Advice for Waitlisted Students

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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<p>parent1001, if the school your child plans to attend if UChicago does not become an option off of the waiting list requires the student to list that school as their first choice to receive National Merit funding, I would list that school as the first choice. If the student is admitted off of the waiting list to UChicago, I would speak with the financial aid office (which is responsible for National Merit scholarship funding) to see if it will still be possible to receive a UChicago-based award. </p>

<p>chileguy, yes, early April would still be an appropriate time.</p>

<p>phillipscurve, yes, students admitted off of the waiting list can hear at any time between May and June. Notifications of admission off of the waitlist usually happen in a sort of trickle-- when we know we have space available, we offer that space to waitlisted students. </p>

<p>placido, great question, and a relatively tricky one to answer. Post-graduate years are taken for many reasons-- athletics, obtaining English fluency for non-native English speaking students, improving familiarity with American education systems and the college admissions process in the US, improving grades or social readiness/study skills for college, etc. If a student is considering taking a post-graduate year for any reason, I would certainly lean on discussing a student’s goals for their PG year with the student’s current guidance counselor-- if considering a PG year, it is important to discuss what a student hopes to gain or achieve during an extra year in school, and whether or not those goals are realistic.</p>

<p>brotherjames37, if final grades are available at the time we are making waitlist considerations, then yes, they would be considered-- but they are not required, as we know many students will not have final grades by the time we make these selections. However, I would encourage ALL waitlisted students still interested in attending to maintain a strong academic record. Poor final grades (yes, even in your last semester of your senior year!) would reflect negatively on an applicant’s readiness for the challenges present at UChicago. </p>

<p>smashedpumpkin65, we strongly encourage you to e-mail, not physically mail, any updates or additional material to your regional counselor. You may find out who that person is here: <a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/contact/map.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/contact/map.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>littletemchin, as discussed previously, we hope that students who have strong interest in UChicago will accept their place on the waiting list and will send a short note indicating their continued interest in UChicago to their regional counselor. After that, it is a waiting game, and comes down to student interest (not just volume of interest, but thought and quality-- one carefully considered email is as good if not better than daily updates), as well as the types of students we feel will be the best fit for us; after all of our accepted students have accepted or declined their offer, we will have a better sense of what sorts of still-interested students will best fit the class of 2016, and will offer spaces, if available, accordingly.</p>

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<p>Dear Grace,</p>

<p>I am currently on the waitlist for UChicago. My question is whether it would be desirable to send in any additional material for my application. I understand it is not necessary, but would any material (writing, supplements, new job experience) benefit my application besides the e-mail statement to my regional counselor?</p>

<p>Thank you for taking the time to answer questions! :)</p>

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<p>penryn, it is truly not necessary to send additional application material. You may do so if you feel particularly strongly about submitting additional material, but this is not necessary or particularly advised; all we really request for you to do is for you to update us with your continued interest and to accept your place on the waiting list. If you do choose to submit additional material, please make sure this is information that represents a significant difference/does not overlap with material you submitted with your additional application. Particularly, I would discourage any applicant from requesting additional letters of recommendation from teachers or employers-- these are not something that will provide a large amount of new information to us, and asking teachers to write additional recommendations can be an inconvenience to them.</p>

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<p>Hi Grace,</p>

<p>Thank you so much for answering these questions! They’ve alleviated a lot of the stress of waiting. I was wondering if you could tell me if, for international students, if the applicant’s need for aid is still considered (and is a large factor) for their admission. Or is this a question that I should direct toward the international admissions office?</p>

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<p>you indicated to email any updates to your regional counselor. The letter sent from Univ of Chicago that thanks you for accepting a place on the waitlist states that if you would like to provide additional information you may update your UChicago Account or fax it. Is it preferable to both email the regional counselor and fax/submit to univ of chicago account? Also, if you did not originally send a supplement to your univ of chicago account, such as a creative writing sample can you still do so and would that be something that should be uploaded, emailed or both? Finally, if your third quarter grades are very strong, can you fax them yourself or do they have to come officially from your school counseling office like your other transcripts. Thanks for all the great information you have provided.</p>

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<p>jooceful, yes, please direct this question to the international admissions team.</p>

<p>padine, my apologies for being vague. Students should e-mail their letter of interest; if you wish to submit additional updates beyond the letter, they should be uploaded to your UChicago Account, and faxed if for some reason you are not able to complete an upload. You may wish to note in your letter of interest that you have done this, but if you have faxed or uploaded the additional materials, it is not necessary to also include the materials as attachments to your email (we would just wind up uploading them to your account anyway-- which is taken care of directly by you if you upload them yourself, eliminating us as a middle-man!)</p>

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<p>Hi Uchicago,</p>

<p>Quick questions. Last year, of several students from my school that applied, one was accepted and the other waitlisted. When the accepted student turned Chicago down for another school, the waitlisted student was offered admission. Now, I don’t want to go ascribing a causality where there is none – and I’m sure there are many things you guys look at while accepting of the WL – but is it OK to presume there is some correlation between the kind of students that go to another school from Chicago and the kind of students that are accepted off the waitlist? (i.e. an international student going somewhere else would be replaced by another international). I understand that there is a lot of grey area surrounding this.</p>

<p>Secondly, and more importantly, I’ve completed a LOT of IB work (IAs, EEs, ToK essays, etc.) since the time that I applied – some of this work is a good show of my talent but also quite long. I would love to upload this on my Portal but I’m afraid that it might be too time consuming to be useful. Would you suggest that I upload it anyway or would it be rather to get a short note from my respective teachers detailing their impression of this work?</p>

<p>Thanks much!</p>

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<p>I know we’re not <em>required</em> to send in third quarter grades, but are they important in your decision of whom to take from the wait list? I plan to send in a letter and updates of awards, etc., but, honestly, my grades have dropped (albeit not significantly). How much do you value them in the end, and is not sending them at all a detriment to one’s chances?</p>

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<p>I may have misunderstood…Is it a commitment to accept a spot on the waitlist?Are students saying that they will go to Chicago if taken off the waitlist?
Thank you for your help.</p>

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<p>chaldo, we will hope to see a final report from students when one is available. This is not a firm requirement, as we know that students’ final grades may not be available until later in the process-- some schools let out as late as mid June, and we understand this. So, please try to keep your grades strong and send in the information if a final grade report becomes available-- but, if one is not available, it is not something to worry about.</p>

<p>chocolias, no, it is not a firm commitment. Accepting a place on the waitlist indicates to us that you are very interested in attending if we were to accept you off of the waitlist-- but you would be free to choose to come or to decline our offer.</p>

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<p>Grace, thank you for answering my previous question, but I have another one: How does de admissions system work? Being much more specific, If I were to say yes to another school -by may 1st’s deadline-, would I be able to change my decision if I were offered a slot at UChicago?</p>

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<p>Chileguy-- yes. Schools understand that they may lose some students to waiting lists at other schools; if you accept a place at another college by May 1 (which we STRONGLY encourage students to do), you are still welcome to accept an offer from UChicago, if one comes. You would forfeit the enrollment deposit at your other school to attend UChicago, but it is common practice for waitlisted students to accept an offer at a different school and notify that school that they will not be attending once/if they are accepted off of the waiting list at a different school.</p>

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<p>I want to know the answer to first part of the question. Thanks!</p>

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<p>2yuexue and Challenged; there is really not a concise way to answer this question, I am sorry. As Challenged noted, I would not ascribe causality to the situation he describes; it is one of many possible situations.</p>

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<p>But I do have another question. In the past, it seemed a common practice for uchicago to take off students from the waitlist before May 1. I thought before May 1 you would have no idea as to how many to take off if you were to take off. Can you share the possible reasons for uchicago to take off people from the waitlist before you hear all the responses and what kind of people you took off that soon?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

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<p>We are sometimes-- but not always-- able to take students off of the waiting list before May 1. This has happened in years when enough admitted students have let us know they will not be attending before May 1, such that we know we will have space for additional students off of the waiting list. We do not know one way or another if this will be the case this year. The types of students we accept off of the waiting list are as varied as it comes, so I am not sure there is any additional guidance I can offer on that front.</p>

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<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

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<p>Hello Grace!</p>

<p>Do mind giving me the waitlist statistics in the previous years? If you could give me these statistics that would be great! I just want to be realistic in terms of chances.</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

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<p>bluelover, the number of students we have been able to accept off of the waiting list varies widely from year to year, and each year’s situation is independent of the situation in past years; as such, we do not release this information, as at best it may not be relevant and, at worst, misleading.</p>

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<p>Okay
I understand that the information can bring pressure onto the students (me haha). </p>

<p>Thanks anyway</p>