Advice to all you Chicago Essay Writers

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>Your supplement is due Jan 2nd obv. so you have time. USE IT. </p>

<p>I got into Chicago EA in Dec. and I thought it was a joke. Why? I don't have the academic credentials to get in. I'm barely in the top 20% of my class and my SAT/ACTs luckily make it into the median 50 percentish. I got a 1460 out of 1600--and that was with a 680 in CR. My ACT score was a 33.</p>

<p>Clearly I'm not a genius. So what am I? Am I good essay writer? NO. I am not a writer. All I am is a thinker. I like to think. I don't use fancy words or concise checks on my papers. I proofread my essays though. They just aren't well written. </p>

<p>What I do is think. When you write your essay you don't have to do anything fancy at all. I got one of those cards from my admissions officer and it commented on that exact same thing. You don't have to write poetry to write a good essay. You don't even have to try to be unique, or passionate. </p>

<p>If you just think about what you write and even say "I LIKE EXPLORING LEARNING"--in a nicer way, of course. you'll be fine. </p>

<p>This could be an extremely useless post. Take it or leave it. I'm just telling you how it is. Explain why you love learning. And say directly--" I like it." Why? Because it's all you can do. Don't expect someone to miraculously figure that out for themselves. Say that you like it. Honestly explain why...maybe it's so you can find solutions to cancer, or environmental issues, or just because you like sharing your knowledge with others. </p>

<p>Above all, just explain why you like to think. That's it. If you do that, nothing matters. Good luck! And work on those essays!! It'll pay off in the end.</p>

2

<p>Good advice. Similar experience here.</p>

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<p>Yup similar experience here too. Came up with my essays on the spot the day of the deadline - pretty surprised to see the acceptance. Just write about what you know best. Let it come to you.</p>

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<p>Spiralcloud why do you lack any self-confidence, and, dare I say it, any intelligence? I read another post where you said said that you were 2/50 in your class when weighted GPA’s were taken into account, and universities aren’t ■■■■■■■■…they are accustomed with your school and they could probably figure that out. As well, all your B’s were in classes about musical theory, in the arts, or whatever and universities realize that and will understand it if your interests lie elsewhere (and how hard those courses are and how irrelevant they will be to you). Your SAT is beyond ‘average’ considering a score such as that puts you in the top 2-3% of test-takers in the nation and the fact that more than 50% of the people admitted to UChicago HAD SCORES LOWER THAN THAT (that’s the definition of an average…). You didn’t get in on the sole basis of your essays and stop implying that you were (though, they obviously helped).</p>

<p>As well, by telling them that you ‘love learning,’ you aren’t going to get any bonus points in your admissions officer. They’re not going to be like, “hey look, this kid likes learning! Accepted!” How do I know this? Well, 4 kids applied to the UoC from my school. Each of our why chicago essays had some part that said that we ‘loved learning,’ and three of us got deferred, one got rejected. What’s going to happen in RD? Well, we’re all going to get rejected because, according to my regional admissions officer, “We deferred a lot of people because we had such a competitive applicant pool and many of our applicants had astounding academic credentials.” As well, I may have been inferring too much from her tone, but, essentially, she seemed like she was implying that if the RD applicant pool was anywhere near as good as the EA one, I could kiss my sorry *ss goodbye. So, please, if any essay writer is going to take any advice from this thread…just write what you feel like writing. Don’t write that you love learning for the sake of learning itself and suddenly expect an acceptance come March because that is probably the worst advice I’ve ever heard given. As well, spiralcloud, please don’t disgrace people who actually are ‘thinkers’ by saying that you are one. A thinker is one who thinks profoundly, and from what I can infer about you from your posts (from all of them), you couldn’t think profoundly if your life depended on it. Also, many people don’t call declare themselves as being half-■■■■■■■■, and then proclaim that they got in because they’re ‘thinkers.’ Please, spiralcloud, don’t demean (and I know this wasn’t your intention, but I just sent this to my other friend who got deferred and he got the same impression as myself) us who ‘weren’t good enough’ for UoC by making posts like this.</p>

<p>Anyways, I probably wouldn’t take my advice since apparently you have to be a beacon of reason and a god to get into any top school nowadays (at least when you come from some podunk high school filled with white middle class kids) and I’m neither of those. As well, if anyone gets mad about this post, then, all I have to say is that I had no ill intentions with it.</p>

<p>Another note, am I the only one who realized that, following the release of decisions, 80% of the people who were posting on this forum all of a sudden disappeared (because they got deferred/rejected) and all of a sudden, it got filled with people who got admitted? Meh, even if I am the only one, it has saddened me :(.</p>

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<p>Wow motion12345 I think I love you.<br>
Now spiralcloud, I know you weren’t trying to demean or anything, your heart really was in the right place I think, but your scores are certainly above average, and its a little painful to see posts like this when we (myself included) got deferred or even rejected from our top schools. I know that what you are trying to say is something akin to have fun, and don’t worry so much about sounding like someone you’re not, but I don’t think that writing “I like learning”, or anything near that, is what will get me, or anyone else into the schools we dream about. So, I thank you for trying to help, but sych a statement could lead other applicants astray, if they think that that ^ is all they need to do to get into one of the top-rated schools in the country.</p>

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<p>Not going to say I love motion12345 because the ad hominems are thoroughly unnecessary, but I do feel like this is the sort of post that could be very easily taken as condescending. What you’re sharing is what worked for you, and that can be pretty valuable, but in the end, you’re not an admissions officer. You don’t really have the authority to hand out how-to guides.</p>

<p>Not a bad sentiment but not, I think, presented ideally.</p>

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<p>I totally agree with motion12345, when I read the original post, I felt dissapointed because I’m applying to Chicago with a lower ACT and similar SATs, and I’m not banking on my essays being the only thing that gets me in, I though my academics were pretty good. It was condescending to post this, even if you’re intentions were in the right place.</p>

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<p>I feel like spiralcloud had good intentions in hoping to inspire some students to write from the heart, though it came off in the wrong manner to many who viewed this thread. What I think is important to take from this thread, however, is that you should not try to write to please an admissions counselor but to write to please yourself. I think that for the majority of the students at UChicago, we are our own toughest critic. I definitely do not like to measure myself up to other people’s accomplishments or grades because I am not them and it just isn’t fair to me to do so. I did enough of that in high school and I was worried sick about outperforming my peers, especially my sister who was just fantastic in everything she applied herself to. So please, please write about what makes you happy and don’t worry as much about what other people are writing about or whether the right topic to write about exists. Just write to please yourself. I think that’s why a lot of people who got deferred disappeared from the forums, motion12345. It’s easy to get your hopes up for a school but when you get denied or deferred it’s hard not to feel inadequate. Please don’t.</p>

<p>If you guys don’t mind me sharing about my own feelings of inadequacy, I have a story for you: Last winter I signed up for a Chinese drama class at UChicago. I was nervous because I had absolutely no experience but I was also very excited because the class sounded fantastic. Then I got to class and our professor asked us about our knowledge of the Chinese language. Six of nine kids were native speakers, one was fluent in Chinese, and another had taken both Chinese and Japanese classes and studied abroad there. And then there was me, who could point out China on a map… and that was it. Did I feel inadequate? Hell yes! It took me forever to realize that clouds and rain in Chinese literature meant sex (I always wondered why there was a rainstorm every time two characters took a walk through a secluded park!) and meanwhile my entire class already knew this. I was so worried that I would butcher the pronunciation of Chinese names in class that I feigned I had forgotten their names altogether and just referred to them as the main character or the mother or the student, etc. And then one day we had a professional Beijing Opera singer come to class to teach us a few songs. And she asked for one volunteer to sing the song we just learned. No one raised their hand so feeling reckless, I agreed to give it a shot. I cannot sing and I cannot speak Chinese and I certainly cannot sing Chinese but I tried, and failed, and blushed horribly. But I was so proud that I had tried and then one of my classmates told me after class how impressed she was that I had the guts to get up in front of the class to sing when I knew nothing of the language and that really reinforced for me why I should never try to measure myself against anyone else. </p>

<p>To get back to the topic of this thread, if you’re scrambling to finish your application in time, write about what you love or just churn something out, send it in, and feel happy that you did! Don’t worry that someone else might have written a wittier essay, or scored 20 more points on the SAT, or landed a sweet internship this past summer and is first chair clarinet in the band. Be proud that you guys have survived an incredibly intense 3.5 years of high school and accomplished so much, even if it was just miraculously staying awake through 7 am AP calculus. Good luck on finishing up your UChicago app for all those not yet done, congrats for those who are done, and get excited for an awesome 2010 (in which, in just a few months, you guys will all be at college!)!</p>

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<p>This wasn’t meant for people who got rejected/deferred. It was an advice post for people who have yet to work on their applications. </p>

<p>I’m sorry if you thought it was rude. I apologize. And…I want to clear up a couple things and then I’ll apologize again if you thought I was trying to be condescending. </p>

<ol>
<li>Yes, my weighted GPA is high. However, my school is not allowed to report my weighted rank. So it didn’t even count. I’m barely in the top 20% of my class. </li>
<li>I go to a school where two kids have gone to an ivy in 15 years. Colleges don’t know me. They don’t usually know my school. </li>
<li>Chicago claims to not care about SAT scores. I didn’t want to lie so I said what they were. I wanted to give you a full interpretation of what I meant. They said they cared about grades. </li>
<li>Of course people who are deferred/rejected would feel bad. But the purpose of this was to HELP people who haven’t started yet. </li>
<li>No you don’t need to have a beacon of reason. That was my point. I didn’t write about some godly thing. I just wrote about what I liked. and why I loved it. Simple. </li>
<li>It is not my fault that the deferees left. Maybe it was so they wouldn’t take advice meant for current essay writers and complain and complain and complain. </li>
<li>Thank you marcellad. </li>
<li>Jsweden- that’s what I was trying to do! All I was trying to point out is that if you don’t feel your essays represent you, change them! Because you still have time!</li>
<li>I didn’t say that essays were IT. I said they were a reasonable enough part for you to work hard on them and have them represent you. So, if you’re saying that I’m giving hope to a student with a 1.5 GPA 499/500 rank, I’m not. </li>
</ol>

<p>I’m sorry if you feel bad but this post was not meant for you. It was just meant to show how Chicago really does evaluate people holistically.</p>

<p>CC has helped me so much! I was just trying to do something for people that needed that push. I knew I did…and it was other people on CC who did that.</p>

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<p>Absolutely wonderful advice, sprialcloud!!!</p>

<p>It just goes to show that UChicago is not some droid like that gaudy essay they e-mailed to everyone and theri brother portrayed them as. Being an applicant (guess what I’ll be doing for part of tommorow :)), that essay really turned me off from the “message” UChicago has. I was just planning on writing a plain-jane “Why?” essay and a DIY prompt on my urban restoration aspirations.</p>

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<p>Thank you OHKid. If I can help one person, then I’ll be satisfied at least. </p>

<p>you don’t have to take my advice. But i feel like I’ve gotten to “know Chicago” so much more these past weeks to realize that they DO care about us. My advice may not work, but that’s why it’s advice, not “here’s how to get into chicago.” I don’t know that! I just know what I’ve seen and heard from them these past weeks that has really shown me that being yourself in your app is key. It won’t get you admitted by itself, but it’s part of the struggle. Lots of it’s luck, I’m sure, but sharing is caring. If you don’t want to read this, don’t. If you disagree, post another tip. I don’t care. I’m just trying to help people who need that little push and shove to work on their essays. No essay is perfect. But we can try.</p>

<p>And I’m still sorry if I hurt your feelings, but what tips can I give if they’ll hurt? Rejection/Deferrals will always sting. Been there. Done that. But at some point, you have to move beyond that and realize what I was trying to do. Help people who needed that push.
And trust me…I’m definitely not planning on giving out more “advice.” No worries. =D</p>

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<p>You have less of a brain than I thought you did. Here are some rebuttals to your horrific points.</p>

<p>1) But weighted GPA is reported and school’s can roughly guess what your rank would be if class rank was determined by weighted, and not unweighted, GPA (especially if they have other applications from your school, and they can use the data that they have from previous years).
2) That doesn’t mean that they don’t know your school and how it works. First off, they’ve been doing this for a while and probably get applications from your school every year (and they’re given a school profile as well), so they do know your school. Second off, just because a university doesn’t accept students that often from your school does not mean that they don’t know your school…it just means that they don’t find applicants from your school to be top-notch.
3) My point was that they aren’t average in the slightest; they’re rather high and you tried to claim that they weren’t that much and implied that they were a downfall in your application (somehow making you ‘not academically qualified’). Yes, they care about grades, yet you only told us your class rank (trying to play the ‘not academically qualified’ card again). This following quote comes from the University of Chicago itself: The rigor of a student’s coursework, as well as their grades, matter more than their numerical summation (i.e. GPA or rank).
4) My point was that you’re misleading them. I know several people who did the same thing that you advised to do and none got admitted. I was trying to tell them that following that doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything (which was implied by the last sentence of the post). Apparently, you can’t see a rebuttal to a point when it’s made as blatantly as possible.<br>
5) First off, you can’t use yourself as an example and just leave it at that (you need multiple examples before you can make any conclusive statement). My point was that so did I and multiple others, which negates the whole line of reasoning that doing what you say will necessarily help your application out and ultimately get you accepted.
6) I never blamed you…that part of my post had no relation to you and I don’t know why you got the impression that it was (paranoid much?).
9) Clearly if your academic credentials weren’t ‘it’ then it must have been other factors that got you admitted (you clearly said that you weren’t academically qualified). Since you’re attempting to give advice on doing the essays, it can be more or less assumed that you were trying to imply that by doing what you did on the essays, you got admitted (that would, it would appear, be the whole reasoning behind this thread). As well, an academically unqualified student is academically unqualified. If you defined your credentials as academically unqualified, then what is the difference between your credentials and the credentials of the person with the 1.5 GPA? If there is a difference, then you don’t believe that you’re as ‘not academically qualified’ as you claim you are.
10) This thread didn’t give anybody a ‘push’ and nor will it ever unless they’re that easily motivated by your cliche thoughts and your incoherent and repetitive statements.</p>

<p>As my friend told me after reading your 2nd post, this kid gets into UChicago but we get deferred? I feel insulted that a student like you could get in not only over my friend and I, but all the intelligent and interesting people who were on this board before UChicago decided that they weren’t good enough for UChicago and that, somehow, someone like you qualifies to be a UChicago student over all of us.</p>

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<p>I like it. This is essentially what I did for my essays. I just put a little bit of my heart and soul and feelings into em (just for the U of Chicago essays, which was really weird), and the people marking my essays tell me that my extended essay was the most heart felt one out of all of them, and they really liked it. So yeah, his advice works. Follow it.</p>

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<p>motion: Be nice. You can have your own opinions, but expressing them so bluntly is a turnoff and makes you seem belligerent. It took me a while to learn it (and in a sense, I still am), but listen to Einstein:</p>

<p>“If A equals success, then A = X+Y+Z, where X is working hard, Y is playing hard, and Z is keeping your mouth shut.”</p>

<p>Your education at Chicago would inevitably include discussions with people whose opinions you wouldn’t always agree with or even respect. You need to know how to deal with such situations if you’re truly prepared for a Chicago education, and part of that is keeping some of your opinions to yourself and speaking in a nicer and more respectful tone.</p>

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<p>What can I say. I’m a blunt person and I could care less about that quote.</p>

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<p>Honestly motion, we all know you’re bitter from being deffered but could you stop taking it out on someone who only has good intentions. </p>

<p>As for people who are worried about their app, only focus on one thing - Making your essay sound like you. If you love learning, sure, write about that. If you love something else, write about that. Just be honest and true to yourself so that when Chicago sends that acceptance letter, you know it’s cos of who you are. </p>

<p>PS. motion, one more thing. My response to your other thread seems to have disappeared but it might not be the best idea to send those philosophy papers out. The topics are limp and tired and just based on the ignorance of philosophy you showed in that thread, I doubt they’re very original. Again, your choice</p>

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<p>I’m not going to respond to that.
Good job motion, you won!!!
I’m not going to sit here and argue with you. I really did have good intentions, and hopefully people will be able to pick up on that. </p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>And in all of the garbage that went on in this thread I wanted to apologize to the people that actually thought this thread would give them some insight.
In my opinion, having the potential to get advice is better than no advice at all. But, hey…to each his own. If you want to focus on other things because that’s what makes you happy, go for it! I can’t guarantee anything, but I can surely give you advice. It’s not scientific, or heavily researched, but it’s reflective. And it’s the best I can do.</p>

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<p>i think the advice is really helpful! at least i got some ideas on how to express myself in the essay…since it was a sudden decision for me to apply to Chicago, it is a reach school for me…i don’t think my chance of getting in is that great, but i really love the school and its atmosphere, so i will just give it a shot :slight_smile: of course just talking about why i want to be there is not enough, but it won’t hurt to apply, and it won’t hurt to write about it haha~</p>

<p>thank you~ and congratulations!</p>

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<p>You’re welcome! I do what I can…Well, I try at least lol. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Motion, I know you got deferred and all, and you have an enormous stick up your butt, but heres a little song I wrote for you…</p>

<p>[YouTube</a> - Bobby McFerrin - Don’t Worry Be Happy](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFDa9efCQU]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFDa9efCQU)</p>