<p>Stats:[ul][<em>]SAT: 740 Math (770 Super-score), 800 Writing, 730 Reading - 2270 (2300 Superscore)[</em>]SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics[<em>]GPA: School does not give GPA, but 4.0UW, 4.9W[</em>]Rank: School does not rank, but 1-2/200[<em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 44/45 for IB Diploma - Full Candidate[/ul]Subjective[ul][</em>]Essays: Excellent[<em>]Recs: Excellent[</em>]Supplementary Material: Abstract - Economics Extended Essay[<em>]Summer Activities: taught ESL (Second Language English) to class of 10 students - 8 weeks/400 hours at prestigious Internship - Breakthrough Collaborative/Summerbridge[</em>]Hook: None[/ul]Personal[ul][<em>]Location: Hong Kong[</em>]High School Type: Private - International[<em>]Ethnicity: Indian[</em>]Gender:Male[/ul]Extracurriculars[ul][<em>]Founder/President of Revision Club (11,12) - Head of Class said that it was the first time she had seen initiative of this sort in all her years at the school, but I'm not getting a recommendation from her[</em>]Founder/President of Guitar Club (11,12) - The most popular student founded/led club at the school with over 30 students signing up within a day[<em>]Varsity Golf (11,12) - Represented school in golf tournaments after playing for only 3 months - been playing for 2 years now - ESSAY TOPIC[</em>]Started a proper business (11,12) - In charge of all Economic/Business decisions[<em>]Organizer/Leader of group project - building a small scale cloud chamber, writing research on muon decay and cosmic ray collisions[</em>]Organizer/Leader of group project - building a small scale particle accelerator[<em>]700 hours of community service over one year (11) - possibly continue till I get a 1000 hours (11,12)[</em>]Group leader of 6 - school trip to rural China to teach 10 year olds English for a week - they have never had contact with the language[<em>]Work with tutor class annually to earn about 1500 USD (annually) (6,7,8,9,10,11,12)[/ul]Awards:[ul][</em>]UKMT Gold Medal (8,9,10) - Teacher screwed up in 11 or I would have got gold again - International Award[<em>]UK Junior Olympiad (8) - Grade 8 too early to write on application? - International Award/Distinction[</em>]AMC12 (11,12) - 87 marks (particularly hard paper) - 89 was cut off for AIME - International Award/Distinction; 4th in school - School Distinction[<em>]Sunlife Maths Scholarship Competition (11,12) - 1 mark off distinction/top 25% - International Distinction[</em>]Euclid Scholarship Maths Scholarship Competition (11,12) - Distinction - 2 marks off International Honor Roll and mention on official website (top 2%) - International Award/Distinction[<em>]Elected Student Council Representative (9,10,12)[</em>]Economics Commendation (10) - School Award[<em>]Media Studies Commendation (10) - School Award[</em>]Merit Level Certificate of Achievement - International Citizenship (9,10) [SCHOOL][<em>]Spanish Award for Excellence (11) - School Award[</em>]Physics Award for Excellence (11) - School Award[li]Economics Award for Excellence (11) - School Award[/ul][/li]I am applying to UChicago EA.</p>
<p>Just of note: I am taking part in a virtual stock exchange game with 100s of students around Hong Kong and am currently in the top 3. Even if I come in the top 20 I will win a award for representing my school, and if I come in the top 5 I will win an individual award. Furthermore, I will be doing a similar kind of competition, but in school only, and will most probably win that. How will these affect my chances?</p>
<p>It’s very hard to get in if you mark that you need financial aid on your application. just keep that in mind. but your application looks stellar!</p>
<p>Just for clarity’s sake, you can’t apply EA to “Economics at UChicago.” You’re applying to the college. Will your professed interest impact your application? Of course, but it’s more about how much you’ve accomplished in that field than what that field actually is. If anything, you might think being interested in economics would make you blend in with the applicant pool given the department’s reputation.</p>
<p>You have excellent stats and in theory should be accepted, and the opportunity will be there, however what you accomplish at Chicago, or anywhere else for that matter, is up to you. If you have a chance over the summer, take a look at “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell.</p>
<p>hey, I was an international IB applicant too! (And used to live in HK) If you go EA, I think you should be fine - but also look into other schools, because (as you probably know) admissions can be highly unpredictable. </p>
<p>Grade 8 is too early to mention in the app. And also there’s not much point in listing all the school awards either, since they really are relatively minor things.</p>
<p>JebarPolsky: Ask your counselor to incorporate IB predicted score along with your transcript. That was what I did. If you are not applying for financial aid, I’d say you have a really, really great shot!</p>
<p>Please note that we do not declare our majors until the end of our sophomore year, but there is nothing wrong with stating that you want to study economics in your essay. Most international students come here to study economics anyway.</p>
<p>@DivineComedy, I am a full IB candidate at an IB only school so it will be incorporated. It’s just that there will be nothing else for the junior and senior year because of that.</p>
<p>I should mention, though, that the SAT I score was predicted for the May SAT and the actual scores came in. The predictions for Maths and Critical Reading were almost bang on with a 730 and 720 respectively but I bombed the essay and only got a 670 for Writing despite a good MC score.</p>
<p>That really puts me at a 1450/1600 (1490 Super-score).</p>
<p>I am taking it for a 4th time in June to nail the essay (working on some great examples) in order to get a 10+ essay and -1 or so to ensure that I get 770+ as well as a 800 in Math to push my score up to a ~2280 (~1520).</p>
<p>On the updating side of things, I am also traveling to Shanghai for an expo because my business presented a great “green” plan to the local newspaper which sponsored a trip to the expo to showcase our product. It is essentially giving us an opportunity to advertise our business product at an international expo and I have the impression that it will be quite an achievement for the adcoms.</p>