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How to Write the UNC Chapel Hill Essays 2023-2024

The flagship institution for the University of North Carolina is consistently ranked as one of the best public universities in the country. Because of its high caliber of academics, wide array of extracurricular activities, internship and research opportunities in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, and dedicated fan base, it’s no wonder tens of thousands of highly qualified applicants apply each year.

In order to stand out from the crowd, you will need to write exceptional essays that blow the admissions committee away. This year, UNC Chapel Hill requires all applicants to submit two short responses under 250 words. Students interested in going abroad through the Global Fellowship program will be required to submit an additional essay. We’ll cover how to write each of these essays in detail, sharing our expert tips to help you stand out.

Read this UNC Chapel Hill essay example to inspire your writing.

UNC Chapel Hill Supplemental Essay Prompts

All applicants.

Prompt 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. (200-250 words)

Prompt 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. (200-250 words)

Global Fellowship Applicants

Why do you want to participate in the global opportunities you’ve selected, and in what ways are you hoping to grow through the experience(s) (200-250 words), all applicants, prompt 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. (200-250 words).

This prompt puts a spin on the traditional community service essay that asks about your involvement and impact on a community you are a part of. While you still need to address your impact on a community, you have to do it through the lens of a personal characteristic.

In order to fully answer this question, you will need to pick a character trait and a community you are part of and then find a story that blends the two together. There are two main ways you could go about brainstorming.

The first method is to start with a personal trait and work outwards to find an example that demonstrates that characteristic. This is a good approach if you have a character trait that contributes to your application theme. For example, if the theme of leadership is running throughout your application, you might want to write about your leadership and then find an example of a time when you exhibited it in one of your extracurricular or volunteer communities.

The other approach is to pick a community that is important to you and work backwards to find a characteristic. This method will require more introspection as you will need to consider the role you play in the community, how you typically act, how you interact with other community members, etc. If you have a community that is a foundational part of your personality, this might be the approach for you.

As you go about brainstorming, remember that there is no right or wrong character trait or type of community. In fact, you could even spin a “negative” trait like being impulsive or anxious into a positive story—if you go down this road, be careful to show how you had a positive impact on the community and maybe how you fixed the negative trait through being part of the community.

Once you’ve thought of a characteristic and a community you want to focus on, the next step is to come up with a story that highlights how your chosen personality trait led to a positive outcome in your chosen community. Ask yourself some guiding questions to remind yourself of important details that will make your story more engaging:

• Where were you?
• Who was involved?
• What types of conversations took place?
• Did you feel confident in your contribution or did you go outside of your comfort zone?
• What actions did you take? What were you hoping to accomplish?

Now it’s time to start writing! Since you only have 250 words, you’ll want to get right to the heart of the story. A good tactic to accomplish this is to start in media res , or in the middle of the action. For example:

“‘A little more to the right. Up a little. No, dow—there! Perfect!’ The large white tarp hung over the gym entrance, prepared to greet every student attending the rally, perfectly straight thanks to my razor-sharp eyesight and impeccable judgment.”

As you write, make sure you emphasize the story—after all, the prompt explicitly asks for a story or anecdote—by showing the reader through vivid imagery. Place the reader in the moment with active language (“running” instead of “I ran”), use sensory descriptors (“the sweet smell of cinnamon and clove warmed the biting chill in the air”), and avoid generic adjectives like “happy” or “excited.”

Another crucial thing to show (not tell) in this essay is your character trait. Readers like to feel like they are playing an active role in a story, meaning they want to pick up on clues and come to conclusions by themselves. If a student starts her essay by saying, “My positive attitude inspired my lacrosse teammates to shake off defeat and keep training,” we immediately know exactly what her trait is, which leaves us less engaged.

Instead, she can hint at her positivity without explicitly stating it by saying something like this: “Seeing the fallen faces and shaking heads of my teammates, I called for a huddle before they trudged back to the bus. I countered with a toothy smile and determination gleaming in my eyes. ‘So it wasn’t our day. Guess what? That’s why we have tomorrow!’”

This example demonstrates her positivity and, because of the imagery, we can see other traits like leadership and determination shine through as well.

It’s important that your reader be able identify what your character trait is and how it enabled you to positively impact your community. Looking at your essay, it should be easy to point to a change in the community for the better as a result of your involvement. Once you think you’re done writing, go back and ask yourself if that change is obvious. If not, keep revising until it’s clear.

All Applicants, Prompt 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. (200-250 words).

While you might be tempted to approach this prompt in the way you would approach a traditional “Why This Major?” essay , hold on for a second and reread the prompt. Rather than being asked why you are pursuing a particular major or area of study, you’re being asked about “an academic topic that you’re excited to explore and learn more about in college.”

Yes, you will probably be most excited to study the topic of your major, but this prompt gives you the chance to look beyond your major and demonstrate the nuances of your interests.

A Good Response Versus a Great One

A good response will focus on a student’s major—”biology,” for example—but a great response will either home in on a specific facet of the major or delve into interdisciplinary interests.

For instance, a student who wants to home in on a specific topic within biology might discuss her fascination with CRISPR genome editing and its ability to potentially cure leukemia. Although her major is technically just “biology,” she is able to focus her essay on this niche topic within biology because this prompt doesn’t box you into discussing your major as merely a school curriculum.

A different student might go down the interdisciplinary route by writing about his interest in gene expression and how environmental factors caused by housing and urban policy can influence what genes are turned on and off. While this essay would still be discussing concepts related to the student’s biology major, it would also demonstrate to the admissions committee the student’s multifaceted interests and his ability to connect seemingly unrelated topics.

Whether you choose to drill down into a specific topic or to make connections between different topics, your essay should still be related to your major. If you’re deciding to major in biology but submit an essay to UNC about your love for American history without a single mention of science, it might raise some questions from the admissions committee.

Find an Anecdote

One of the best ways to show admissions officers your passion for a subject is through a story—in fact, when it comes to college essays, the best way to show anything is through a story!

Anecdotes provide a natural and captivating introduction to your essay, can be used as supporting details for a point you are trying to prove, and can give the essay a common unifying theme. Whether you use your anecdote as a hook in the beginning or write the whole essay around it, it’s important to have a strong personal story when using an anecdote to demonstrate your interest in a topic.

Some good sources of inspiration to get you started might include:

• Your first experience with the topic
• An independent project you conducted on the subject
• A time you struggled with the subject material
• Key questions you have about the topic
• A piece of media you consumed (podcast, book, TV show, etc.) that discussed or challenged your ideas on the topic
• Your personal connection to the topic

Demonstrate Your Interest

The next important part of this essay is demonstrating your interest to show the admissions committee why you want to study this topic in further detail. Your anecdote will help accomplish this goal, but let’s break it down a little more.

In order to successfully demonstrate your interest, you will need to show what, in particular, excites you about this topic. Is it a personal connection? Perhaps your goal is to cure a disease your family member suffers from. Alternatively, is it a chance for you to let your imagination and creativity run wild? If so, how does that feel? Will understanding this topic open doors for you to tackle even more complex issues? Whatever your point of interest in the topic is, you need to make it clear to the reader.

A generic way of demonstrating your interest might look like this:

“I first learned about CRISPR technology in my freshman year biology class. The thought of modifying genes to fight diseases was so exciting to me. Ever since then, I’ve been interested in curing diseases like leukemia.”

Those sentences tell us very little about the interest, and they don’t really show us anything. Saying it was “exciting” and that she was “interested” isn’t descriptive enough to show the reader why the student is pursuing it. Compare that with this example:

“A blue and red helix swirled around the screen as nucleobases were cut and spliced. Within minutes the sequence was inserted and the DNA began replicating without a second thought to its new appendage. My eyes shot open and my jaw grew slack. Images of pristine, white hospital walls clouded my vision. The strong smell of disinfectant permeated the air. All those hours sitting with my mom, holding her cold hands through the chemo, and it could have been solved in minutes with CRISPR?”

This version shows the reader infinitely more about the wonder and disbelief surrounding the topic with imagery like “my eyes shot open and my jaw grew slack.” Then, by detailing the images, smells, and feelings of sitting with their mom through chemotherapy, the student fully conveys her personal stake in this technology and why she is drawn to the topic.

Why Should UNC Care?

Okay, so you know what topic you are interested in studying in college and you have a good story to go with it. So what? Why should the UNC admissions officers care? The final step is to connect your interest to the academic and extracurricular offerings at UNC Chapel Hill.

Although this isn’t a “Why This School” essay that specifically asks for you to mention school resources, the best way to make your essay stand out is to go beyond what you are explicitly asked for and demonstrate the level of research you have done.

The word count is limited for this essay, so the majority of your focus should be on telling the story and demonstrating your interest in your chosen topic. However, try and reserve a sentence or two to weave in school-specific offerings.

When you are including these opportunities, it’s important to ensure that they are both unique and supported by your personal connection. In other words, don’t just say you’re excited to take Biology 101 at UNC, since every university offers that class—instead, find a more distinctive offering that would be harder to find elsewhere, like Molecular Genetics .

Similarly, tie each resource you mention back to yourself. Don’t just say that you want to work with a specific professor; add what you hope to learn from their work with gene replication in mice and how you think you might apply that work to humans, for example.

The UNC admissions officers will read thousands of essays where students simply tell their stories and forget to connect their previous experiences to their future ones. When they come across an essay that is able to tell the student’s story and incorporate the school’s offerings, they will be impressed. Everyone loves a little flattery—even colleges.

That said, make sure that the one or two school resources you mention naturally flow in the essay. The easiest solution is to add a sentence at the end about how you’ll explore your interests on campus, but this tends to disrupt the flow of the essay and make it feel forced. Below is an example of how to make this idea less jarring:

“If only I could tell my mom about the hours I’ll have spent researching with faculty at the CRISPR Screening Facility at Chapel Hill to develop a new drug that would make chemotherapy a bad dream, and not a reality, for those suffering from leukemia.”

If you can successfully unite the topic you’re interested in with the classes, professors, programs, or extracurriculars at UNC, your essay will likely resonate more with the admissions committee.

Global Fellowship Prompt

UNC applicants have the opportunity to be considered for four global opportunities, including the Global Gap Year Fellowship, Joint Degree Program with the National University of Singapore, Russian Language Flagship Program, and the Summer Study Abroad Fellowship.

In this prompt, you’ll need to explain why you selected the program(s) you did. What is it that you hope to experience, learn, or gain from your time abroad?

Take the time to read up on the program(s) you selected and what they entail. Because this essay gives you a maximum of 250 words, we recommend applying for no more than two programs (unless you have a genuinely strong interest in being considered for all four).

1. Identify why you want to go abroad.

Do you hope to gain an appreciation for a specific nation’s people or history? Do you want to develop language skills? Are you hoping to gain self-reliance?

For example, a student interested in the Global Gap Year Fellowship might want to visit communities impacted by climate change, volunteer with the locals, and document those experiences in a series of short stories. Since the countries experiencing the worst effects of climate change are outside of North America, going abroad suits the student’s goals well.

2. Identify areas for growth.

What would an experience abroad provide you with? What lessons may you learn that you need to or want to learn? How to adapt to changing circumstances? How to learn in nontraditional experiential experiences? How to deal with failure? How to communicate better or in a different language?

Continuing the example from the first point, this student wants to expand their understanding of climate change since they come from an urban community where issues like drought and rising sea levels are just a hazy concept to them. They want to learn how to tell the human stories behind climate change in order to inspire others to take action.

3. How would you impact the UNC community?

This could be anything from continued research and connection with a community to major selection. Are you going to start a club? Study with a professor whose expertise aligns with your experience? Be specific and intentional.

Again, the example student might want to take the lessons they learn abroad back to UNC as an Environmental Studies major. While on campus, they might virtually interview people around the world who are impacted by climate change, and maybe with help from the Carolina 360 Club, they’ll share those stories in a podcast.

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

University of North Carolina (UNC) 2024-25 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Early Action: Oct 15

Regular Decision Deadline: Jan 15

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC) 2024-25 Application Essay Question Explanations

The Requirements: 2 essays of 250 words each

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Community , Activity

Short answer prompts: 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.

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..

UNC Chapel Hill wants to hear about an aspect of your personality that has enabled you to contribute to a community you cherish. Your answer doesn’t have to be connected to your academic goals in any way, so feel free to let your mind wander. Maybe you’ve always been an animal lover, so you bring your therapy dog to your local hospital once a month to spread joy (and dopamine). How do the patients respond? Which of your personal qualities has made this possible? Perhaps you challenged your fear of public speaking to deliver an address at a town hall to advocate for greener public transportation options. Did your local government leaders take what you said to heart? Are you courageous, determined, or creative? When have you gotten involved for the greater good? Take this opportunity to provide admissions with more information about yourself and your contributions to any community to which you belong.

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.

Admissions wants to learn more about a topic that has monopolized your thoughts. When was the last time you went down an internet rabbit hole trying to research something? When were you extremely motivated to solve a problem or create something new? What topic are you hoping to be an expert on by the time you graduate college? Discuss an example of what truly fascinates you—the more specific you can be, the better. For example, instead of saying you’re interested in Biomedical Engineering, can you dive deeper? Perhaps you’re really interested in the future of smart prosthetics. Once you identify a topic that is more niche than general, go the extra mile by researching UNC and building a bridge between the topic you’d like to explore and their academic offerings. You’d also be wise to provide some examples of how you’ve already interacted with this area of interest. Did you attend a seminar about the topic? Have you read every book you can find on it? Do you have a personal connection to it? The bottom line here is to write about something that really fascinates you while also touching on how attending this specific school will help you explore your associated academic goals.

About Amanda Amah

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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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For Early Action and Regular Decision – May 1

Complete your Application

Apply online through the Common Application. Then, be sure to have your supporting materials sent to us, which will help us gain a fuller understanding of you as a student and the contributions that you make in the classroom.

What’s on the Common Application?

• Extracurricular Activities
• Essay and Two Short Answers
• Your College and University Courses
• Global Opportunities
• Honors Carolina and Special Opportunities
• Application Fee or Fee Waiver

What supporting materials are required?

• Letter of Recommendation
• Official Transcript and School Report
• SAT or ACT Scores (optional for 2025 admission)

When you complete your Common Application, provide us with your personal email address to make sure our messages go straight to you.

• Global Opportunities This section of your application is optional. In addition to considering applicants for fall enrollment, we are looking for students who want to go abroad before enrolling at Carolina through either the Global Gap Year Fellowship or Carolina Global Launch.  If you’d like to be considered for either, indicate your interest and submit two additional short answer responses that share your interest in global experiences.
• Honors Carolina and Special Opportunities This section of your application is optional. You can express interest in a range of special opportunities including Honors Carolina, assured enrollment in professional or dual-degree programs.
• Application Fee or Fee Waiver The non-refundable application fee is $85, and if you can’t pay the fee right now, please talk with your school counselor about asking us to waive it. The bottom line: whether you apply with a fee or a waiver, we’ll be grateful to receive your application, and we’ll consider you with care, appreciation, and respect.
• Official Transcript and School Report Ask your school to send us your official transcript by secure electronic delivery as well as an official school report.
• For students applying for the 2024-2025 academic year , students are not required to submit a test score.
• For students applying for the 2025-2026 academic year , students with a weighted GPA of 2.8 or above (on a 4.0 scale) are not required to submit a test score. Students with a weighted GPA below 2.8 (on a 4.0 scale) are required to submit either an ACT or SAT score.
• For students applying for the 2026-2027 academic year and beyond , students with a weighted GPA of 2.8 or above (on a 4.0 scale) are not required to submit a test score. Students with a weighted GPA below 2.8 (on a 4.0 scale) are required to submit either an ACT score of 17 or higher or an SAT score of 930 or higher.
• For the full UNC System policy, please visit www.northcarolina.edu/students/admission/ .
• Most successful applicants (domestic and international) to Carolina have very strong grades in their core academic coursework and have well above a B+ average in their courses. If your school does not provide a weighted GPA on a 4.0 scale, but you have above a B+ average in your courses (weighted if applicable), you will not be required to submit an ACT or SAT. If you are an international student in a Cambridge-based or similar educational system, we consider your grades made in A-level or external exams for the purposes of this UNC System GPA-based testing requirement.

Apply for Aid

Submit your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and CSS Profile. Learn how to submit both on our Financial Aid website.

Keep in Mind

• If you’re a North Carolina resident, you’ll need verify your residency with Residency Determination Services.
• Check your email regularly. If we need materials or more information as we’re reviewing your application, your email is where you’ll hear from us.
• If you need to add information to your application after you’ve submitted it, you’ll be able to send it to us using MyCarolina. If a school official or recommender has additional information, please ask them to email us at [email protected] and include your full name and date of birth.
• If you believe your academic progress has been affected by disability-related issues, we encourage you to share this information with us. Learn more about submitting disability-related documentation.
• We require all applicants (including students offered admission) to disclose any new school-based disciplinary incidents or criminal charges that occur after the application was submitted within ten days of the occurrence. The student’s written explanation as well as any required corroborating documentation (from a school official or legal representative) can be shared in MyCarolina.

Helpful Deadlines

* Financial Aid : Submit the FAFSA and CSS Profile by January 1 if you’d like to be considered for need-based scholarships. For more information about aid and key dates, visit studentaid.unc.edu.