I'm not sure if you knew this, but you can schedule an appointment to see notes about your application. They will pull up your application and talk about the notes that were taken about everything they did or didn't like. There was someone on Reddit a few years ago who got in and asked to see their application. The whole thing is worth checking out if you're curious. All the appointments are full right now so you'll have to keep an eye out for it in the future like in the Summer and Fall when people aren't trying to see why they got denied, but maybe it's worth seeing so that you can get a better picture as to why you keep getting denied.

I got in today as a transfer and I definitely think the process has a lot less to do with being "the perfect student" than people think. I also think that it's incredibly unfair to imply that the way to get in "must be sob stories", like you did in another comment. UNC has a holistic application, so it is not entirely about your grades or ECs. I think that UNC wants to see you in their application. You as a real, flawed, and complex human being. You mentioned in your post that you began professionally writing the perfect essay and honestly, maybe everything came off as "too perfect" for them. I am not a perfect student by *any* means. I was very open and honest in my application about my failures in life and I think that the admissions officers may want something like that in our applications.

Finally, keep your head up because it doesn't mean that you're a failure. Not getting into UNC isn't a moral indictment of your character, although it may feel like that right now.