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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 2023. (Preliminary numbers usually are reported each August; these numbers were compiled after the start of the fall semester.)

  • 59,012 applied for admission
  • 10,853, or 18%, were admitted
  • 4,699 enrolled

Of those who enrolled:

  • 62.5% are female, 37.5% are male
  • 46% were born in North Carolina; 12.9% were born outside the U.S.
  • 84% have at least one parent who earned a 2- or 4-year degree
  • 48.2% have at least one parent who earned a graduate degree
  • 3.3% have no parent who earned a high school diploma
  • 33.6% are fluent in two or more languages; (17.7% Spanish, 7.5% Mandarin)
  • 44.5% are receiving need-based aid while 12.3% are receiving aid from the Carolina Covenant
  • 6.3% are affiliated with the military
  • 899 students entered Carolina as transfer students

Academics

Class Rank

SAT Scores

Geography

The data in the maps below is from students who enrolled in 2022.  The Admissions Office has not released data for 2023.

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 17.0%
Business Administration 13.0%
Computer Science 8.0%
Psychology 5.9%
Political Science 4.6%
Nursing 4.2%
Biomedical and Health Sciences Engineering 4.1%
Neuroscience 3.7%
Undecided 3.6%
Economics 3.5%
Chemistry 3.3%
Exercise and Sport Science 3.2%
Media and Journalism 2.5%
Environmental Sciences 1.9%
Mathematics 1.5%
English and Comparative Literature 1.4%
Physics 1.4%
Health Policy and Management 1.3%
History 1.3%
Statistics and Analytics 1.2%
Communication Studies 1.1%
Global Studies 1.0%
Pharmacy 1.0%
Public Policy 1.0%

Career Interest

Physician 15.6%
Undecided 13.0%
Other 12.0%
Business executive (management, administrator) 9.7%
Lawyer (attorney) or judge 6.5%
Scientific researcher 6.2%
Computer programmer or analyst 6.0%
Engineer 4.0%
Nurse 3.6%
Business owner or proprietor 3.0%
Writer or journalist 2.7%
Dentist (including orthodontist) 2.6%
Therapist (physical, occupational, speech) 2.5%
Clinical psychologist 2.4%
Policymaker/Government 2.0%
Accountant or actuary 1.0%
Pharmacist 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.