarships include the GAA/Dibbert Scholarship, Carolina Club Scholarship, and J. Maryon “Spike” Saunders Scholarship. There is no separate application, and you will be notified by our office if you receive one of these scholarship awards.

The Carolina Innovation Scholarship Program helps launch the careers of scholars who are ready to start new ventures or investigate an issue they’re passionate about, providing them with the resources and skills to turn their ideas into reality.

Scholars receive:

• Guaranteed acceptance into the  minor in entrepreneurship  and other key courses in entrepreneurship
• Guidance with placement into internship
• A wide and growing network of entrepreneurs and support organizations
• Award that covers the full cost of tuition, fees, room and board that is renewable for four years

One of Carolina’s oldest scholarships, the James M. Johnston Scholarship is awarded based on a combination of outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated financial need. Students who apply and submit a FAFSA along with their application to UNC (by the Early Action or Regular Decision deadline) will be considered for this renewable award. Johnston Scholars are automatically invited to join the UNC Scholars Program.

Old Well and Founders Scholarships are awarded to students from North Carolina who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement as well as extraordinary strengths in one or more areas. Additional criteria for these awards may include county of residence and high school attended. To be considered for these opportunities, apply for admission by either the Early Action or Regular Decision deadline.

Old Well and Founders Scholarships are renewable for up to four years (eight semesters) of undergraduate study at Carolina.

The Pogue Scholarship is awarded to students who show outstanding academic achievement in high school as well as commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in their communities. The Pogue Scholarship has a long and proud history at Carolina, and recipients are selected based on a holistic review of their admissions application. To be considered for the Pogue Scholarship apply for admission by the Early Action deadline.

Pogue Scholars are automatically invited to join the UNC Scholars Program. Pogue Scholarships are renewable for up to four years (eight semesters) of undergraduate study at Carolina.

The Wood Family Scholars Program supports the leadership potential of select high-achieving students and is awarded based on a combination of extraordinary strength in one or more areas and demonstrated financial need. In the past, we have seen these strengths take many shapes, including entrepreneurship, a keen business sense, or a willingness to lead. Currently 10 new first-year students each year receive the renewable scholarship.

Other Academic Scholarships offered at Carolina include the Alston-Pleasants, Cameron Morrison, Columbus Morrison, Copland, Fred Morrison, George and Alice Welsh, Margerison Family, Meisenheimer,  Peachtree, Rollins-Blackwell, Royster, and Williamson Distinguished scholarships.

Recipients of these scholarships are selected on the basis of outstanding academic achievement and strong potential for continued engagement at Carolina! For more information about your specific scholarship, please review your Financial Aid Offer in your ConnectCarolina Student Services Center, consult the Terms & Conditions of UNC Academic Scholarships or reach out to our Academic Scholarships team .

Learn More About Terms and Conditions

Please click the button to review the terms and conditions of receiving an academic scholarship.

Other Scholarship Opportunities

Our office administers athletic scholarships awarded by the Athletic Department. For more information about athletic scholarships, please call the Administrative Office of the Athletics Department at 919-962-6000 or write to the head coach of the sport of your interest.

Athletics Department The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill P.O. Box 2126 Chapel Hill, N.C.  27515-2126

Established in 1955 with a trust endowed by the late Aubrey Lee Brooks , these scholarships are available to graduating high school seniors who demonstrate financial need and permanently reside and attend high school in one of the following counties: Alamance, Bertie, Caswell, Durham, Forsyth, Granville, Guilford, Orange, Person, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Swain, or Warren.

On March 23, 2018 the President authorized the Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship Act for students eligible for Pell grant whose parent or guardian died in the line of duty as a public safety officer. For more specific eligibility criteria and information you can read the announcement here .  If you feel you may be eligible please email us for next steps .

This scholarship provides support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and undocumented students. Applicants may be high-school seniors or recent high-school graduates. Preference is given to high-school graduates from states that require undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition.

The Cooke Foundation is a private organization that supports exceptional students from elementary school to graduate school through scholarships, grants, and direct service. This scholarship recognizes success in incoming low-income students and supports them through graduation.

These scholarships are awarded to four incoming students each year. This generous scholarship offers the opportunity to combine musical studies with coursework (or a second major) and a four-year, full-tuition scholarship (including student fees, room, and board). Interested students must submit a scholarship audition request directly to the Department of Music to be considered for this opportunity.

Outside scholarships include any funding from sources other than UNC-Chapel Hill or the state or federal government. Awards from companies, foundations, civic and religious organizations and employer tuition benefits are common examples of outside scholarships. You can learn more about outside scholarships, and how to report them here.

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) Scholarships are available at UNC through the United States Army ROTC and the United States Air Force ROTC . These scholarships may cover the cost of tuition and provide additional stipends for books and living expenses. High school and college students interested in these programs should reach out to those programs directly.

Current members of the US Army Reserves or Army National Guard can also contact the Army ROTC program at Carolina for more information about funding available.

Scholarship Support

Many of these awards are supported by our generous donors. If you would like to establish a University scholarship or contribute to an existing fund please click the button to contact the Office of University Development.

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

How to Write the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Essay 2016-2017

About the university of north carolina at chapel hill.

Located in a picturesque suburb teeming with gorgeous foliage and historical sites, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the flagship university of the UNC system. Founded in 1789, UNC Chapel Hill claims the distinction of being the first public university in the United States. Today, UNC Chapel Hill is among the nation’s best known and most prestigious public universities.

Many across the country know UNC for its distinguished sports programs — especially its extremely successful men’s basketball team. The Tar Heels compete as members of the NCAA, Division 1, and have taken home five NCAA basketball championship titles, with their most recent win in 2009. Beyond its basketball prowess, the university also fields top ranking women’s soccer and field hockey teams. Their dominance in sports has helped foster a fierce rivalry with another top southern school, Duke University.

Athletics aren’t UNC Chapel Hill’s only claim to fame, however — far from it. The university’s strong academic offerings have earned it the honor of being one of the “Public Ivies,” and it is not hard to see why. This research university offers more than 70 fields of study, dispersed among the College of Arts and Sciences and fourteen additional colleges. UNC prides itself on providing a strong liberal arts education to all undergraduates, and beyond that, students also have the option of pursuing a major within the university’s professional schools.

The social offerings at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are just as exciting as the academic opportunities. With a whopping 800+ student organizations on campus, the university ensures that every undergraduate is able to find numerous student organizations that fulfill their wide range of passions. Continuing with the athletic culture on this campus, students can also choose to join one of the 50+ intramural sports teams, no matter what their skill level may be.

Greek life is also a significant presence at UNC. Over 3,000 students are members of its fraternities and sororities. The organizations have over 150 years of history, and the university claims that “Greek Life at Carolina eliminates the stereotypical notions of sororities and fraternities. The Greek community is as diverse as the student population itself.”

As one of the nation’s oldest public universities, it stands to reason that UNC is also home to many traditions. These range from drinking from the “Old Well” on the first day of classes in order to secure good fortune and a 4.0 GPA, to climbing to the top of the campus’s Bell Tower and signing your name on it as a senior.

The university’s winning combination of strong academics and excellent campus culture makes it a top choice for many college applicants . 31,953 competed for a spot in the Class of 2019, and of those, 9,510 were admitted, for an overall admissions rate of 30%. However, it is crucial to note that state law mandates that 82% of the freshman class at UNC Chapel Hill must be from North Carolina.

When you break down that 30% admissions rate, you’ll find that there are really two rates for acceptance: 52% for applicants from North Carolina, and 19% for out-of-state applicants.

In the face of odds like these , it becomes all the more important to ensure that your application to UNC Chapel Hill is as compelling as you can possibly make it, especially if you are an out-of-state applicant. The first step to crafting a winning application to this university is to write strong supplementary essays . In this blog post, we’ll go over different tips, tricks, and insights in order to help you craft an effective and impressive essay for your supplement to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

UNC Chapel Hill Application Essay Prompts

In addition to the essay you provided with your Common Application, please choose two of the prompts below and respond to each in an essay of 200-250 words.

UNC thus allows you to choose which prompts you’d like to answer. Each response needs to be 200-250 words. We’ll break down each one separately.

Tell a Story that Helps Us Better Understand You

Tell us a story that helps us better understand a person, place, or thing you find inspiring. (200-250 words)

At first glance, this prompt may appear rather intimidating in that it is completely open-ended. Here, UNC Chapel Hill isn’t really giving you much direction on what, specifically, they want this essay to look; they just want you to write about any topic that inspires you.

However, the broadness of this prompt actually works in your favor. Because the university doesn’t include any stipulations beyond discussing something inspiring, there technically aren’t any wrong answers to this question. As always, some topics work better than others, and you should avoid polarizing or extremely controversial topics. However, ultimately, the simplicity of this prompt means that there are no actual restrictions imposed on you.

This is your chance to talk about anything you care about, and that’s a good thing. Why? Because when you talk about topics that are important to you, in most cases, your passion invariably shines through. And as we’ve alluded to in past blog posts, passion is one of the most important factors in a strong college admissions essay.

In this essay, you can choose any subject that truly and deeply inspires you, and explain to admissions officers why it is so important to you as an individual. You have the fantastic opportunity to lay out exactly what you care about and to help those evaluating your application learn what drives your actions.

With this in mind, the flip side is that you should certainly steer clear of discussing anything that you aren’t completely inspired by, as this would definitely make for a less-effective essay. The main purpose of this question is to convey passion, and failing to do so will work against you. Your topic selection should be something that unequivocally excites you, or your essay simply won’t be doing its job.

It is particularly effective if you can tie the inspiring factor you settle on back to your academic profile. If you’ve been involved with your school’s robotics team, competed in Science Olympiad, and took all of your school’s AP science courses, it would be a good idea to discuss what it is about science, exactly, that inspires you and drives you to pursue it.

Essentially, if you present the person, place, or thing that inspires as the main source of motivation behind your academic and extracurricular choices, you can help admissions officers interpret your application through a new lens and create a more comprehensive overall application.

Change the Place Where You Live

What do you hope will change about the place where you live? (200-250 words)

This question is all about issues or subjects you care the most deeply about. It’s similar to the above prompt in that it’s still gauging passion, but instead framing it in a different manner. Essentially, this prompt is asking you to identify the problem or issue you personally find most urgent, and also to shed some light on why that problem, specifically, is important to you.

The issue you choose says a lot about who you are as a student and as an individual in that it demonstrates what your personal priorities are. For instance, let’s consider a student from Fort Myers, Florida. Perhaps this student responds that they hope that their town will implement a program to protect the endangered Florida bonnet bat, a species of bat that is now exclusive to their region and is verging on extinction. This effectively conveys that the student is extremely passionate about environmental issues.

Let’s consider a different example. Perhaps a student from California writes that they hope that the United States closes the gender wage gap, and specifically addresses the dramatic disparity in both wage and earning potential between white men and Latinx, American Indian/Native American, and African American women. The decision to write about this particular topic indicates that the student is passionate about gender equality and intersectional feminism.

In these examples, we not only see how subject choice can reveal a lot about an applicant, but also that the term “place,” as used in the prompt, is relative. Student #1 interpreted “place” to be their hometown, which many students may initially think is the only correct response. However, Student #2 chose to talk about their country of residence, which is equally acceptable. “Place” is extremely subjective, and you can choose to define it as anything from the home you live in to the universe at large.

That being said, be wary of writing about something that is overly broad to the point that it loses its meaning. For example, if you respond with “I hope that global poverty is eliminated,” admissions officers are unlikely to be very impressed unless you can approach this topic from a new and unique angle. Your essay should be specific to you; most people would agree that poverty is a bad thing, and in an ideal world it would not exist. This example doesn’t tell admissions officers anything specific about you as an individual, and fails to distinguish you from any other applicant.

Referring back to our earlier two topic samples, you should note that in both cases, the respective subject matters of these two essays can certainly be strong on their own. However, both essays become all the more effective if the students have extracurricular activities and academic performances that substantiate the specific interests to which they allude. As always, it is a great idea to help create a comprehensive narrative within your application, if at all possible.

To sum up, your job is to help admissions officers learn more about you via your essay, and to reveal key insights into your personality and passions. Demonstrate what issues you care about, and more importantly, show admissions officers why you care about those issues.

Small Goal You Hope to Achieve

Tell us about a small goal you hope to achieve, whether in the next 10 days, 10 months, or 10 years. (200-250 words)

The key word in this essay is “small.” While discussing our last prompt, we mentioned the dangers of discussing something that is too broad. This same lesson applies here; this essay is not a place for you to talk about your desire to end world hunger. Rather, it is the place to reveal key information about yourself that is not readily available elsewhere in your application.

Because this essay specifically asks for a small goal, this is a fantastic place to reveal quirky personality characteristics or unique hobbies and interests. This prompt lends itself to a fun, lighthearted essay that helps you showcase a different side of yourself to admissions officers. This is a great opportunity to further humanize yourself, and let UNC get to know you as not only a student but a person.

That being said, it is possible to write a fun and quirky essay that still helps contribute to your overall academic profile.

For example, maybe you’re an aspiring chemistry major who has a deep passion for baking. You could discuss how your “small goal” is to create the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe within the next ten months. You could include a fun anecdote about your trials and errors in the kitchen, and then highlight your passion for science by discussing how you approach crafting a recipe like balancing an equation. You could draw parallels between your ingredients and different scientific elements, and talk about how baking is just another branch of chemistry to you.

This is effective in that it not only shows admissions officers an alternate side of you, but it also demonstrates how your academic passions permeate other facets of your life. The best approach to this essay is to choose a goal that relates to hobby or trait that admissions officers may not initially know about based on the rest of your application, and then connect it back to your application’s overall theme. If you can do these two things, and do them in an engaging tone, you’ll have an extremely compelling essay on your hands.

The Best Breakthrough

What will be the best breakthrough — whether scientific, social, economic, or other — between now and 2025? (200-250 words)

In this question, phrasing is key. Note that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill isn’t asking what you hope will be the best breakthrough, but rather what, inevitably, will happen. This question requires a certain level of expertise to answer, in that you have to know the current state in a scientific, social, economic, or other field in order to predict what it will look like in about a decade.

Because of this, one approach is to first identify a field you’re already familiar with and then extrapolate about how this field will be revolutionized within the next ten or so years. For instance, maybe you are passionate about domestic politics and have observed that social media has played a significant role in increasing the political awareness of millennials.

You could then talk about how the biggest breakthrough would be that for the first time in recent history, youth voters will participate in elections at the same or higher rate as their elders. Then, you could talk about what the effects of this shift will be, how you perceive, and what that means for you and your personal passions.

By starting with a focus area you’re already relatively well versed in, you’re not only able to formulate a better-informed answer, but also more likely to craft a more passionate essay. After all, the fields you know best are the ones you are more interested in, and so it’s extremely important to make sure that this interest shines through in your essay.

This is a good approach in that it allows you to showcase your various interests and creates a great way through which you can connect your essay back to your overall application. For instance, in the example we mentioned above, this essay would be especially powerful if the student writing it had some background in politics or youth rights.

However, that being said, it is not completely necessary to discuss a breakthrough firmly rooted in a more academic field. UNC leaves your options open by noting that it’s acceptable to choose a field that falls under the category of “other,” so you shouldn’t feel limited. What’s most important is that this essay helps admissions officers learn about where your interests lie and who you are as an individual; as long as your essay accomplishes this, you can choose to focus on any kind of breakthrough you deem fit.

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

For more helpful tips on applying to UNC Chapel Hill, feel free to check out these CollegeVine Blog posts:

• Ultimate Guide to Applying to UNC Chapel Hill
• Essay Guides to the US News and World Report Top 100 Colleges

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

NPR editor Uri Berliner resigns with blast at new CEO

Updated April 17, 2024 at 2:56 PM ET

NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner resigned this morning, citing the response of the network's chief executive to his outside essay accusing NPR of losing the public's trust.

"I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years," Berliner wrote in an email to CEO Katherine Maher. "I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism. But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay."

NPR and Maher declined to comment on his resignation.

The Free Press, an online site embraced by journalists who believe that the mainstream media has become too liberal, published Berliner's piece last Tuesday. In it, he argued that NPR's coverage has increasingly reflected a rigid progressive ideology. And he argued that the network's quest for greater diversity in its workforce — a priority under prior chief executive John Lansing – has not been accompanied by a diversity of viewpoints presented in NPR shows, podcasts or online coverage.

Later that same day, NPR pushed back against Berliner's critique.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff . "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

Yet Berliner's commentary has been embraced by conservative and partisan Republican critics of the network, including former President Donald Trump and the activist Christopher Rufo.

Rufo is posting a parade of old social media posts from Maher, who took over NPR last month. In two examples, she called Trump a racist and also seemed to minimize the effects of rioting in 2020. Rufo is using those to rally public pressure for Maher's ouster, as he did for former Harvard University President Claudine Gay .

Others have used the moment to call for the elimination of federal funding for NPR – less than one percent of its roughly $300 million annual budget – and local public radio stations, which derive more of their funding from the government.

Berliner reiterated in his resignation letter that he does not support such calls.

In a brief interview, he condemned a statement Maher issued Friday in which she suggested that he had questioned "whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity." She called that "profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning."

Berliner subsequently exchanged emails with Maher, but she did not address those comments.

"It's been building up," Berliner said of his decision to resign, "and it became clear it was on today."

For publishing his essay in The Free Press and appearing on its podcast, NPR had suspended Berliner for five days without pay. Its formal rebuke noted he had done work outside NPR without its permission, as is required, and shared proprietary information.

(Disclosure: Like Berliner, I am part of NPR's Business Desk. He has edited many of my past stories. But he did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Earlier in the day, Berliner forwarded to NPR editors and other colleagues a note saying he had "never questioned" their integrity and had been trying to raise these issues within the newsroom for more than seven years.

What followed was an email he had sent to newsroom leaders after Trump's 2016 win. He wrote then: "Primarily for the sake of our journalism, we can't align ourselves with a tribe. So we don't exist in a cocoon that blinds us to the views and experience of tens of millions of our fellow citizens."

Berliner's critique has inspired anger and dismay within the network. Some colleagues said they could no longer trust him after he chose to publicize such concerns rather than pursue them as part of ongoing newsroom debates, as is customary. Many signed a letter to Maher and Edith Chapin, NPR's chief news executive. They asked for clarity on, among other things, how Berliner's essay and the resulting public controversy would affect news coverage.

Yet some colleagues privately said Berliner's critique carried some truth. Chapin also announced monthly reviews of the network's coverage for fairness and diversity - including diversity of viewpoint.

She said in a text message earlier this week that that initiative had been discussed long before Berliner's essay, but "Now seemed [the] time to deliver if we were going to do it."

She added, "Healthy discussion is something we need more of."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

"As a global citizen and more literally an American..."

UNC at Chapel Hill

If you could change one thing to better your community, what would it be? Why is it important and how would you contribute to this change?

200 - 250 words

( UNC at Chapel Hill )

As a global citizen and more literally an American citizen, I hope we find common ground. World affairs, as I understand them, veer wildly between extremes. Though this change can occur over decades, the world as a whole, and our country specifically, experiences radical swings between populism and elitism, far left and far right doctrine.

The natural reaction to an extreme ideology is the rise of its opposite: the process is cyclical. This extreme swing means constant division; one group vehemently fighting to keep their ideas in power and the other willing to sacrifice anything to destroy them. Rarely is their moderation, rarely is their compromise.

This lack of general balance in a countries dogma means little long-term change. Substantive action from one group is later demolished when the other gains power. Nationalism is used to attack the opposition, not to unify the country, and simulated existentialism disenfranchises many. For the good of us all, it’s time for change.

Admittedly this is idealistic, and amending this issue is not in the power of any one world-leader or bureaucrat. But I’m optimistic. In The United States, there is a vocal minority urging compromise, and though their voices are in danger of being drowned out, they have a far more compelling argument than those advocating the extremes. I hope for this change with the understanding that my community is rational and reasonable, and that with mutual respect and moderation, we can make the practical changes that best serve our world.

Why This Essay Works:

What they might change:.

© 2018- 2024 Essays That Worked . All rights reserved.

Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms and Conditions , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy .

We have no affiliation with any university or colleges on this site. All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Students learn the importance of networking, worldwide

By Jessica F. Simmons

During spring break, 28 UNC Hussman students visited some of the top advertising, public relations and journalism companies in the world.

“The students were beyond professional and impressive,” said Heather Stevenson , assistant director of career services at UNC Hussman. “I had multiple emails from folks at Intuit, folks at Google – folks at Fleishman and Goodby talking about how impressed they were with the students and their questions and just the way they carried themselves.”

Fourteen students had the opportunity to visit San Francisco as part of a career trek led by Stevenson and Jay Eubank , director of career services at UNC Hussman. There, the students networked and learned valuable career tips at Google Cloud, FleishmanHillard, Electronic Arts, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Intuit.

The career trek group at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco.

“It's all about networking and for students to experience that firsthand in person,” Stevenson said. “And as it stands right now, students can only go on one trek through their time at Carolina, but I wish we could do more.”

Nydia Clifton ’25 is an advertising and public relations and contemporary European studies double major. She said although she would like to work at a global public relations company, she went into the trip open-minded – something the professionals encouraged them to be.

“You're not going to automatically get what you want, and that’s okay. There are other opportunities that are probably going to serve you just as well,” Clifton said. “So I feel like I could [work wherever] because I have an open mind and because I am not married to a specific job or company.”

Clifton learned about the different roles in public relations agencies and how they relate to various companies, including tech companies while gaining insight into the day-to-day work life of a public relations professional and how it differs from corporate communications.

Emma Kate Lauf ’25 said she connected on LinkedIn with the professionals she met in San Francisco. Lauf, who studies advertising, public relations and Hispanic studies, said she gravitates towards UX design and accessibility elements, influenced by her personal connections with individuals who have disabilities.

“I’ve realized that so many online experiences can be improved for people with disabilities and able-bodied people too,” Lauf said. Lauf said she has already taken two UNC Hussman courses regarding accessibility. During the plane ride back home, she was motivated to apply for several internships the different companies had to offer.

“With no internet too. I was saving my Word documents and writing the essays,” Lauf said. “Because I just wanted to get it done.”

Nearly all of the places the students visited had UNC or Hussman alumni, such as David Tinson ’96 from Electronic Arts, J.J. Carter ’96 and Tyler Musialowski ’20 from FleishmanHillard, and Helen Johnston from Google Cloud.

Over 5,000 miles away, Associate Professor Lucinda Austin , UNC Hussman’s associate dean for graduate studies and research, and Hui Yang , assistant director of global, immersive and professional programs, brought 14 students to London for eight days as a part of Austin’s "MEJO 447: Media in the United Kingdom” class. Although the career trek and global trip are separate programs, both helped students gain networking knowledge and experience from UNC Hussman alumni.

The students who traveled to London met professionals from Amazon Studios, FleishmanHillard, Bloomberg News, Netflix UK, CNN International, Dimoso Public Relations, Chelsea Football Club’s stadium, Dovetail UK and Weber Shandwick – some of whom were UNC alumni such as Lynn Thomasson ’07 , Lauren Kent ’17 and Gentry Sanders ’17 . The students also had a mixer with City, University of London.

The MEJO 477 group at FleishmanHillard in London.

In Austin’s class, students produce group research projects on media and journalism in London, where they collect data on the ground and present their findings at the end of the semester.

One project — tentatively titled “Ways in which the British media covers the royal family during scandals, crisis and how the royal family responds to mitigate reputational damage" — is still a work in progress with a group that includes Allison Roland ’24 , an advertising and public relations major.

“We're talking about case studies,” Roland said. “It's actually really fascinating because the stuff with Kate Middleton and that doctored image just started to unfold while we were there.”

Roland said she learned about the work journalists do when it includes the Royal Family.

“They talked about how there's pressure to report in a way that is kind enough to their status. So I thought that was interesting, just to touch on the bias aspect of what we were exploring with the British media,” Roland said. “They have to tread lightly or else they lose that spot as a correspondent, and that's a precious title.”

Roland said she loves to ask professionals at agencies about the difference between large and small agencies. “I find that [question] to be really fascinating: ‘What advantages do you think are there to being in an agency of this size, whether it be larger or smaller?” Roland said. Dovetail UK has a small number of workers, but it plays well since they “have really hands-on learning directly from their boss.”

Advertising and public relations major Samantha Molloy ’24 said the hands-on learning at the different agencies was amazing. As a soccer fan, she was excited to go behind the scenes of Chelsea Football Club’s stadium.

“We weren't out there shaking hands with soccer players, but we did get to see their press box and go in their locker rooms,” Molloy said. “We got a lot of the business side of it as far as financials and how that all works within the sports community, the sports industry.”

Molloy said the trip exceeded her expectations, and even though she loves sports, her heart is in branding, consumer goods and hospitality. Her favorite location was Amazon Studios where she met Sanders.

“I just got to pick her brain one-on-one about certain things like portfolio, branding and how she got to where she was,” Molloy said. “She’s an icon and fantastic. She gave all of our class members a mentor to link up with who comes from the industries or the backgroundss that students were interested in. It was above and beyond.”

Austin said the benefits of the trip are to emphasize the immersive experience, to gain insights into the UK media environment and to learn the impact of working on the ground. The experience brings theoretical class discussions to life.

Stevenson said the networking and other experiences from the trips are all about Tar Heels helping Tar Heels.

“I have yet to run into a Tar Heel who doesn't want to give back. As a Tar Heel myself, that's my favorite part — making these connections for these students to give back,” Stevenson said. “And then my hope is, and I tell the students this, ‘In the next couple of years when you're at a company, we can reach out to you and come visit and then you can reach back and pour into the students coming behind you.”

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience.

• CENTERS & INSTITUTES

Hawkins named to new vice dean role at UNC School of Social Work 

Posted on April 11, 2024

by Barbara Wiedemann 

Robert L. Hawkins, Ph.D., associate dean for academic and faculty affairs at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at nearby North Carolina State University, has been named to the new position of vice dean at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work, effective July 1.  

A Henderson, North Carolina, native, Hawkins holds a Master of Public Administration from UNC School of Government and a master’s and doctorate in social welfare policy and social policy respectively from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He served as the New York University Silver School of Social Work’s assistant dean and director of undergraduate education for seven years before being named associate dean for academic and faculty affairs. During his 18 years at the Silver School of Social Work, he taught for 14 years as an endowed chair in poverty. 

“This is a homecoming of sorts,” Hawkins said about his return to an alma mater in the state where he grew up. “Growing up in a small rural community 50-odd miles from Chapel Hill, I had no expectation that I would ever go to college,” he said, recalling the drive and hunger that led him to push towards his dreams of a role in higher education. 

He also reflected on the research and leadership opportunities that took him to 24 countries, sharing the gratitude he felt for where his education led him. 

“I have been exposed to things that a little boy from Henderson who didn’t have running water and worked with his mom and sisters in tobacco fields should not have ever dreamed of,” he said. “ I have been fortunate in so many ways.   But I’ve also experienced tremendous injustice. Both can exist in the same body. What I’d like to do is to give others access to some of the opportunities I had. But try to reduce the number of injustices they experience.”

Navigating growth  

As associate dean at NYU, Hawkins led a team focused on strategic affairs, policy development and academic excellence across a broad range of business functions, including six academic program directors and adjunct faculty. 

At NC State, Hawkins helps set policy, expand global experiences, create mentoring opportunities, and oversees faculty affairs and high-impact practices and procedures for a college housing 19 programs and 4,000 students, including a social work program.  

Many of these areas will fall under his responsibility at the UNC School of Social Work. 

“We look forward to drawing on Robert’s mission-driven leadership in this new position for the School,” Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson said. “Our team has grown by 30% since I came to Chapel Hill in 2021 as a direct result of our continued growth in research impact and national status as educators . Robert’s deep experience as an administrator, strategic planner, policymaker and collaborative partner in both private and public higher education settings will help us navigate the path we have developed together as a community under our recent strategic planning process .” 

“There is an excitement about the innovation that the School is investing in with this new position of vice dean,” Hawkins said. “Many of my responsibilities will be in areas that I have touched on in previous roles. But this newness invites creativity. 

“People are doing really important work at the School, are dedicated to social justice and are very engaged with the community. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the School’s partners to think outside the box about how to have an impact as social workers and researchers at the state, national and global levels.”  

Family time  

Outside of academia, Hawkins and his wife, Eri, watch a classic film every week. They enjoy scary movies, mysteries, documentaries and “true crime” narratives, while keeping up with their grown daughter, who is entering an MSW program in the fall, and son, a writer for Politico. They also talk about many of the same things he invests his time on professionally.  

“My wife and I really care about social justice. Our dinner conversations are about structural racism. We talk about gender bias. We talk about violence against women,” Hawkins said. “She is a psychotherapist, but a social worker first, an expert on interpersonal violence and trauma. We talk about what we care about.” 

Related stories

Tar Heel team begins preservation of ancient Nepal temple

Religious studies scholar and computer scientist want to create 3D model of 1,500-year-old Buddhist shrine.

In a groundbreaking initiative, a team from Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences traveled to Nepal in October to begin the digital preservation of one of the country’s most venerable religious shrines. The 1,500-year-old Swayambhu Temple, a jewel of Buddhist heritage perched atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, is one of 10 UNESCO World Heritage sites in Nepal.

Lauren Leve , an associate professor of religious studies, and  Jim Mahaney , a research scientist in the computer science department, started the long process of capturing the data needed to create an accurate 3D model of the entire temple complex. One of the project’s goals is to allow UNC-Chapel Hill students a chance to visit Swayambhu in virtual reality.

The project leverages the distinct skill sets of Leve and Mahaney to both access and capture this sacred site. Leve and Mahaney are using a three-pronged data capture approach, combining 3D laser scans, photogrammetry and drone photography to create three separate models of the temple complex. The three models will then be combined to form one photorealistic model of the temple complex which will be viewable on multiple device types, so that access to the model is not limited by the technology available in different parts of the world.

Crowds, monkeys and lots of data

One challenge of capturing Swayambhu was working around crowds of people and animals. Typically, a historic site would be closed to allow for scanning and photogrammetry, but as an active temple, Swayambhu could not be closed and is visited by worshippers and tourists nearly 24 hours a day.

While the humans could be reasoned with, a local population of more than 400 rhesus macaque monkeys also has free range over the entire site. The monkeys refused to take direction from the team, often flaunting their independence by climbing about in the background of the scans. This interference will require hours of additional post-processing to remove monkeys from the 3D model.

Because of the task’s immense scale, Leve and Mahaney partnered with a local heritage preservation group, Baakhan Nyane waa (which translates from the Newar or Nepal Bhasa language as “Come, listen to stories”), and the Kathmandu Engineering College. Raj Maharjan from Baakhan Nyane waa worked with Mahaney to teach graduate students from the college in a seven-day course on laser scanning and photogrammetry, which included many hours of hands-on fieldwork at Swayambhu.

During the course, the team completed 92 scans and took thousands of photos from the ground and hundreds from the sky. The work of combining these into a 3D model will take many months and will provide opportunities for UNC-Chapel Hill computer science students to work with this dataset not only on editing process but also to explore various advanced techniques in virtual reality, such as redirected walking.

Students in Nepal will also continue to work with the data, making this an international collaboration that not only works to create an outstanding model of the site but considers the subtle nuances of how the site is viewed by the Nepalese.

While the amount of data collected on this first trip is vast, additional visits to Nepal are necessary to capture the entire temple. In a planned trip in October 2024, the team will begin expanding the model to include more of the structures located adjacent to the main temple.

This work is supported by a CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation grant with additional hardware support from Nvidia and the School of Data Science and Society.

Read more about this trip and the precursor to it .

In a campus email, Lee H. Roberts wrote it's a privilege to interact with students and inspiring to learn about the diverse range of interests they're working on.

Career Treks event highlights public professions

School of Education students networked in Raleigh with representatives from 11 state agencies.

Global studies scholar aspires to diplomacy

After earning a master’s degree, Kat Goodpaster became assistant director of Carolina’s Russian Flagship Program.

Public Service Awards go to 7 people, 2 groups

The Carolina Center for Public Service honored work on health disparities, refugee aid and more.

UNC-Chapel Hill graduate programs ranked among best in nation

U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 “Best Graduate Schools” list named multiple Carolina graduate degree programs in the top 10, including UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at No. 1.

Broadway writer brings new comedy to PlayMakers

Fresh off the debut of her musical adaptation of “The Notebook,” Bekah Brunstetter ’04 will debut “The Game” in Chapel Hill.

EFC steers NC breweries to sustainability

Improving water usage in the craft beer industry is the focus of a UNC Environmental Finance Center project.

Healthcare Sparks inspires interest in STEM

Medical resident Danae Smart created a program to encourage minority students to pursue health careers.

Share on Mastodon