Ask away- it's UChicago Prospective Students Advisory Committee

<p>Grace, what does PSAC stand for?</p>

<p>I’m obviously not Grace, but it stands for “Prospective Students Advisory Committee” (or at least that’s what it says on the first page of this thread…) =D
Good luck, you guys!!!</p>

<p>Yep, correct. Some people say “Council” instead of “Committee”, but regardless, it’s still a C :)</p>

<p>Grace, regarding interviews- if an ED applicant was not given the opportunity to request an interview (not that there weren’t any alums local, but that with the large number of EA apps to process, the accounts were not setup in time) and is deferred to the regular round, would the applicant have a chance to request an interview at this time? ie, would the link reappear on the account interview page or wherever it is?</p>

<p>And Grace, Hope you have a nice vacation when this is all over!</p>

<p>jackief- we have been able to offer alumni interviews to deferred students who were not able to request them before in the past, but I am not sure if this will be the case this year because of applicant volume. We will have more information specifically for deferred students on our blog very soon after we get decisions out, and I will post here to make sure people who are deferred can get the information.</p>

<p>UChicagoPSAC, so many people have been saying that if you didn’t recieve the financial aid email, then you will not be admitted (including some past year students). Is this just a myth??</p>

<p>Hey, Grace! Why does UoC require FA forms and stuff by Jan 2 itself, and not Feb like most other colleges? It’s a really confusing process and stressful to handle that along with your apps at the same time! Anyway, can it be done partially through paper and partially mailed? Or does it all have to go through one medium? Can just the Chicago form and CSS be submitted online and the International Student Financial Aid form be snail mailed in later? (I am an International)</p>

<p>thanks Grace! hoping this won’t even be a factor, but I know there were so many who had delays in account creation that it will be a apply for some. We also realize that your extreme volume this year means all bets are off based on past experiences.</p>

<p>Guys, the financial aid office and the admissions office aren’t linked- they’re working through your finaid application without knowing our decisions. So, I need you to check with the financial aid office for your questions on aid applications, and know that whatever e-mails they do or don’t send you are with respect only to your financial aid application and not to your application for college admission.</p>

<p>Why aren’t academic papers that are submitted with one’s application forwarded to faculty that could sufficiently evaluate the papers? It seems rather useless to have admission officers evaluate academic papers that they most likely aren’t able to truly evaluate.</p>

<p>@motion: We have contacts in the arts, music, and drama who evaluate submissions in those areas for us. Research papers and abstracts are read by admissions counselors;
for something that a counselor may not totally understand (i.e. a serious research abstract) then they will typically try to get it to a second reader who will understand or more fully be able to explain what the paper is about and its significance, whether that person is in the office or not, although we don’t automatically forward them to a different department.
In the case that you’re sending in a research abstract or paper, it is especially helpful (and we really advise that you do this) to also submit a supplemental recommendation from your research advisor, who will better be able to tell us what you did and the significance of your project.</p>

<p>And if it was done independently? I got deferred, but I’m just curious as to what the comments on my paper were (and who they came from).</p>

<p>Chicago use a marketing strategy to ruin a lot of good/superb candidates for chicago’s perceived “low acceptance rate” marketing activity</p>

<p>It is not ethical for Uchicago to do so. many applicants can get accepted if back to a couple years ago.</p>

<p>We get hurt,
UCHicago really hurts many applicants because Uchicago wants to be so called "Ivies acceptance "</p>

<p>UChciago uses a really bad strategy, hurts too many young scholars</p>

<p>^I’m sorry you feel that way but UChicago (and any other school for that matter) is not trying to ruin any teen’s life. What the school is trying to do is find smart, talented, quirky, thoughtful, funny, quiet, outgoing, introspective, analytical, progressive, or just plain interesting people to enrich our academic community. They aren’t playing mind games and they’re not trying to keep up with any other school, Ivy or not. I know it’s easy to get angry when you find yourself deferred or rejected to any university. I’ve been there and it hurts. Really, really badly. Maybe you get angry at the school, because they <em>obviously</em> do not have their heads screwed on right to skip on such a great student such as yourself. Or maybe, instead, you get angry with yourself and think that you suck at life and won’t get in anywhere. Is this true? Absolutely not! What the University of Chicago admissions counselors are looking for in an applicant will be entirely different than what Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Northwestern, Case Western, the University of Florida, and Texas A and M- or fill in blank school here- is looking for. Yes, each school is looking for some great individuals and, yes, some of the same things will make an applicant stand out at any school (grades, recommendations, fantastic essays, test scores, community involvement). Yet what makes an admissions counselor at the University of Chicago beam while reading an app will most definitely be different than someone at another institution. So if you got deferred, do not worry. Haven’t you ever met someone and initially been a little iffy on whether or not you two could be friends, and then- imagine that!- two months from then you realized how awesome they were? This could happen to you. Or, if you were rejected, don’t take it to heart. You might be JUST what X college is looking for. Chances are, you will be the perfect applicant for another school. And you know what? That school will be the perfect fit for you. It’s the same tried and true thing that every girl seems to tell herself when a guy she’s interested in doesn’t even seem to know she exists: “If they can’t appreciate me, who needs them?” And then when you do find the right person, you are soooo glad you didn’t waste your time…</p>

<p>^^

Entirely different? What an amazing coincidence that so many of those accepted had such great stats and almost no mention of quirkiness.</p>

<p>“What the school is trying to do is find smart, talented, quirky, thoughtful, funny, quiet, outgoing, introspective, analytical, progressive, or just plain interesting people to enrich our academic community.”</p>

<p>I find that fairly hard to believe marcellad. I think that I showed that I possessed half of those things in my application, yet I got deferred.</p>

<p>motion, if you hadn’t shown a good portion of those traits you would have been rejected. Your application was clearly in the ballpark. It’s often a matter of luck as to how someone reacts to an application on any given day. You may well have better luck in the spring.</p>

<p>

How do you recommend one mention her quirkiness, exactly? Those ridiculous decisions posts are hardly the place to judge admits (or anyone really), considering the importance of the essays, which you’ll never see in those kinds of posts.</p>

<p>

Maybe your astounding humility rendered them completely incapable of delivering a resolute decision to you promptly. They’re probably waiting until April to see how many more admits you can bitterly disparage before finally realizing that putting successful applicants down won’t change your admission chances. You are offensive and distasteful, and I don’t appreciate your blanket statements against me and other admits who you claim are inadequate and not as deserving as you are.</p>

<p>I deserved my decision. I worked hard to see that “Congratulations!” and I worked hard with the resources I had. I am more than numbers, a spreadsheet of facts, a green word and a handful of bulleted lists. Channel the energy you put into complaining about your deferral into more positive outlets, stop insinuating that you are misunderstood and better than your decision, and please, take responsibility for your own future rather than blaming others.</p>

<p>Boom, roasted!</p>

<p>Thank god Embeezy said something. I was about to kill Motion myself.</p>