Requirements & Deadlines

You’ll start by providing some basic personal information, including your contact information, citizenship, areas of interest and affiliations.

A brief professional overview of your educational, employment, and achievement history, most often condensed to a single page (and two pages at the most). Please include titles and dates, and provide the information in reverse chronological order.

You will need to supply transcripts of all academic work you’ve completed at the baccalaureate/undergraduate and graduate levels. You can include unofficial transcripts when you submit your application, but official transcripts will be required after you’ve been admitted and before you begin the program.

• If you studied outside of the U.S., you must have a college-level education equivalent to an American undergraduate or baccalaureate degree, which is the same as a first-university degree and, typically, is a four-year degree.
• If you received a bachelor’s degree upon completion of a three-year undergraduate program, you are also eligible to apply to our program. You will need to supply copies of your academic record and the diploma, degree certificate, or other documentation that indicates the conferral date of your degree.
• If the original language of the academic record and diploma is not English, please submit a certified literal (not interpretive) English translation with the original document. If a certified copy of the original transcript is submitted, it must be certified by the institution from which the degree was received.

Note: Due to COVID-19, we recognize you may not be able to prepare for or take the GMAT or GRE at this time. Because of this, new applicants (those applying for fall 2020 entry only) can submit a GMAT/GRE waiver request. The waiver request form must be submitted from within the application by selecting the “GMAT/GRE waiver” option. Learn more about the temporary changes to our admissions process.

You’ll need to provide a GMAT or GRE score. Our school code for the GMAT is D40-HL-72; our code for the GRE is 5046.

You’ll need to provide an English-language test score from TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE Academic if English is not your native language, unless: (1) you’ve earned an undergraduate or graduate degree at a U.S. college or university, (2) your education was completed exclusively in English in an English-speaking country, or (3) you received an undergraduate or graduate degree from a university in Hong Kong or India*. (In some cases, we may request test scores from Indian candidates.) Our school code for each of these tests is 5816.

You can self-report test scores on your application and your official scores are not required until after you’re admitted to the program. As you complete your application, you can disregard the “awaiting score report” warnings that appear on your application Checklist. If your official test scores are missing after you are admitted to the program, we’ll contact you via email.

You’ll respond to two required essay questions and one optional question. Your responses should be concise, clear, and introspective as we’ll use them to learn more about you, your motivations, and your aspirations.

Essay 1 is required. Your response should be no longer than 500 words and should address the following questions:

• What are your immediate career goals?
• How will you benefit personally and professionally from earning an MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler?
• As the business world continues to evolve, circumstances can change that can guide you in a different direction. Should your goals that you provided above not transpire, what other opportunities would you explore?

Essay 2 is also required. Your response should be no longer than 250 words and should address one of the following questions:

• Option 1: What is one thing that we do not know about you that you want us to know?
• Option 2: Provide us an example of a time you were able to be creative with your work. What was exciting or difficult about it? Did you achieve the results you were looking for?
• Option 3: Tell us about a time when you felt or witnessed someone being marginalized. How did you feel? What did you take away from the experience and how has it encouraged you to be an inclusive leader?

The optional essay (for all applicants) provides an opportunity to share additional information not presented elsewhere in your application with the admissions committee. In 150 words or less, consider addressing any of the questions below:

• If you have not completed coursework in the core business subjects (calculus, microeconomics, statistics, financial accounting), how will you prepare yourself?
• What conditions caused you to experience inconsistent academics, gaps in work, or low standardized test scores?
• How have you chosen your recommenders?

If you are re-applying to the program, we appreciate your continued interest in UNC Kenan-Flagler. We require a complete application in addition to a brief essay (100 words or less) that describes how your application differs from your previous submission and that alerts us to new test scores, a recent promotion, or other areas that demonstrate how you have strengthened your candidacy.

As part of your application, your need two professional recommendations, preferably from supervisors. In your application, you will designate your recommenders. An e-mail will be sent automatically to the recommender with specific instructions and a link to the recommendation form. We use the Common Letter of Recommendation developed by GMAC to save your recommenders time and effort.

Recommendations are due on the same date as your application; however, we do offer a 10-business-day grace period after the application deadline to receive your recommendations. It’s your responsibility to notify your recommenders of this deadline. We encourage you to start early as delayed recommendations will also delay the processing of your application.

Note: Due to COVID-19, we have temporarily cancelled all in-person events and transitioned many to an online webinar format, including admission interviews, which will be held via Skype or videoconference.

There are two opportunities for interviews. During the Campus Open Interview Season in September and October, you can register for and schedule your interview. You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity as you will be guaranteed an interview time. If you do not interview during the Campus Open Interview Season, you will be considered for an interview after your application has been submitted, during our Invitation-Only Interview Season.

If you qualify for in-state residency for tuition purposes, you’ll answer some preliminary questions within your application. If residency classification cannot be confirmed based on the information you provide within your application, you’ll be prompted to submit an additional residency form. Required supporting documentation should be sent to Allison Wooten (Allison_Wooten@kenan-flagler.unc.edu), which you can supply prior to submitting your application).

In order to help you take this important step in your career, all application fees have been waived for new applicants applying for fall 2020 entry through the Round 4 extended deadline (July 13).

Learn more about the temporary changes we’ve made to our admissions process or send us an email at mba_info@unc.edu if you have any questions.