UNC has seen a 6 percent increase in applications since last year, a number that's been rising since 2005. This increase is due to rising in-state applicants said Stephen Farmer, Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions.
For the class of 2022, UNC received 43,384 applications, an increase of 2,466 applications from last year. This is the 13th year UNC has seen an increase in applications, according to the UNC admissions office.
But Farmer doesn't think the numbers will keep rising forever, though he said the school is benefiting from more people considering UNC as an option for college.
“I think we’re benefiting from students looking at more schools, but we’re also particularly benefiting from more students looking at this school and lately from more North Carolinians looking at this school," Farmer said. "I think that’s actually a great thing for UNC, and it’s a great thing for our state that so many great kids from North Carolina are thinking hard about their flagship university."
UNC is distinguishable from other schools in North Carolina because of the excellence in academics, Farmer said.
“The strength of what people have built academically over time here and then the strength and the variety and the good hearts of the people who are here – I think those things really come through to students when they visit,” he said.
Associate Director for Recruitment at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions Michael Davis said the rise in applications is due in part to an increase in population, but also the fact that Carolina is special and elite without being elitist.
“I think one of the major reasons is just that the Carolina story really resonates with people and over the past 13 years our office has been ramping up its efforts to get that story out there, so that people know us beyond just the fact that we have amazing athletic teams that win lots of national championships,” Davis said.
New UNC students agreed.
