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(02/02/10 6:26am)
Then applying to colleges, freshman Lawson Kuehnert created a portfolio of the coursework he completed during his high school career as a home-schooled student.
He had to take that extra step because college admissions officials questioned his readiness for the academic vigor of a college workload.
But Kuehnert went through no additional measures when applying to UNC.
“Chapel Hill was probably the easiest of all the schools I applied to,” Kuehnert said. “I sent in my application and my materials, and that was that.”
UNC is different from many academic institutions in that it does not require an additional step in the application process, which some home-schooled students said makes the school more attractive.
Stephen Farmer, director of undergraduate admissions at UNC, said the regular application is adequate for home-schooled students to demonstrate their qualifications.
“We don’t feel comfortable at all imposing additional requirements on students who are home-schooled,” Farmer said.
But he added that the University does encourage home-schooled applicants to exceed the minimum requirements.
“It’s helpful for home-schooled students to send more than one recommendation and by people who are not related,” he said.
Tom Abeyta, associate director of admissions at Oberlin College, a school of about 2,200 students in Ohio, said the school’s office of admissions requires home-schooled students to take two additional SAT subject tests, complete an interview and create an academic portfolio in addition to their regular application.
“We want them to convey what they’ve been able to do since they’ve not taken the traditional route of public or private school,” Abeyta said.
He added that smaller schools look at home-schooled applicants differently than large public schools.
“The process can be a little more automated, since they might not have the staffing or time,” Abeyta said. “Smaller, more selective schools do tend to take the time to read through essays.”
But many elite public schools require home-schooled students to take additional steps.
The College of William & Mary and Miami University of Ohio both require home-schooled applicants to submit a supplement to the Common Application designed for home-school students.
Farmer said UNC cannot make a statement regarding the performance of home-schooled students because their population is a small portion of the University and includes several different backgrounds.
UNC enrolled 92 home-schooled students from 2006-09. Seventeen enrolled in the fall.
Farmer said the University has been accepting more home-schooled students this past decade partially because more have been applying.
He added that home-schooled students typically have a positive experience at UNC because their education creates the necessity for independent work.
“Since I’ve kind of trained myself to do that, it’s not been a problem,” said Sarah Edwards, a freshman from Davidson who was home-schooled.
“Personally, I did not have trouble transitioning at all.”
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(01/14/10 5:49am)
UNC is considering shredding the traditional paper application.
At a meeting Tuesday, a group of faculty members and administrators who oversee admissions discussed ceasing the printing and distribution of the paper application, which could save the University about $60,000 a year.
But some committee members expressed fear that disadvantag ed prospective students who don’t have Internet access — many of whom are minorities — might be alienated by discontinuing the paper application, which could occur within two years.
UNC and many peer institutions such as the University of Michigan include paper applications in the basic information packets they send to prospective students.
The percentage of prospective students using the paper application has dropped from 27 percent in 2003 to 2 percent in 2009.
But the numbers vary among ethnic groups. This year, 10 percent of black applicants applied using the paper application, compared to 2 percent of white applicants. Other ethnic groups, such as Native American and Asian-American, also were around 1 percent or 2 percent.
Because of this discrepancy, Director of Undergraduate Admissions Stephen Farmer said he is hesitant to end the paper application immediately.
“We want to make sure we foster access,” he said. “We’re concerned with students who don’t have access to online tools.”
Steve Reznick, associate dean of the Undergraduate Education Office, suggested that UNC only send paper applications to schools where students are less likely to have access to computers.
David Ravenscraft, associate dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School, said UNC could use the money to encourage diversity in alternative ways.
“The economist in me has to ask, ‘Couldn’t you take the money we’re spending on paper applications and put it toward a scholarship for first-generation college students?’” he said.
B’anca Glenn, president of the Black Student Movement, said she did not think eliminating paper applications would decrease the diversity of the applicant pool.
“If 10 percent of African American students are using it, the solution could be to encourage that 10 percent to use the online application instead,” she said.
Farmer said black applicants were not deterred when the school stopped sending paper applications to prospective transfer students.
“We did away with printing and mailing transfer applications five or six years ago, and diversity didn’t differ in that applicant pool,” he said.
At the University of Virginia, paper applications must be requested.
“We wanted to go green and save money. We still carry paper applications when we travel and give them out to whoever needs them,” said UVa admissions counselor Julie Roa.
Barbara Jo Polk, senior associate director of admissions at UNC, said paper applications will eventually be eliminated.
“It’s one of those things where, realistically, it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when,” she said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(11/16/09 5:43am)
To encourage first-generation and low-income high school seniors to apply to college, Gov. Bev Perdue has declared Nov. 16 to Nov. 20 “College Application Week.”
Students with financial need will see lower application fees and extra assistance from college counselors. University administrators said they hope it will prompt a rise in applications and a more diverse applicant pool.
More than 380 high schools will hold programs to help high school seniors apply to colleges and universities in the state using its Web site, according to a press release from the College Foundation of North Carolina.
CFNC and the Carolinas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers are working together on the project.
Thirty of the 36 private post-secondary institutions in North Carolina have decided to waive normal application fees for students who submit applications during this week and demonstrate financial need.
The 16 UNC-system universities and the other six private institutions in the state will waive fees outside of this week as well.
None of the state’s 58 community colleges require an application fee this academic year, and several small private universities also have dropped their fee for 2009-10.
Archie Ervin, associate provost and director of diversity and multicultural affairs at UNC-Chapel Hill, said his office has been working to increase the number of first-generation students applying to the University for years.
“I do think that due to the governor emphasizing this week for first-generation and low-income students that there will be more entering the application process,” Ervin said.
“However, if you are a low- income student, UNC already has a practice in place that does this.”
The event was set for this week because it will encourage students to get their applications done before early admission deadlines in most state colleges and universities, said Ben Kittner, the market research and public relations manager for CFNC.
It also allows time for any lingering high school transcripts or late letters of recommendation, Kittner said.
“The purpose, really, is to encourage students to get their applications together, particularly low-income and nontraditional college students,” he said.
“We will have counselors and volunteers for the schools who participate, and now we are also going to have colleges who are going to waive their application fees.”
Zaire Miller McCoy, senior associate director of admissions at Elon University and a member of an executive committee organizing the event, said all parties in this effort were cooperating, and, overall, College Application Week faced minimal obstacles.
“In terms of obstacles, the biggest is whether or not the student is really prepared to submit their applications,” McCoy said.
“Do they have their essay prepared and ready to attach it to the application? Are they ready to fill out all the necessary pieces of it to submit to the school of their choice?”
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(09/08/09 5:21am)
The admissions office has made minor spending changes in a tight budget year, but administrators said recruitment is staying on track in part through other UNC organizations’ help.
Stephen Farmer, associate director of undergraduate admissions, said the admissions office has seen smaller cuts — about 10 percent — than other areas of UNC .
“We feel we’ve been treated pretty well by the University,” Farmer said. “On the whole, we’ve come out pretty good.”
The state budget, which was handed down at the beginning of August, cuts about $37.5 million from UNC. The cuts hit almost every department.
Farmer said the cut to the admissions office was not as substantial as other departments.
The office also took precautions before the cuts and have continued to practice those measures.
“We’re going to have to work harder than we have before and we’re going to have to be smarter than we’ve been before,” Farmer said.
The office has begun using more e-mail and fewer staff members for recruiting events to cut spending.
They also reduced travel funds, which could hurt the UNC’s ability to recruit out-of-state students, about 20 percent of students.
“We are going to continue what’s been a trend of trying to get students to come to campus rather than go to them,” Farmer said.
Recruiting for free
Farmer added that many organizations both on and off campus have been helpful in reducing official recruitment costs.
Farmer said the General Alumni Association has aided in the recruiting process, dispatching volunteer out-of-state alumni to college fairs and talking with admitted students to ensure they choose UNC instead of other schools.
Doug Dibbert, association president, said members have been working with the admissions office in a variety of ways.
“One of those is admitted student receptions across the state,” Dibbert said. “We bring students with us and usually have a faculty speaker and a student speaker. The thrust of it is to address questions they may have to encourage them to come to Carolina.”
Other organizations helping the admissions office include the Board of Visitors, the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid. The admissions office has also used hundreds of student volunteers to recruit over the phone.
The Board of Visitors, a group of unpaid ambassadors to the University from around the country, began a committee for student recruitment last year.
The board worked with the admissions office to help recruit about 150 admitted students. Michael Kennedy, the board’s chairman, said the members are able to pay their own travel expenses.
“The budget cuts are not going to affect out-of-state admissions much for what the Board of Visitors is doing,” Kennedy said. “We’re contacting kids on our own time.”
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(12/03/02 5:00am)
Fewer students applied to UNC by the Nov. 15 early action deadline than had applied to the University by this time last year, according to preliminary numbers from undergraduate admissions officials.
UNC offered only two deadlines this year: the early action deadline, Nov. 15, and the regular deadline, Jan. 15.
The binding early decision deadline of Oct. 15 was abolished with much fanfare last year and took effect for this fall’s applicant pool.
Stephen Farmer, senior associate director of admissions, said 11,035 students applied early decision and early action to UNC last year.
Of these students, 1,848 applied early decision. The remaining 9,187 applied early action, a process that allows students to apply early and get an earlier response from the University.
So far, this year’s numbers indicate that 9,036 students have applied for the Nov. 15 early action deadline.
The difference between the numbers seems to be the number of early decision applicants, said Jerry Lucido, director of undergraduate admissions.
“It sounds like the current numbers are roughly different (because of) the early decision deadline,” he said.
Last spring, UNC was the first major public university to abandon the early decision program, saying it put too much pressure on high school seniors.
Yale and Stanford universities also recently decided to drop their early decision deadlines, but their changes will not take effect until next fall.
Lucido said it was difficult to be the first institution to drop the early decision deadline. “Sometimes when you lead, there is some risk involved. But it will be a short-run risk,” he said.
Losing early decision applicants to other schools was a major concern admissions officials expressed when UNC first dropped the program. But Lucido said it is too early to draw any definite conclusions. “I don’t know if there is a real relationship there other than the fact that a deadline tells a student to do something.”
Lucido said that some more applications still are in the mail but that overall the data indicates a drop in applicants for the fall deadline.
Despite a surge in applications nationally, Lucido is confident the applicant pool will remain strong even if it is smaller.
“My guess is that the students who would have applied early decision to UNC either are already in the pool or know they are going to apply to UNC and are just taking their time on the application,” he said.
Lucido said having one less deadline would be the only reason there are fewer applicants because in all other areas of admissions — like recruitment efforts — the University has improved. “We’ve done more things,” he said. “We’ve worked even harder than a year ago.”
The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.