Is UNC or Boston College harder to get into?

For most applicants, UNC Chapel Hill is harder to get into than Boston College, especially if you are applying from out of state. UNC strongly prioritizes North Carolina residents, so non-residents face a much tougher admissions bar. Boston College is also very selective, but it does not have that same in-state preference built into the process.

If you are a North Carolina resident, the comparison gets closer. UNC is still highly selective and draws a very strong applicant pool, but in-state applicants benefit from the university’s public mission and enrollment priorities. In that case, UNC and Boston College can feel more similar in difficulty, depending on your academics, course rigor, and overall profile.

Boston College tends to fit students who are targeting a private university with a national applicant pool and no residency advantage to factor in. Its admissions process is still competitive across all of its schools, and strong grades in demanding classes matter a lot. For a student without North Carolina residency, BC can actually be the more realistic option between the two, even though neither should be treated as easy.

For building a college list, the simplest way to think about it is this: UNC is a very high-reach school for most out-of-state students, while Boston College is also a reach but often a slightly less extreme one. For North Carolina residents, both belong in the selective category, with UNC sometimes shifting from very high reach to more plausible, depending on the rest of the application.