UNC offers applicants extra time

High school seniors applying to UNC were given an unexpected chance to polish their applications this weekend.

On Tuesday, UNC’s Admissions Office extended the regular decision application deadline from Saturday to today.

Ashley Memory, senior assistant director of admissions, said the office changed the deadline for the convenience of applicants.

“Especially students just coming back from vacation and getting back into their regular routine at school, they need an extra day or so to make sure they can submit the application,” Memory said.

She said many applications were still in progress on Friday afternoon.

“(The extension) will certainly help and allow more students to apply on time,” Memory said. “That’s really what it’s about: it’s not about us; it’s about letting the applicants have the time they need to apply on time.”

Keith Demolder, a senior at La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, Calif., said the deadline extension allowed him to fine-tune his application.

“With my other schools, the deadlines were fairly rigid, so I had just enough time to do what I needed to do, and that was it,” Demolder said. “But with UNC, you are kind of given a second chance.”

Demolder said because he waited until the last minute, the holidays made working on college applications difficult.

“So having it after winter break, I was able to concentrate more without any distractions, stuff like Christmas, or having that uncle start talking to you while you’re writing,” he said.

Memory said the last time the deadline was extended was for an early action deadline in 2013 due to glitches in the Common Application.

The office sent two emails about the deadline and updated the Common App, the Admissions blog and social media accounts.

Memory said it’s not unusual to extend applications on a case-by-case basis.

Memory said they have seen increases in applications from the 2013-14 application season, with a 1 percent increase from the early action deadline. Though the admissions office won’t know the total number of applicants until after Monday, there have already been well over 30,000 applications.

“Just looking day to day, we are already well ahead of where we were last year,” she said.

The class of 2018 set the record for the most applications in UNC history with 31,331.

Katy Benal, a senior at Pius X High School in Lincoln, Neb., said that UNC’s application extension was a relief.

“(UNC’s) application process has been substantially more work than any other college I have applied to. This is the only one that requires multiple essays, and it’s my dream school, so I’ve been trying to perfect it for a long time,” Benal said.

“I want to be proud of what I submit, so that way I can be proud of myself whether I get into UNC or not.”

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