Denied UNC Applications Can Be Redirected to Other State Schools

Posted on Aug. 7, 2024

The UNC System hopes to increase enrollment at certain institutions by launching three pilot programs this semester for students applying for admission in fall 2025. One program will impact students seeking admission to Carolina.

A program called admission redirect will allow students who have been denied enrollment by Carolina to choose to have their applications sent to Elizabeth City State University, the University of North Carolina at Asheville, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Western Carolina University. Students can select as many of those schools as they like.

Once applicants have elected to participate in the program, their application materials will be automatically transferred to the schools they selected after UNC has made its admission decisions, according to a spokesperson at the UNC System Office.

The five institutions opted into the pilot program “based on their own institutional assessment of interest and capacity to receive and consider additional applications outside of their regular application process,” the spokesperson said.

“This board has seen in recent years, the number of qualified applicants that UNC Chapel Hill has to deny every year grows to just unbelievable numbers,” David English, senior vice president for academic affairs at the UNC System, told the UNC Board of Governors at its July meeting. “UNC Chapel Hill has been a great partner in realizing that while they may not be able to offer a spot to those students, there are spots in the UNC System that will provide an outstanding, quality academic opportunity. It’s a way to test and see: Can this help move the needle in student enrollment trends and help stabilize enrollment in some of our institutions?”

Of the five institutions in the admission redirect program, only ECSU’s 2023 undergraduate enrollment, 2,048, increased from that of fall 2019, when 1,692 students enrolled. UNC-A’s enrollment dropped from 3,587 in 2019 to 2,907 last year, and UNC-G’s enrollment fell from 16,581 in 2019 to 14,156 last year. At UNC Pembroke, undergraduate enrollment was 6,353 in 2019, compared with 5,485 in 2023. Western Carolina’s undergrad enrollment was 10,469 in 2019, compared with 10,009 a year ago.

Carolina received 59,012 applications in 2023, up from 44,859 applications in 2019, according to the admissions office.

Another of the pilot programs, called direct admission, grants automatic admission to some schools to students with a minimum 2.8 GPA. The third pilot involves contacting more than 12,000 students who were admitted to UNC System institutions last year, but did not enroll at any college, to discuss what the system can do to help them enroll at one of its 15 campuses.                                                                                                                             

— Laurie D. Willis ’86