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Admissions: First-Year Profile

This Class Profile details information provided by UNC’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions about students who applied to Carolina, about those who were admitted and then those who enrolled in fall 2022. (Preliminary numbers usually are reported each August; these numbers were compiled after the start of the fall semester.)

  • 56,427 applied for admission
  • 9,639, or 17%, were admitted
  • 4,440 enrolled

Of those who enrolled:

  • 62% are female, 38% are male
  • 49% were born in North Carolina; 15% were born outside the U.S.
  • 86% have at least one parent who earned a 2- or 4-year degree
  • 48% have at least one parent who earned a graduate degree
  • 3% have no parent who earned a high school diploma
  • 38% are fluent in two or more languages; 15% speak a language other than English as their first language (4% Mandarin, 4% Spanish)
  • 14% have three or more siblings; 9% are only children
  • 32% are receiving need-based aid while 5.1% are receiving merit-based aid
  • 6.8% are affiliated with the military
  • 900 students entered Carolina as transfer students

Academics

Class Rank

SAT Scores

Geography

Geographic distribution is not necessarily tied to residency status or citizenship. The number of students who qualified for admission as in-state students differs from the number of admitted students who have North Carolina addresses as their primary residence, according to the admissions office. (For example: A student might live with one parent out of state while the other parent is a North Carolina resident and taxpayer.)

Intended Major

Biology 17.5%
Business Administration 14.1%
Psychology 6.3%
Computer Science 6.3%
Undecided 5.1%
Biomedical and Health Sciences Engineering 4.4%
Political Science 4.4%
Nursing 3.7%
Neuroscience 3.3%
Chemistry 3.3%
Exercise and Sport Science 2.6%
Environmental Sciences 1.9%
Media and Journalism 1.9%
Economics 1.6%
Mathematics 1.6%
Health Policy and Management 1.4%
English and Comparative Literature 1.3%
Communication Studies 1.2%
History 1.2%

Career Interest

Physician 16.8%
Business executive 10.3%
Lawyer 6.2%
Scientific researcher 6.0%
Computer programmer 4.8%
Engineer 3.4%
Nurse 3.3%
Business owner 3.2%
Policymaker or government employee 2.6%
Dentist 2.5%
Writer or journalist 2.5%
Therapist (physical, occupational, speech) 2.4%
Clinical psychologist 2.3%
Pharmacist 1.2%
Foreign service worker 1.0%

The Carolina Alumni Review has reported on admissions regularly since 1996; all of that coverage is available to Carolina Alumni members in the magazine’s digital archive at alumni.unc.edu/admissions, with all recent reports also online at alumni.unc.edu/news_category/admissions. Complete editions of the Review can be found at alumni.unc.edu/CARarchive.