Only 13% of students at UNC Charlotte were in the top 10% of their high school class. I was top 4%. I think its CRAZY that we are letting in slackers and ONLY wanting to EXPAND. We should work on being more selective… 73% of people are admitted! Ridiculous. More people would feel strongly about the school and have a better connection to it also, if it took more work to get into, and people thought for years of High School about wanting to get into U of Charlotte. I don’t know the entire point of this, nor do I have a course of action, but I find the numbers disturbing.
[QUOTE=Ninercentral;213030]Only 13% of students at UNC Charlotte were in the top 10% of their high school class. I was top 4%. I think its CRAZY that we are letting in slackers and ONLY wanting to EXPAND. We should work on being more selective… 73% of people are admitted! Ridiculous. More people would feel strongly about the school and have a better connection to it also, if it took more work to get into, and people thought for years of High School about wanting to get into U of Charlotte. I don’t know the entire point of this, nor do I have a coure o action, but I find the numbers disturbing.
I was not in the top 10% of my high school class, and I don’t care how many of my fellow Niner alums were either. I busted my @$$ to make pretty good grades in a tough major while at Charlotte and am doing okay for myself now, 10 years later. While it’s hard to judge the character of someone on a piece of paper, I hope we don’t begin selecting students solely off of “the top 10% of their class”. Their extracurricular activities should weigh heavily as well, so that the school has well-rounded people who will be productive on campus while at Charlotte and in society after they graduate.
If a supervisor is shallow enough to only care about where you went to college in order for you to be hired, then it’s probably not a very good place to work. Character and experience in your field far outweigh where you went to school when I’m conducting interviews.
Only 13% of students at UNC Charlotte were in the top 10% of their high school class. I was top 4%. I think its CRAZY that we are letting in slackers and ONLY wanting to EXPAND. We should work on being more selective... 73% of people are admitted! Ridiculous. More people would feel strongly about the school and have a better connection to it also, if it took more work to get into, and people thought for years of High School about wanting to get into U of Charlotte. I don't know the entire point of this, nor do I have a course of action, but I find the numbers disturbing.
[QUOTE=max;213033]It was actually even easier to get into back in my day…the 80’s.[/QUOTE]
I was going to say. I’m pretty sure when I applied just back in 2000 that just about anyone got in.
To everyone who wants the school to cut back on enrollment so we can look better, I have a news flash: this is a public university. UNC Charlotte is not some country club where only the students you like should get in. The State of North Carolina and the UNC system have an obligation to educate its people, so by proxy, we have an obligation to educate the people of this area. With Charlotte growing as quickly as it is, how do you suggest we do this while cutting back on enrollment? If you want to make the school more selective, here’s an idea: increase the number of applicants. How do you do that? By making the school more visible and by, I don’t know, making the quality of education better. I’m not sure selectivity is all that important–a good school is a good school regardless–but for those who do care, making the education better would be far more productive than playing a numbers game with enrollment.
As for the top 10% thing, there’s more to admissions than class rank, GPA, and test scores. I struggled in high school and barely placed in the top quarter in my class (mainly because of the ungodly IB program). I came here in 2004 and now I have a 3.24 cumulative GPA. High school and college are two different animals; success or failure in one does not guarantee success or failure in the other. You have to look at each student on an individual basis and consider all factors: class rank, GPA, test scores, extracirricular activities, difficulty of high school workload, external circumstanes, and so on. You have to make sure the students you admit are going to be here for the long haul and will be positive members of the UNC Charlotte community as both students and alumni. It’s not as cut and dry as stats like that make it out to be.
Just my 2 cents.
As for the SAT, I believe they changed it starting with the class of '05. They added a writing test and now the highest score is 2400.
it started with class of 06. I think they started giving it in the spring of 05, but by that time, the class of 05 had already been accepted to college.
[QUOTE=EchoNiner;213062]I guess I’m a slacker now. That’s news to me.
To everyone who wants the school to cut back on enrollment so we can look better, I have a news flash: this is a public university. UNC Charlotte is not some country club where only the students you like should get in. The State of North Carolina and the UNC system have an obligation to educate its people, so by proxy, we have an obligation to educate the people of this area. With Charlotte growing as quickly as it is, how do you suggest we do this while cutting back on enrollment? If you want to make the school more selective, here’s an idea: increase the number of applicants. How do you do that? By making the school more visible and by, I don’t know, making the quality of education better. I’m not sure selectivity is all that important–a good school is a good school regardless–but for those who do care, making the education better would be far more productive than playing a numbers game with enrollment.
As for the top 10% thing, there’s more to admissions than class rank, GPA, and test scores. I struggled in high school and barely placed in the top quarter in my class (mainly because of the ungodly IB program). I came here in 2004 and now I have a 3.24 cumulative GPA. High school and college are two different animals; success or failure in one does not guarantee success or failure in the other. You have to look at each student on an individual basis and consider all factors: class rank, GPA, test scores, extracirricular activities, difficulty of high school workload, external circumstanes, and so on. You have to make sure the students you admit are going to be here for the long haul and will be positive members of the UNC Charlotte community as both students and alumni. It’s not as cut and dry as stats like that make it out to be.
Just my 2 cents.
As for the SAT, I believe they changed it starting with the class of '05. They added a writing test and now the highest score is 2400.[/QUOTE]
Very on point…High School is a joke to me, the only class I got anything out of that was typing / keyboarding class.
One thing that should be noted though in terms of being a state school and having the responsibility to educate the state’s students. I could be wrong, but I believe all the schools in the UNC system eccept about 20% of out state. In NJ, Rutgers only is allowed to accept 9% out of state. I don’t know of any others off hand. Any info on why UNC schools are so high?
i think its important to keep this in perspective. we’ve grown rapidly over the 10-15 years, increasing enrollment nearly every year. in that time, we’ve actually become a little more selective. common sense would have the needle moving in the other direction. moreover, with the number of students going to college skyrocketing alone, we’re going to get more selective.
Very on point...High School is a joke to me, the only class I got anything out of that was typing / keyboarding class.
One thing that should be noted though in terms of being a state school and having the responsibility to educate the state’s students. I could be wrong, but I believe all the schools in the UNC system eccept about 20% of out state. In NJ, Rutgers only is allowed to accept 9% out of state. I don’t know of any others off hand. Any info on why UNC schools are so high?
Keeps rates down for in-state students? i have no idea
To everyone who wants the school to cut back on enrollment so we can look better, I have a news flash: this is a public university. UNC Charlotte is not some country club where only the students you like should get in. The State of North Carolina and the UNC system have an obligation to educate its people, so by proxy, we have an obligation to educate the people of this area. With Charlotte growing as quickly as it is, how do you suggest we do this while cutting back on enrollment? If you want to make the school more selective, here’s an idea: increase the number of applicants. How do you do that? By making the school more visible and by, I don’t know, making the quality of education better. I’m not sure selectivity is all that important–a good school is a good school regardless–but for those who do care, making the education better would be far more productive than playing a numbers game with enrollment.
As for the top 10% thing, there’s more to admissions than class rank, GPA, and test scores. I struggled in high school and barely placed in the top quarter in my class (mainly because of the ungodly IB program). I came here in 2004 and now I have a 3.24 cumulative GPA. High school and college are two different animals; success or failure in one does not guarantee success or failure in the other. You have to look at each student on an individual basis and consider all factors: class rank, GPA, test scores, extracirricular activities, difficulty of high school workload, external circumstanes, and so on. You have to make sure the students you admit are going to be here for the long haul and will be positive members of the UNC Charlotte community as both students and alumni. It’s not as cut and dry as stats like that make it out to be.
Just my 2 cents.
As for the SAT, I believe they changed it starting with the class of '05. They added a writing test and now the highest score is 2400.
Amen Bro!
I was about to write a big paragraph but you pretty much summed it up for me.
What type of GPA and SAT gets you in these days? It was not difficult back in 1989. I was accepted at App, UNCW, and UNCC. Those were the only three I applied.
This is my sophmore year at Charlotte. In high school I had a 3.4 GPA and a 1130 SAT(out of 1600). I graudated in 2005. Enrolled Fall 2006. My Grades weren’t the best in high school, but just because people do medicore on the SAT and made some bad choices in high school doesn’t mean they haven’t got it together by the time they reach college. I messed up my freshman and Sophmore years in high school some. But then my Junior and Senior year I focused and took it serious because I wanted to do something with my life. A 4.0 in high school means nothing. with my 3.4 and 1130 SAT i’m in school and doing well while some of the people in my class with higher GPA’s and SAT’s are sitting at home because they flunked out. Grades are important but they are not everything. Sometimes a person just cant compensate effort for grades. I try really hard but if I can only muster a “C” or a “B” in a class then thats what I earned. It’s not from a lack of effort or intelligence. I believe people try to compare us to UNC or NC-Raliegh way to much. Why are we always striving to be like them? I agree they are very successful institutions, but they are not the perfect mold for a college. They have problems just like every other school.
Yeah, I was slack with homework in high school (read: didn’t do homework, though it was a waste of time), and had a 3.1 GPA and 1250/1600 SAT when I graduated in 2000. I know a lot of the rich kids at my high school did a hell of a lot better than me in the grades department, but I know quite a few of them that never graduated because they drank themselves right out of school. Granted, they’re still rich since their parents give them everything, but they didn’t do their school any good by failing so horribly.
Being in the top 10% of your High School doesn’t mean shit. That is like saying if you don’t make a 1400 or higher on your SAT, then your not smart. Since when is a slacker determined by what percentage you finish in in High School? In my opinion, High School is a joke, taking all of those AP classes in High School to finish in the top 10% of your school is a joke, and the SAT is the biggest joke of them all. I know that there has to be a way to measure students against each other, but in my opinion, percentage of students you are higher than and SAT’s are so black and white that it is ridiculous to judge people by those. Some of us live in a gray area of the world where other things matter as well, like, I don’t know, if you get into college, party too much and flunk out your first year. I’d like to see a stat on how many of these top 10%ers did that. I’m guessing more than most people think. What about people that go to schools where the teaching and students are on a lower level than other schools? There are some schools in America who barely graduate half of their students. I’d like to say many people who shouldn’t even be in college could finish in the top 10% of those schools. I’m not saying grades and SAT scores shouldn’t have any weight, but to solely use those to judge someone’s ability to survive in a higher level of education is insane. Quick, show of hands by anyone who is successful in their career to this point; how many of you can honestly say that working hard in High School got you where you are today? How many people can honestly say that knowing answers to questions on the SAT like, “hot is to fire as cold is to…snow” has helped you get yourself over obstacles in life? I think every student should have to go through an interview before they get accepted to whatever school they are applying to. That would be a way to not only get to know what kind of people these students are, but at the same time, it will be helping them practice something that will truely help them in their futures. Then maybe we can be more selective, and limit the amount of dropouts by weeding some of these kids that shouldn’t be there out from the beginning. Yeah, it might take an extended amount of time, but hey, I think it’s worth it.