How do I nominate a student?

Convene a nominating committee, which may consist of counselors, school administrators, and other faculty members, and make your selections based on the Morehead-Cain selection criteria.

Things You Should Know

  1. All high schools in North Carolina are eligible to nominate students for the Morehead-Cain. The number of nominees from each North Carolina school is determined by the size of the senior class:
  2. Once selection is made, it’s the school’s responsibility to notify the nominees of their nominations. Nominating partners must submit their nominees’ names through our school portal. School counselors will be given access to this portal via email.
  3. To assist you in identifying your nominee(s), feel free to distribute the following forms:
    1. For Faculty and Staff Input: Recommendation for Nomination
    2. For Potential Nominees: Morehead-Cain Questionnaire

Important Dates

  • All nominations must be submitted by June 30, 2024
  • The application for the Morehead-Cain opens on August 15, 2024
  • The deadline to apply to the Morehead-Cain is October 1, 2024

More Information

All counselor-provided materials (school report form, recommendation form, etc.) are also due by this date.

Please encourage your students to complete and submit the “School Information” and “Recommendation” sections of their applications first. This gives you time to finish your materials by the application deadline. Skipping around the application is allowed; they don’t have to complete their application in order.

If the student lists you as a counselor

The student enters the name and email address of his or her counselor as part of their application. Once entered, the counselor receives an email with instructions for completing an online school report form for their student.

If the student lists you as a recommender

The student enters the name and email address of his or her recommender as part of their application. Once entered, the recommender receives an email with instructions for uploading a recommendation form in the form.

Both the school report form and recommendation emails are sent from selections@moreheadcain.org and indicate “Morehead-Cain” as the sender. Nominees may input the same person as his or her counselor and recommender. If you use a spam-blocking tool, please add this email address to your list of known or safe addresses.

Applying to Carolina

Admission to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a separate process from the Morehead-Cain application. All forms and correspondence dealing with admission to Carolina should go directly to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Students participating in the Morehead-Cain process must submit a completed application to Carolina by:

  • October 15, 2024, if applying Early Action; or
  • January 1, 2025, if applying Regular Decision*



*Please note, this deadline is two weeks prior to UNC’s Regular Decision application deadline.