UNC ?ned for violating out-of-state cap
For the second consecutive year, the University admitted too many out-of-state students.
Use the fields below to perform an advanced search of The Daily Tar Heel's archives. This will return articles, images, and multimedia relevant to your query. You can also try a Basic search
145 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
For the second consecutive year, the University admitted too many out-of-state students.
Last week, the University admitted its first round of students for the undergraduate class of 2015.
In the coming months, high school seniors and transfer students accepted to UNC will have to pay an enrollment deposit of $250, marking an increase of $150 from previous years.
This year’s applicants to the University could be the last to submit applications without the Common Application.
Moving away from home is always an adjustment for freshmen. But some students have to go one step further: moving into a study lounge or even an off-campus hotel.
Applicants who have family ties to certain universities could have a significant leg up on admissions.
For the tenth consecutive year, UNC has been named the best value in the land.
The UNC Campus Y’s newest initiative, the Global Gap Year Program, will allow students to expand their opportunities, both mentally and physically.
Study abroad students may soon have the chance to recruit foreign high schools students with the help of international alumni.
Correction (October 5, 12:50 a.m.): Due to a source error, a previous version of this article misstated the average high school GPA and SAT scores of incoming football players during the 2008-09 school year. The The numbers were 2.9 and 999, respectively. The article has been changed to reflect the correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
The competition to be one of the friendly faces giving prospective students and their parents tours of UNC is on the rise.
The University is currently looking for students who wish to work in the Admissions Ambassadors Program.
Correction (September 26, 11:56 p.m.): Due to a reporting error, the story, “Budget cuts limit ability to recruit top students” inaccurately stated that this year’s freshman class had a lower median SAT score. The middle 50 percent score dropped slightly, with the lowest middle percentile score falling from 1210 to 1200. The average overall score increased by one point to 1304. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
Fewer students than last year attended the local school districts’ annual college fair at UNC on Tuesday, but the University’s table was still crowded.
A new accountability model for public schools might mean another standardized test for the high school class of 2014.
If you’re looking to apply to UNC this fall, you can go ahead and get started on the essays.
UNC doesn’t want to be like Harvard. In mid-May, an application hoax by a Harvard student was exposed, showing that even the most selective college undergraduate admissions officials can be scammed — and UNC admissions says that it works to avoid that. In order to prevent this, UNC admissions officials say they rely heavily on the Honor Code, a signature from a school counselor and a national database to help them filter through about 23,000 applications a year. “Generally, there’s not a problem,” said Ashley Memory, senior assistant director at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. “But we have revoked admission before.” The first step to preventing falsified applications, according to Memory, is UNC’s Honor Code. When applying to UNC as a first-year for the fall of 2010, before providing any academic information, all applicants were asked to agree to uphold the Honor Code by checking “yes” or “no.” The application blurbs that the Honor Code “specifically prohibits lying, cheating or stealing and any conduct that impairs significantly the welfare or the education opportunities of others in the University community.” To read the full Honor Code, applicants must visit a separate website — but some students say they didn’t do that. “I don’t think anybody really read into (the Honor Code) in detail,” said Mark Carroll, a junior history major. “It’s just such a long application, that’s one of the smaller things that you wouldn’t ever think about,” Carroll said about signing the Honor Code on the application. Shortly after checking the Honor Code, on the same page, students are asked for their signature to certify that the information on their application is “complete and accurate.” According to the application, without this signature, the University cannot accept the application. The second step UNC takes to prevent Harvard-like mishaps is a counselor statement. High school applicants’ guidance counselors or other school administration officials are asked to verify students’ application information. Transfer students’ applications are verified through their own college officials. “We require a school or college official to verify to the best of their knowledge that (the application) is correct,” Memory said. Finally, UNC admissions officials run all applicant names through a national database. The database ensures that applicants are not enrolled elsewhere, and it also shows records of attendance at other institutions. Memory says that admissions officials have found that students are enrolled in other places, but typically nothing worse. “We have occasionally learned of enrollment at other institutions, like cosmetology institutions,” Memory said. If needed, admissions officials use one final preventative measure. “If there is any doubt at all about an applicant, we reserve the right to run a background check,” Memory said. Many transgressions seem to be applicants’ oversight, Memory said, but even if admissions finds out about it later, students can face the consequences. “Out of 23,000 it’s no guarantee that we’ll catch a bad application,” Memory said. “But we try to prevent that the best we can.” Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
For several years now, high school seniors applying to universities haven’t just had to worry about perfecting their college essays and transcript, but also editing their Facebook profiles and security settings. Admission officers at some universities such as N.C. State University said they are using social networking sites to further evaluate prospective students. But the nationwide trend doesn’t seem to have caught on at public schools around the state. Admissions officials at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, Appalachian State University, N.C. Central University, UNC-Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte said they do not use Facebook to assess applicants. Thomas Griffin, director of undergraduate admissions at NCSU, said they use Facebook if there is a query about an applicant. But with an applicant pool of 24,000, it’s not done for everybody. Admission decisions are not solely based off of one factor, Griffin said. “Decisions are holistic in nature. We would look at all pieces of information,” he said. “There is not one element that determines the decisions.” If an admissions officer sees a discrepancy with the application, they will refer to Facebook to further research that applicant. But Ashley Memory, assistant director of admissions at UNC, said institutions can make an accurate judgment on a prospective student based upon their application and supplemental material. “At Carolina, we do not rely on social networks such as Facebook at any point during the admission process,” she said. All applicants are required to sign an honor pledge and have teacher recommendations with their signatures. That is strong enough of an indication of an applicant’s character, Memory said. Cindy Barr, assistant dean of admissions at Elon University, said her university uses Facebook for marketing purposes and to get students interested in applying, but never uses the Web site to evaluate applicants. “If Facebook is your sole basis of judgment of an applicant, then you’re not doing a thorough job,” she said. Universities are legally allowed to view an applicant’s profile before making their decision, said Michael Curtis, professor of law at Wake Forest University. Curtis said as long as it is open to the public, then it is legal for anyone to access a user’s profile. “If you leave it on public setting, open to everyone, then you’ve waived your right to privacy,” he said. Some students said they don’t mind universities using Facebook during the admission process. “It’s public knowledge if you put everything out there, so I think it is right,” said UNC senior Allison Wilborn. Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
The campus tour. It’s a college staple that many remember as the first time they fell in love with a campus. UNC is revamping its own campus tour experience to attract more students — especially the highest-achieving ones. An innovation task force led by Grayson Cooper, a sophomore Admissions Ambassador, or tour guide, plans to personalize campus tours beginning next school year. The task force plans to reroute the student-led campus tour to include more academic buildings. It also plans to provide a second tour, offering longer, individualized visits of professional schools, labs and specific departments to some students. Its goals are to attract top North Carolina students to campus for official visits and encourage applications from high-ranking out-of-state students. In 2009, 58 percent of out-of-state students and 25 percent of in-state students who toured UNC’s campus never applied, according to task force data. “Campus tours blend together for students,” said Andrew Parrish, assistant director of undergraduate admissions. “It can be hard for them to differentiate between schools.” Cooper said prospective students indicated the desire to get a better feel for academics in surveys completed after their campus tours at UNC. He said he thought more top North Carolina students — defined as students in the top 3 percent of their high school classes or with a score of 1400 or greater on the SAT — would tour campus if they were offered personalized tours. Only about 50 percent of those students visit the University in an official capacity. “I think it’s just that they’re familiar with the campus already and know a lot of people who go here,” Cooper said. “But we really want to get these kids to come on tours.” Parrish said the tours for top students would focus primarily on interaction with other students in a department or school. “Prospective students care more about the students’ perspective than any other perspective,” he said. Parrish added that prospective students could learn about internships, mentoring and daily classroom experiences from current students. Freshman Lauren Oswald said her campus tour last year focused mainly on campus life, with less emphasis on academics. She said she would have enjoyed seeing classrooms along her tour. Parrish said he wants to make sure tours remain open to all prospective students but work to attract the highest achieving applicants. “As a public university, we are the university of the people,” he said. “But we could use this kind of more specialized tour in recruiting top prospective students.” He said he wants to keep looking for new ways to set UNC apart for prospective students. In addition to the plans already underway, other new ideas are being considered less formally. One suggestion is to do away with planned tours altogether, and to allow Admissions Ambassadors to take students wherever they want, so that each group would get a different experience. “We really want to capture Carolina,” Parrish said. “We have this dynamic, vibrant, spirited institution with a lot of energy. How do you take that experience and capture it on a tour?” Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
A federal program that awards funding to universities with exceptionally large Latino populations is creating an incentive for schools to reach out to potential Latino students. In order to be designated a Hispanic Serving Institution and be eligible for the grants, 25 percent or more of a school’s population must be Latino. A recent report by Excelencia in Education reflects a growing number of schools that might be altering their practices to attract more Latino students and better meet their needs. There were 265 schools already eligible and another 176 on the cusp as of 2006-07. Universities that meet the 25 percent requirement are able to compete for research grants and other university funding. Although UNC is nowhere close to the 25 percent benchmark, the steps that the University takes are similar to schools that are seeking the Hispanic-serving designation. UNC has the highest number of Latino students in the UNC system at 937 undergraduates, or about five percent. That number has doubled since 2004. Deborah Santiago, author of the report, said that universities need to focus not only on increasing Latino enrollment but also on retaining those students. Schools need to make sure that once they enroll the students, they cater to their needs, which might not be the same as the needs of the broader student population, she said. “I think that the traditional way of offering a college education is going to evolve as we get more and more non-traditional students coming in,” Santiago said. The report found that many of the designated Latino serving schools were aware of their enrollment numbers but not the retention and graduation rates of those students. Archie Ervin, associate provost and director of diversity and multicultural affairs, said that UNC has one of the best Latino retention rates in the Southeast. The university also makes a concerted effort to attract those students. Representatives from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions attend college fairs organized by national Latino organizations, send out targeted e-mails to potential Latino students and recently translated sections of its Web site into Spanish, Ashley Memory, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions, said in an e-mail. Texas State University at San Marcos, which is 24.3 percent Latino students, is taking similar steps to recruit those students in hopes of meeting the federal benchmark. Representatives send admissions officers to diverse high schools where they work with students. UNC’s Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs also will host a visitation weekend later this year specifically for Latino students. Students who have been accepted will see the campus and get information on financial aid and academics. Adrian Lopez, a UNC junior who is Latino, said that he felt that the University took a particular interest in recruiting from his demographic group. “I absolutely think this University caters to Hispanic needs because we offer tons of programs that reach out to the Hispanic community.” Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.