unc college application essay prompts

12 UNC Chapel Hill Essay Examples (2024)

If you're trying to get into the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2024, you'll need to write college essays that make you stand out from the crowd.

In this article, I've gathered 12 of the best essays that got students admitted into UNC so that you can improve your own essays and ultimately get accepted to UNC.

What is UNC Chapel Hill's Acceptance Rate?

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the top public universities, which means every year it's more difficult to get accepted into UNC.

Last year over 53,775 students applied to UNC. UNC at Chapel Hill had an overall admit acceptance rate of 19.2%.

University of North Carolina Acceptance Scattergram

What are the unc chapel hill writing prompt for 2022-23.

UNC Chapel Hill requires all applicants to write two short essays of 200-250 words each and answer four fill-in-the-blank questions.

The UNC application also notes: " Carolina aspires to build a diverse and inclusive community. We believe that students can only achieve their best when they learn alongside students from different backgrounds. In reading your responses, we hope to learn what being a member of such a community would mean to you. "

Short Answer Questions

There are four UNC short answer questions to choose from for this year, of which each student must choose two prompts to answer.

Each essay must be between 200-250 words in length.

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.” How does history shape who you are?

Fill in the Blank Questions

Instructions: Please complete these short fill-in-the-blanks in 25 words or less .

One family, friend, or school tradition I cherish…

If I had an extra hour in every day, I would spend it...

If I could travel anywhere, near or far, past, present or future, I would go…*

The last time I stepped outside my comfort zone, I...

People who meet me are most likely to notice...and least likely to notice...

12 UNC Chapel Hill EssaysThatWorked

Here are 12 of the best essays from admitted students from UNC.

Check out these answers to the UNC short answer questions, as well as several successful Common App personal statement essays , and get inspired.

UNC Chapel Hill Essay Example #1

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Prompt: 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? (200-250 words)

I only had one class with Tom, but his soapbox made an appearance almost every day. In every class conversation, he would always have a strong opinion that he would vocalize with no fear of judgment. It astonished me. Though I poured much time into developing my own opinions, I had nowhere near the confidence he had to throw them around freely. I doubted if they could hold up to questioning, and if not, how I would be perceived.

As the year progressed, I was validated in that not all of his opinion stood up to scrutiny. However, I also realized that the only way to amend my own ideas was to put them on the line. The only way to withstand discord was to engage in it. And when coupled with my growing dedication to understanding others’ beliefs, I not only reflected on my own, but shared them, so others could internalize mine. Since then, I consistently draw on his intellectual confidence and the tempered thoughtfulness I have always possessed, to strike a balance between dialogue and introspection. Not until he came along had I realized the absolute importance of sharing imperfect ideas. As I have grown to recognize, my engagement in intellectual discourse not only works to refine my views but also works to constructively challenge those of others, fostering a mutually beneficial discussion, which though occasionally contentious, is always underpinned by tact and respect.

In elementary school, multiplication tables were the ultimate conquest. Each day, students would take their seats, filled with either anticipation or dread of the timed multiplication practice they would inevitably receive. To me, these worksheets were a challenge- an opportunity for me to prove to myself and others that I had mastered the art of third-grade math. However, I did not realize that a fellow classmate would motivate me to achieve ambitions beyond multiplication. Every day, this classmate expertly completed his multiplication with time to spare. As the year progressed, the teachers noticed his mathematical skill and allowed him to attempt the next step—division.

I jealously watched as he attempted division while I continued working through the same monotonous problems, and eventually realized that if he could master multiplication, I could too. I began to practice my multiplication tables at home, and, at school, every timed quiz brought me closer to excellence. Finally, after what seemed like years of hard work, my teacher allowed me to progress to the division worksheets with my classmate. Without realizing it, this classmate pushed me to work my hardest and take my learning outside of the classroom. He motivated me to learn and inspired me to be the best version of myself. Because of this classmate, I work harder in school, always push myself, and, above all, believe that anything is achievable if I try my hardest.

Julia (I’ve changed her name) had always sat behind me in calculus. We traded snippets of our lives in the five minutes between math problems. One Friday night, I answered an unexpected FaceTime from Julia. She told me about her family, how her dad had committed suicide after her mom threatened to leave him. She described how her brother had physically abused her, leaving her bloody on the bathroom floor. She recounted calling the police after her boyfriend threatened to jump off a window ledge. I was left speechless.

The next morning, I remembered the classic Freudian glacier diagrams with only 10% of a person residing above water. Julia was an avid artist, a budding mathematician, yet she was living with pain most adults would find unbearable. Looking at the jeans she had painted herself in Starry Night’s likeness, basking in the warm glow of her wit, there was simply no way of knowing what obstacles she had to overcome. I had always taken having a supportive family for granted, rarely ever considering that for many, home was a punishment and not a sanctuary. While the mild success I had enjoyed in school existed primarily because of my ever-encouraging parents, hers existed in spite of them, making everything she had accomplished all the more remarkable. My respect for Julia is immeasurable. She taught me not only resilience by example, but never to assume, to never disregard what most likely lies just beneath the surface.

I opened my email on the first day of junior year to these words: “Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Chess Club has returned once more to bless our Halls”. The sender was Donald Hasler, one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. Don and another student decided to revive the dormant Chess Club. Don, however, wanted it to be about much more than chess; he hoped to create a place where all types of students could unite. He succeeded in this goal through a weekly series of hilarious emails and constant outreach to the student body, from the most reserved students to the most rambunctious. A few months into school, Chess Club was not only the most popular club but also one of the most welcoming communities. Regardless of their knowledge of chess, students of different ages and interests come together once a week to play.

Don has become, for me, a model of the take-charge attitude essential to success in today’s world. He has taught me to emulate his leadership with nothing more than determination, a sense of humor, and an open mind, in order to develop a collaborative and cohesive group of students. Over the past year, I have helped bring a host of high school underclassmen into Math Team, helping them find a unique extracurricular interest and a group of fun, caring peers and role-models. Math Team has now joined Chess Club as the only clubs in the school with 100 members.

I am a Democrat, and Jack is as Republican as they come. True friendships are not possible between people with vastly different ideologies. At least that’s what I had originally thought. We have played basketball, done homework, gone out to lunch, laughed at memes, mourned bad grades, gossipped about teachers, and done everything that most friends do.

We have also had some of the most interesting political discussions; passionate, but without rancor or judgment. In the process I have learned many things. All it takes is a mutual willingness to listen intently and not constantly think of a repartee. Productive dialogue is more important than the instant gratification of defeating someone’s argument. The mutual respect Jack and I have for each other’s disparate political opinions is something most people wouldn’t imagine possible.

My political beliefs have only become stronger through our friendship, but so too has my understanding of divergent perspectives. I think that milk should go in before cereal, and that Lebron James is clearly better than Kobe Bryant; but it’s not a big deal if someone disagrees with me. So why is politics an exception? If friendships can only be formed between like-minded people, then democracy is in peril. Let us build that bridge. Jack and I did. It makes a difference.

I have been blessed with so many fantastic friends. I was going to write about my best friend in this essay. But no friendship has taught me more than the one Jack and I share.

Prompt: 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)

Thanksgiving is a special time for many in America. It is a celebration of American traditions. Growing up, with parents from Bangladesh, we never celebrated Thanksgiving – my parents always told me it was an American holiday, and we weren’t Americans. Now, we do celebrate Thanksgiving, albeit different from the traditional American holiday that most celebrate.

The cuisine we eat is unique to us – the turkey has spices such as turmeric, giving it a hint of the perceptible Bengali flavor. The mashed potatoes in our house aren’t topped with gravy – they are topped with curry. There are slight nuances to everything we have at the dinner table that combines the essence and cultures of the traditional American style with our own Bengali culture.

I believe that these meals, and our Thanksgiving, describes me personally. The combination of the American society in which I live and Bengali household I reside have a strong influence in my whole being. This clash of cultures blended together for me is something I would in turn contribute to the UNC community.

I also believe that my background gives me a unique perspective on social justice, which allows me to contribute to conversations that others might struggle to contribute to. Because of our Thanksgiving and how it shapes me, I will carry that with me to college where it will provide a model for myself and my peers at UNC.

Prompt: 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)

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.

New England. Apple Cider, Lobster Rolls, Clam Chowder, Fall Foliage. Dead Leaves, N’oreasters, Blizzards.

The unique corner of America where I live raises conflicting feelings in me. New England is a place where beautiful colors envelop you when autumn appears but also where bitter blizzards leave you in despair when winter takes hold. A place with strong values rooted in its deep history but also where change is often rejected in favor of tradition.

As much as I love the possibility of a white Christmas, I despise the sight of muddy slush on the roadside as I drive to school. There is nothing I would love more than to be rid of the biting cold and terrible snowstorms. Of course, we couldn’t do that without discovering some outrageous new technology to shut down Earth’s natural phenomena. But that would create bigger problems, so maybe we should stay away from that idea and just hope for some forgiving weather this year!

Blizzards aside, one of my biggest issues with New England lies in its lack of decent public transportation. Our weather is worse than that of many parts of Europe, but Europe solves this problem with phenomenal public transportation including modern metros, efficient bus systems, and high-speed rail networks. One day, I hope we can emulate that level of interconnectedness and convenience in New England and throughout America. I hope this historically significant region might serve as a catalyst for technological and infrastructural change throughout America, changing history once more.

There aren’t many places where everyone is free from prejudice. One exception is a basketball court. The first time I stepped on a basketball court, I was expecting the usual joke about my race or the judgmental questions about my culture. But they never came. Everyone I met had unique perspectives on everything, from basketball itself to politics, and they were open and willing to share.

I began to open up more about my background – how I couldn’t tie my own shoes until I was 10 and that I’m the only person in my family who loves hip-hop music. I was willing to share my experiences because there were no judgments made about me. Despite living in an ethnically homogenous area, on the court, I met and connected with people who have different backgrounds and interests. Coleman, now one of my best friends, who is in love with Greek architecture, or Gavin, who is the only member of his family who isn’t a Packers fan.

The culture of unity and acceptance that is fostered is not due to the courts themselves, but due to the common goal everyone shares. I hope my community will find ways to build more places that promote what I have experienced on the basketball court – areas where everyone is respected for their perspectives rather than judged by their race, religion, or beliefs.

“Kings have riches widely lain, Lords have land, but then again, We have friends and song no wealth can buy.” - “Here’s to Song” by Allister MacGillivray

Whether it was french horn, singing, or piano, music has been integral to my mental development, and has provided me an enriching outlet to immerse myself in outside the classroom. Sadly, 1.3 million American elementary school students lack access to music classes due to funding cuts. Music should not belong solely to children in privileged, affluent schools; during my college experience, I aim to tackle this issue.

During my UNC visit, I fell into conversation with a current student, Evan Linnett, about Musical Empowerment, an organization that he leads. UNC’s commitment to equipping the next generation with the power of music is inspiring; my vision is to take this a step further. Aspiring applicants attend college-run summer programs for the experience of staying on campus; however, almost all of these programs are academic.

I envision a service-based UNC Music summer program, one that fills up dorms over the summer, provides a service opportunity to high school students from all over the country, and free basic music education to children in the RTP area, who perhaps can’t afford summer camp or music lessons. As a musician, I feel that it is our duty to use the opportunities we have been blessed with to make music accessible to children of marginalized communities across the country.

This isn’t an RTP problem; it’s a national problem. But it starts with one.

Prompt: What is one thing that we don’t know about you that you want for us to know? (200-250 words)

Sharp ambition recedes to a dull afterthought under the vast blue sky. There is nothing to prove, only a trail to be hiked. Human worries have no place here, are as alien as concrete and WiFi. Thoughts of chemistry competitions, English essays, and college loans fade into nonexistence. A stream gurgles nearby, white noise in the greenest of places. Surrounded by unassuming simplicity, I am home.

I started hiking before I could read the trail signs. I’ve been skiing for 12 years. Nature presents an opportunity not just for individual tranquility, but for being with family free from modern distractions. A tradition as ingrained as making cozonac at Christmas, the commitment to spending time outdoors is a rare source of common ground for my family. After eight hours on the trail, we eat at the same cafe, our legs streaked with dried mud. My mom predictably orders the Reuben while my dad orders salad and steals our fries. There is something warmly comforting in our routine; no matter the arguments that inevitably arise after four of us are stuffed in a car together, everything else recedes away once we step outside, slowly disappearing with the fading whoosh of cars on the highway.

I’ve trekked hundreds of miles in the mountains of upstate New York, fished in the cold, salty waters of Talkeetna, marvelled at the sun setting over Arches National Park. No matter the landscape, be it red rocks or blue ocean, I am continually humbled by the natural world and its capacity for fostering human connection.

Prompt: 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. (650 words max)

Everywhere I looked, I saw a sea of white coats and scrubs; there was constant beeping of the heart monitors, and the smell of disinfectant was strong.

There I stood - a diminutive, awkward high school kid - lacking in experience and confidence, ready to begin volunteering at Vidant Medical Center. Perhaps the very same qualities that made me nervous were what put patients at ease. Many patients, especially younger ones who were uncomfortable speaking with medical professionals, seemed much more comfortable in my presence. I have learned this quality is how I have been able to make a difference - by connecting with many of the younger patients who were nervous just like me. I’ll always remember the two eight-year-old brothers who were waiting as their father got an MRI.

In some ways, they were also like me - they loved sports, and had an interest in math and science. As they were waiting, we talked about everything, from who they thought would win the NBA championship title to me giving them tips on how to remember their multiplication tables. This interaction put them at ease and kept them from becoming restless.

Every time I step into the hospital, I strive to connect with people. I find that I am able to make a difference not strictly due to my tasks of escorting and discharging patients but because of connection and rapport that I establish with them.

My initial nervousness about whether or not I would be able to assist sick and injured patients soon gave way to relief and gratification as I learned that I was indeed able to help them, by bringing a smile to those I escort, discharge, or deliver meals . I’ve met people I might never have met otherwise, and we’ve shared our thoughts and talked about our experiences. I have come to look forward to their company, who, despite their conditions, are still able to smile every day and enjoy engaging in conversation with me - and vice versa.

Even when volunteering in areas of the hospital where I’m not in contact with patients as often, such as doing food preparation, I always make sure to visit the patients I escort after my shift, to talk to them and uplift their spirits. Volunteering at a hospital reminds me every day how fortunate I am to be in good health and of the rewards of helping those who aren’t. While my job as a volunteer at the hospital may not result in the discovery of a cure for cancer, I am happy to have had an opportunity to contribute to improving the experiences of the children and young adults coping with their hospital stays.

What Can You Learn From These UNC Chapel Hill Essays?

Getting into UNC Chapel Hill in 2022 is difficult, but you can maximize your chances of acceptance by writing essays that help you stand out.

These 12 UNC essays that worked show exactly how real students got accepted into UNC recently by responding to the UNC short answer questions and Common App personal statement.

What did you think of these UNC Chapel Hill essays?

Meet the Author

Ryan Chiang

I'm Ryan Chiang and I created EssaysThatWorked.com - a website dedicated to helping students and their families apply to college with confidence & ease. We publish the best college admissions essays from successful applicants every year to inspire and teach future students.

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UNC Chapel Hill Supplemental Essays 2024-25 – Prompts and Advice

July 26, 2024

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 donning the Carolina blue and white, you’ll need to stand out on your application. Through its two short answer prompts, the UNC-Chapel Hill supplemental section affords applicants an opportunity to showcase what makes them uniquely qualified for admission. Below are the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill’s supplemental prompts for the 2024-25 admissions cycle. We also include tips about how to address each one.

UNC-Chapel Hill Short Answer Prompts—2024-25

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. Be honest about your level of impact.

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 chronicle 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 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.

Need additional writing resources? Check out the following:

• Common App Essay Prompts
• 10 Instructive Common App Essay Examples
• College Application Essay Topics to Avoid
• How to Quickly Format Your Common App Essay
• Should I Complete Optional College Essays?
• How to Brainstorm a College Essay
• 25 Inspiring College Essay Topics
• “Why This College?” Essay Examples
• How to Write the Community Essay
• 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.

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How to Write the UNC Supplemental Essays 2024–2025

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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , also known as UNC or simply “Carolina,” is known as the nation’s first public university. These days, UNC has two Noble Laureate faculty members, an acceptance rate below 17% , and a #4 ranking among public US universities, according to the US News & World Report . Their accomplished alumni include James K. Polk, Michael Jordan, Thomas Wolfe, and Mia Hamm. Hoping to join their ranks? First, you’ll need to nail your UNC supplemental essays. Let’s dive in.

UNC’s 2023-2024 Prompts

UNC only requires two short essays. Both essays must be 200-250 words. See the prompts below.

UNC Short Essay Questions

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. (200-250 words), 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. (200-250 words).

General Tips

A significant challenge many college applicants face when writing their essays is nuance. Many college essays tend toward black-and-white conclusions, make blanket statements, or switch unrealistically between negative and positive perspectives. However, this kind of writing sounds less mature and thoughtful to the admissions officer and is generally not reflective of real life. Thus, it’s important to compose a balanced, nuanced college essay. Here are a few tips to help you along in your drafting process:

Don’t feel compelled to end your essay with a lesson.

Many applicants feel that their essays must be summed up by a particular moral or lesson learned. However, college essays can simply conclude with a restatement/rewording of the essay’s overall thesis, which need not be moralistic. You can also end your essay on a light-hearted note that references an idea previously mentioned in the essay. Regardless, don’t feel pressure to squeeze in a moral or piece of wisdom at the essay’s closing unless such a line fits in naturally in your essay.

Avoid superlatives when possible.

Writing that something was the “most interesting idea in the world,” “the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me,” “the lowest point in my life,” can backfire in an essay. If this superlative phrasing is truly accurate to your experience, then it may be necessary in your essay. But if it is not, don’t use superlative phrasing. And think deeply about whether there is a softer way to communicate your idea, and whether the superlative is truly used appropriately in this particular instance. If you overuse superlatives or don’t provide enough evidence for why the superlative is being used, you risk giving the reader the impression that your essay’s claims are exaggerated in general.

Don’t exaggerate.

Following on that last point, avoid exaggerating in your college essays. Remember, just exaggerating is different from using hyperbole (also known as overstatement), which is an effective rhetorical device. Of course, you don’t want to overdo it on the hyperbole, either, and in order to be effective, it tends to require sparing usage.

Exaggerating even occasionally in your essay calls the rest of your essay into question. Thus, it’s advisable to represent events as accurately as you can. Blanket statements (meaning in this case, statements that apply to many categories of people, things, events, or concepts, particularly those unrelated to your unique individual experiences) should be avoided for the same reason.

This essay prompt shares similarities with some of the Common App essay prompts, but your response should be completely distinct from your Common App essay. Moreover, this essay should focus on your community impact. Whether you’re a part of the community you impacted or not, you should share with the reader what this community means to you. Sharing this information will help make your essay more compelling.

Ultimately, this essay is not about the community you impacted, but about who you are. The essay should revolve around “one of your personal qualities,” which could include a character trait, identity, talent, skill, or even a weakness you’ve turned around. Whatever personal quality you choose to highlight in this essay, name it specifically in the essay. Be careful to maintain a humble tone as you describe this quality. Then, share a single story about how this quality helped you impact a community. The prompt isn’t looking for a series of vignettes or varied anecdotes, but rather a single unified narrative.

In summary, focus on one community that is important to you, one personal quality that helped you impact this community, through one story that is portrayed humbly. Use specific, concrete details when possible while telling this story. Clarify when this impact occurred and what it means to you. Lastly, let your empathy shine through!

This is a pretty standard supplemental essay prompt asked by many other schools, so you may already have an essay written that you can repurpose here. Note that this prompt does not ask you about why you want to study this subject at UNC, but only about why you want to study it more generally. Although you need not bring up UNC at all in this essay, you absolutely can bring up why you want to study this subject specifically at UNC if you like.

You may not have a unique origin story behind this academic interest. That said, you likely have at least a few prior experiences with this topic that you can draw upon here. Have you always been excited by science class experiments, building an interest in chemistry over time? Have current events inspired your interest in artificial intelligence? What books have you read that have solidified your interest in the origins of democracy? Regardless of your topic of interest, describe at least one occasion when that interest was fostered, sparked, nurtured, or otherwise impacted. Then, share that experience with the reader, using specific details to illustrate your narrative(s).

If you need help polishing up your UNC supplemental essays, check out our College Essay Review service. You can receive detailed feedback from Ivy League consultants in as little as 24 hours.

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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 !

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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.

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August 24, 2024

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Supplemental Essay Prompts: 2024-2025

Previously Published on July 5, 2013:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has released its supplemental essay prompts for the 2024-2025 admissions cycle . In addition to The Common Application ’s Personal Statement, UNC applicants are asked to respond to two short answer prompts in up to 250 words.

2024-2025 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Essay Topics and Questions

The instructions for the two UNC essays read as follows:

We’d like to know how you’d contribute to the Carolina community and ask that you respond to each prompt in up to 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.

While the United States Supreme Court outlawed the practice of Affirmative Action , Chief Justice John Roberts wrote somewhat of a loophole in the high court’s majority opinion.

As Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “At the same time, as all parties agree, nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

In the wake of the ruling, more of America’s highly selective universities than ever chose to pose a “community” essay to applicants to the Class of 2029. This UNC essay prompt is such an example.

The word  community  can, of course, be interpreted loosely. It can be a student’s geographical community. It can be an ethnic community. It can be a religious community. It can be a community of political activists. UNC’s admissions officers wants to see how they’re agitating for change — for the better — within a chosen group of people. 

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.

Ideally, an applicant’s response will relate to their hook since UNC seeks to admit singularly talented students who together form a well-rounded class. What UNC’s admissions committee is  not  looking for is a well-rounded student.

As such, this essay presents an opportunity for a student to showcase how they think about their intended field of study and how they wish to leave their mark on the discipline. Ideally, a student will incorporate an activity — either research-based or otherwise — that relates to their hook. But maybe the research fell short. There may still be questions left unanswered. It’s all precisely what you want to explore more in college.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance with UNC Essays

If you’re interested in presenting the most powerful essays possible to UNC’s admissions committee, fill out Ivy Coach ’s consultation form , and we’ll be in touch to outline our college counseling services for seniors. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Application Essay

Choosing an Essay Prompt

• You may choose from any of the Common App prompts to provide supplemental information for the review of their application. Regardless of which prompt you choose, all essays are reviewed equally.

Common Application Essay Prompts

• Some students have a background, identity, interest or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• Describe a topic, idea or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
• Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt or one of your own design.

Why are we requiring an essay?

• We get a lot of information about your academic accomplishments from your application and transcripts. The essay gives us a little more insight into your experiences, interests and talents outside the classroom. It gives you a “voice” in our review. What do you want us to know about you that isn’t courses and grades? Choose the prompt that allows you to express yourself.

How are we evaluating your essay?

• We aren’t using a red pen to “grade” your essay, and your essay will never be the sole factor for an admission decision. We’re most interested in what you have say – not in how exactly you say it. So we’ll be looking for you to address the question or prompt (if you choose a specific one), and we’ll want to see that you gave it enough time and effort to ensure minimal mistakes and an understanding of appropriate essay structure.
• Regardless of the topic you choose, your response should demonstrate your academic promise and readiness for the rigor of a college classroom. For more tips about the essay, check out our blog .

How do I submit my essay?

• If you applied through the Future 49er Portal, it is preferred that you upload your essay to the Future 49er Portal in the “Upload Materials” section. If you experience any issues uploading it in your portal, you may email it to [email protected] .
• If you applied through CommonApp, your essay is already submitted to us and no further action is needed.

Special Consideration

• If there are circumstances that make essay writing a hardship, please reach out to an Admissions Counselor for assistance. This requirement is not intended to present a barrier and we are committed to working with students who need special consideration.

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How to Ace the 2024-2025 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.

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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! 

Related : How to win UNC Chapel Hill scholarships

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? 

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Sharing is Caring 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! 

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2 Strong UNC Chapel Hill Essay Examples

What’s covered:, essay example #1 – topic of interest, essay example #2 – change one thing about where you live.

• Where to Get Your UNC Chapel Hill Essays Edited

UNC Chapel Hill is the flagship institution of the University of North Carolina system and is often regarded as a “ Public Ivy ” because of its academic excellence. Not only that, UNC Chapel Hill has a spirited fan base that loves to support the Tar Heels, especially in basketball. 

In this post, we’ll go over two essays that real students submitted to UNC Chapel Hill, and we’ll discuss the strengths and some potential areas of improvement. (Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved)

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized.

Read our UNC Chapel Hill es say breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

Prompt: 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. (250 words)

Armed with pink playdough, I transformed my bedroom into a dimly lit laboratory. Every squish and mold orchestrated the crinkled folds into an organ capable of choreographing life. 

As I grew older, the brain’s complexity surpassed what I had explained to my stuffed-animals. Volunteering alongside OB/GYNs, I witnessed newborns’ painful prelude to existence with their fragile bodies scarred from incomplete neural tubing and spinal cysts. Between infancy and old age, the brain fades into memory loss. The severity of Alzheimer’s draped a cruel fog over events I organized in a senior home as residents kept forgetting where they were. Playdough was no longer enough to mend the brain’s crinkled folds. 

“Apples in a tree, cars in a garage,” a simple saying that bridges the natural world with genetic expression. When apple trees don’t bloom and adenine fails to bind with thymine, both landscapes and DNA become distorted. By examining the mechanisms of DNA damage through a neurobiological lens, I can develop targeted treatments focused on enzymes that untangle molecular threads in neurons. Learning to genetically map expecting mothers for fetal defects opens avenues for proactive interventions before NICU visits. As I experiment with CRISPR alongside Professor Dowen, I’ll be able to modify altered DNA sequences seen in Alzheimer’s. The intersection between genetic variation and neural pathways drives me to translate my knowledge into technology capable of diagnosing psychological illness from nerve activity. 

Using my pink playdough, I hope to construct genetic blueprints that build a brighter future amid neurological disorders. 

What the Essay Did Well

The student who wrote this essay is able to convey two critically important things: their passion for and knowledge of this topic. As a result, we get a complete picture of how captivated this student is with neurobiology, and how they will be an engaged neurobiology student on campus.

Their passion is conveyed right from the start. The introduction is short and sweet—just long enough to get the reader hooked, without wasting precious words on recounting their entire childhood. Thanks to the descriptive details of “ pink playdough ” and complex concepts “ explained to my stuffed animals ,” within the first three sentences we immediately understand the child-like fascination this student has had for neurobiology for most of their life.

Once the early spark of passion is established, they provide details on their extracurricular involvements related to this topic, to show how they furthered their interest. Although the prompt doesn’t specifically ask you to discuss your extracurriculars, in any college essay you want to use examples to illustrate your points.

For this student, their activities–working with an OBGYN and at a senior center–allow them to show how passionate they are about going into medicine. This strategy is far more effective than the student simply telling us “ I am fascinated by this topic .”

To further establish their interest in this field, and why their passion would make them a good addition to the UNC campus, the student displays their knowledge of the topic. Again, they don’t accomplish this by saying “ I’ve read countless books on this topic and have learned a lot about Alzheimers.”

Instead, this essay shows us they know what they are talking about by providing technical details like “ neural tubing and spinal cysts ,” “ adenine fails to bind with thymine ,” and “e nzymes that untangle molecular threads in neurons. ” Seamlessly including technical details, in a way that feels accessible even to people who don’t know much about this topic, conveys a sense of confidence in your knowledge and shows admissions officers you are prepared for college-level coursework.

Finally, although not explicitly asked for in the prompt, this student accomplishes one of the higher level goals of a “ Why Major ” essay and tells the reader what they hope to accomplish with their degree. (Note: this prompt is a little different from a typical “Why Major?” prompt, in that you have the freedom to write about a topic other than your intended major, but many of the same general principles apply.)

A forward-looking ending like this is always a smart move, as showing the admissions committee that you already have longer term dreams for how you’ll use your degree gives them confidence that you’re ready to take full advantage of the resources their school has to offer. Even better, this student alludes to a specific professor they want to work with to help make those dreams a reality, thus bringing UNC into the picture as an integral player for achieving their goals.

What Could Be Improved 

A 250 word limit is fairly restrictive, so we don’t want to nitpick too much, but one area that could have been expanded on in this essay is how the student hopes to engage with the UNC community. 

As mentioned above, they do tie their goals back to UNC by mentioning a professor, but the conclusion would have been even stronger if they went farther than just name dropping one professor. This could have been done in a few ways:

• Including one or two classes that are unique to UNC (so, not neurobiology 101) that they are excited to take, and a specific lesson or piece of information they hope to take away from their coursework.
• Mentioning a club or research lab on campus they hope to join and what they will learn/achieve through it.
• Elaborating on the professor’s research or lab they are involved with–that extra detail shows they’ve done their homework and didn’t just pick a random name.

While the details they include earlier on in the essay to prove their knowledge of neurobiology are certainly effective, they could afford to sacrifice one or two, to buy themselves some extra space at the end. Their point would still come across, and doing one of the things listed above would make an already excellent essay even better, by further building their case for why they need to attend UNC, specifically, to make their aspirations reality.

Prompt: If you could change one thing about where you live, what would it be and why? (200-250 words).

Sitting behind the loaded plates on our dinner table, I predicted my mom’s first question with 100% accuracy: “So, how did you do on the trigonometry test today?” Notorious for failing math classes, my brother paused from chewing his chicken wing. 

I knew he’d be in trouble. 

Indeed, after hearing his grade, my mom scolded: “Look at our neighbor’s kid; then look at you! She never gets anything below a 90!”

There it is again: “the neighbor’s kid,” a Chinese concept that I wish would serve a different purpose. Upon learning about their children’s unsatisfactory academic performance, Chinese parents often bring up a so-called perfect neighbor’s kid for comparison. It saddens me to see individuals raised under the shadow of “the neighbor’s kid” not able to simply enjoy exploring knowledge. They toil through years of schooling for good grades and a prestigious college’s acceptance letter at the cost of their mental well-being. Worse, some measure their self-worth by grades alone: my brother believes he’s not good enough, despite all his admirable traits outside of academics. 

Instead of “the neighbor’s kid who got a good grade” at the dinner table, I suggested my parents discuss “the neighbor’s kid who sells bracelets to raise money for charity”  or “who had a hot discussion with the teacher about whether animals have consciousness.” I look forward to a more vibrant and colorful dinner conversation, where families talk about their roses and thorns of the day, rather than a neighbor’s kid defined by numbers.

This essay does a great job of opening with a strong anecdote and seamlessly transitioning the anecdote into an answer to the prompt. The reader feels the suspense of sitting at the dinner table with the student and their family waiting for the response to their mom’s question, and might even relate to hearing the student’s parents complain about their grade. It’s a simple and quick story, but everyone can find something in it they relate to, which makes the reader want to keep reading.

The essay was also successful at transitioning from a personal anecdote to a broader topic that addresses the prompt. The anecdote is connected to the larger issue the student has with their home environment and provides context for their reasoning that growing up surrounded by this mentality is harmful. The use of the anecdote bolsters the entire essay by perfectly setting up the student’s response to the prompt, rather than being an out-of-place inclusion to add some empathy or imagery, which is a common mistake with anecdotes.

Another positive aspect of this essay is how the student’s passion for the issue shines through. The reader learns a good deal about the student’s family life and familiarity with the “the neighbor’s kid.” The student’s sadness and disapproval at not being able to enjoy learning because the immense amount of stress their parents place on them to get good grades is evident when they say, “ They toil through years of schooling for good grades and a prestigious college’s acceptance letter at the cost of their mental well-being.”

The inclusion of the student’s brother also shows how close this issue is to the student’s heart, because they are watching stereotypes harm someone they love. The details and direct language included provide strong evidence for why the student wants to change this aspect of where they live, which is the most important part of the prompt to address.

What Could Be Improved

For the most part, this is a great essay. The one thing that could be improved is the last paragraph that explains what the student wants to change. As far as the reader knows, the suggestions the student makes to discuss “the neighbor’s kid who sells bracelets” or “the neighbor’s kid who had a hot discussion with the teacher” are random topics the student chose to contrast with the idea of valuing a kid for a numerical grade. Since these appear as random topics, it distracts from other qualities the student and their brother might possess and want to showcase to their parents.

In an essay that is focused on changing the norm of equating worth with a grade, it would reveal more about what the student wants to be recognized for if they mentioned topics of conversation that related back to their interests. For example, if the student liked to ice skate and play the trumpet they could say:

“Instead of the dreaded question about my grades, my parents would ask about how my axel is coming along or what new song I’m considering for the winter concert.”

An ending more like this, that discusses the student’s interests rather than randomly mentioning other students, still achieves the same goal of the student not wanting to solely be measured by a number, but conveys the idea while also providing more insight into the student and what they value.

Where to Get Your UNC Chapel Hill  Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your UNC Chapel Hill essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Advice for Your Application

We asked our admissions counselors to help answer your questions about writing samples, letters of recommendation, and extracurricular activities.

writing samples

Sharing your voice..

The writing portion of you application is an opportunity to show us your authentic self. Assistant Director Logan Jacobs provides three quick tips:

• Share specific details.
• Write a draft or two.
• Ask your friends to read your essay.

Letters of Recommendation

Select a teacher in a core subject who knows you best..

Assistant Director Ebony Potts shares what to consider when you ask a teacher to write your letter of recommendation from a teacher.

Core subject areas can include:

• Social science
• World language

Extracurricular Activities

Show us what’s meaningful to you..

We know that your life is busy and your time is valuable. Understanding how you spend your time outside of the classroom helps us understand what’s important to you. Assistant Director Emily O’Brian shares why we’re so excited to hear about your extracurricular activities.

Special Opportunities

Express interest in special programs..

Assistant Director Bryan Tyrpin shares how you can be considered for unique opportunities at Carolina.

Related Stories

Application prompts for 2024-2025, first-year application, transfer application.

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

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University of North Carolina (UNC) 2020-21 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Regular Decision: 

UNC 2020-21 Application Essay Question Explanations

The Requirements: 2 essays of 200-250 words each, 1 additional essay

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Community, Activity

In addition to the essay you provided with your Common Application, please choose two of the prompts below and respond to each in 200-250 words. Your essay responses below should be different from your common app essay response.

Carolina aspires to build a diverse and inclusive community. we believe that students can only achieve their best when they learn alongside students from different backgrounds. in reading your responses, we hope to learn what being a member of such a community would mean to you. , 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.

UNC wants to accept students who will contribute to the diversity and inclusivity on campus. When considering an aspect of your identity to expand upon, we recommend choosing one that has had the biggest impact on the way you experience and interact with the world. Ideally, the unique aspect you select should come with a couple anecdotes. Maybe you want to write about your gender identity, and give admissions a glimpse into what it’s like to be a young trans person in 2020. Perhaps you embody #BlackGirlMagic and always take the opportunity to celebrate your heritage and community. Regardless of the part of your identity that you choose to address, be specific and use this opportunity to speak to admissions in your own authentic voice.

If you could change one thing about where you live, what would it be and why?  

Although you may be tempted to write the first thing that comes to mind (make it beachfront! free pizza Fridays! build a bowling alley!), admissions is looking for a serious response that addresses a current issue. The good news (if you want to see it that way?) is that there’s no shortage of contemporary issues for you to address here, so the key is to pick the problem that is closest to your heart. Maybe you’re incredibly passionate about the environment, and you would love to create a clean energy initiative in your town. Perhaps you want to zoom out and interpret “where you live” as your country as a whole: Do you envision living in a country with no child hunger? Don’t forget to answer the “why” part of the question as well, and bonus points if you can show admissions that you’re already taking steps to make this change happen in your community. Are you organizing peaceful protests in your small Midwestern town to raise awareness about the impending dangers of global warming? Do you use your social media platforms to inform your peers about youth homelessness? Remember that UNC is looking to accept passionate students who are informed and eager to be part of the solution.

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?  

Who do you look up to and why? UNC wants to know about your idol and/or mentor in order to learn more about what’s important to you. So, start by thinking about the term “community builder.” Who comes to mind? Perhaps for you, it’s your aunt, who hosts cookouts every Sunday in the spring and summer to bring your extended family together to bond over grilled veggies and potato salad. What have these cookouts meant to you? Or, maybe you’ve never met the person you’d like to write about. Maybe you follow someone on Instagram who is constantly informing you (and their other followers) about issues impacting your community. Have these posts inspired you to call your state representatives to voice your frustrations and demand change? No matter who you choose, try not to spend too many words on their actions, and instead focus on how their work has made a difference in your life. It is you , after all, that UNC will be considering inviting to campus next fall.

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 want you to do them. We also hope you’ll remember—because we never forget—that low-profile pursuits can be just as meaningful as ones that draw more attention, and that fewer activities can be just as good as more, and sometimes even better. Although starting a new club, for example, can be a great experience and helpful to others, so can caring for siblings, parents, or grandparents, or working outside the home to put food on the table, or being a good and caring friend. We hope you won’t feel as though you have to do the former, especially if your doing so will keep you from doing the latter. For all 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, we encourage you to keep it brief; focus less on including everything than on choosing and explaining the things that have meant the most to you; and upload it here.

Didn’t see this prompt on UNC’s application at first glance, did ya?! This long-winded prompt can be found in the “Activities” section of the Common App. As the prompt itself says, take this opportunity to elaborate on an activity, experience, or responsibility that is meaningful to you. You can write about the sense of family you found within your recreational basketball team, the friendship that grew from a tutoring gig, or the gift you were able to give your mom after weeks of flipping burgers at your local fast food joint. Whatever you choose to write about here, remember that admissions is looking for quality over quantity. Use this space to give admissions insight into what is important and poignant to you!

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How Your Social Media Accounts Can Affect Your Ivy League Applications

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Could a meme you posted years ago shatter your dreams of attending Harvard? Can Columbia admissions officers read your Instagram comments? Does Stanford really care about the red solo cups in the pictures from your homecoming afterparty?

The answer to these questions is yes . Responsible and conscientious online behavior is necessary for students in every stage of their development—but it is particularly critical for those applying to college. While many students may assume that what they post online is their own private business, publicly accessible profiles are just as visible to admissions officers at top schools as they are to students’ peers. This means that the public content you post on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, or YouTube could be fair game in the holistic review process at Ivy League and other prestigious institutions.

On the one hand, students should note that admissions officers have multiple commitments in their jobs, and many of them do not routinely review applicants’ social media profiles. Admissions decisions are primarily based on the formal materials you submit—essays, activities lists, recommendations, transcripts, supplements, and extracurriculars.

However, your social media presence is not entirely off their radar. Top colleges are seeking to educate the next generation of engaged, informed, and responsible civic leaders. Your online behavior is a reflection of your character and values, not to mention a testament to your ability to follow a school’s code of conduct, reflect its values, and develop into the kind of leader they want to graduate.

A 2023 study conducted by Kaplan found that 67% of admissions officers “believe that checking out applicants’ social media posts on apps like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, and Threads to learn more about them is “fair game” to help them make decisions about who gets in.” The study also found that just under one-third of admissions officers surveyed had actually done this, which, though a smaller fraction, is not a negligible number of admissions personnel.

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As social media becomes increasingly important in students’ socialization and personal expression, it likewise becomes more important in admissions committees’ eyes. The percentage of admissions officers who believed social media to be “fair game” in admissions considerations has risen 10% over the last five years alone, according to Kaplan. The survey further found that social media, when considered by admissions officers, had a primarily negative impact on students’ chances of acceptance.

What Do Admissions Officers Look For On Students’ Social Media?

On the one hand, social media can serve as a means of vetting students for inappropriate, illegal, or inadvisable behaviors. Admissions officers may also check your social media to see if it aligns with the narrative you’ve presented in your application, particularly if something raises concerns—such as inconsistencies in your achievements or red flags regarding your behavior. One student had her admissions offer revoked from the University in Rochester in 2017 after the school learned that she had lied about which high school she attended on her application, Inside Higher Ed reported.

More than any other Ivy, Harvard has frequently made headlines for uncovering students’ abuses of social media. In 2019, Parkland shooting survivor Kyle Kashuv had his admission to Harvard revoked after racist comments he made resurfaced online, per a U.S. News & World Report piece. Likewise, in 2017, the school rescinded 10 students’ offers of admission over racist and sexist remarks made online, The Harvard Crimson reported. But Harvard is hardly the only school to do this—numerous colleges rescinded acceptances in 2020 over students’ racist online posts, The New York Times noted. Students should therefore be mindful about what they share on their personal accounts, as well as in group chats, on others’ pages, and on digital forums. If something you want to say has even the potential to be offensive or harmful to a person or group of people, you should refrain from saying it — or delete it.

This is particularly important if a student has used social media as a part of their application hook or core activities in high school. Perhaps you have written a blog, spread awareness through social media campaigns, shared video essays on YouTube, or created an online community around a shared interest—whether you link to your social media accounts in your application or not, referencing online initiatives of this kind can increase the likelihood of admissions officers searching for your profiles. In this case, it is all the more critical that you ensure that neither you nor anyone affiliated with your accounts have shared anything you would not want admissions officers to see and factor into your admissions evaluation. On the other hand, developing these social media accounts in a positive, professional, and strategically minded way can leave admissions officers with a more positive and dynamic understanding of your digital citizenship, thereby enhancing your application profile.

Should Students Link To Their Social Media Accounts On College Applications?

Generally speaking, students should only include professional social media accounts that are pertinent to their college admissions candidacy on their applications.

The social media accounts that students use for their private social lives should remain in private mode to ensure such information is not unintentionally broadcast to admissions officers or future employers. Additionally, if a student has concerns about whether any online content could be perceived as irresponsible or out of sync with a university’s values and code of conduct, do not include a link on the application.

That being said, if students have used social media as a tool for advocacy, research, networking, a passion project, or other positive initiatives, it may benefit their application to include a link to their profiles in their applications. While your resume and activities list offer limited space to describe your achievements and demonstrate your leadership in your community, a social media account curated toward your hook or activities can add color and dimension to your application. If you have used social media in conjunction with a passion project, linking your account can also go a long way in conveying your work’s reach and impact. This could be especially pertinent to students applying in the arts who have used social media as an online portfolio housing their performances and other creative work.

Ultimately, while it’s unlikely that your social media accounts will make or break your application, it’s crucial to curate them thoughtfully. Admissions officers are not necessarily searching on those platforms for reasons to reject you, but your social media posts have the potential to reinforce or undermine your application.

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University of North Carolina at Charlotte | UNC Charlotte’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Why this college short response.

Please describe why you are interested in attending UNC Charlotte. Your statement lets us get to know you beyond your coursework and test scores. Your response will distinguish you from other qualified candidates within the applicant pool.

Honors College Essay

You are applying to an honors and/or merit scholar program. Taking a step back, offer some original reflections on what the word honor or merit means to you. Discuss what you feel honor or merit commonly means in the world, what honor or merit could (or should) mean, and what actions could be considered honorable or meritorious.

Common App Personal Essay

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you‘ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?