Ask away- it's UChicago Prospective Students Advisory Committee

<p>Hi,
International Student here! I have a question about how much my chances of admission will be affected if I apply for financial aid. I can pay for about 40% - 50% of the entire cost of a 4 year degree. Let’s say I apply under early action, how significantly will my chances of admissions be affected?</p>

<p>^ “International students may only choose Early Action if they are not applying for financial aid.” direct quote from Admissions website
good luck for your application in any case!</p>

<p>to @bitturiju</p>

<p>My daughter was an international student applying for fin. aid this year. She got accepted literally everywhere (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Brown and some more). The only school were she was rejected was UChicago. The truth is that she probably would never go there, and maybe she was rejected because this was obvious for admission officers as well. But my daughter claims that it’s considered to be really hard to get into UChicago if you are an int. student applying for fin.aid.</p>

<p>Just some extra information related to fin. aid for international students. Even though our income this year is a sort of high (>200,000); she got need based fin. aid (ranging from 12,000 to 20,000) from Stanford, Princeton and Yale. The same was true for my older daughter a few years ago (she is graduating from Princeton this year, and she got a full ride there since our income was low when she applied). </p>

<p>So, my advice would be – try to get into HPYS, these schools overall have good fin. aid packages for internationals; this is like catch 22 situation: for int. students to get good fin. aid – you need to get into a really good school. </p>

<p>P.S. You can also try to ask this question @phuriku since it looks like he is currently a student at UChicago (and he wrote: “International applicants to Chicago who apply for financial aid really have it tough. Chicago isn’t international need-blind like other top schools for some reason.”)</p>

<p>@bitturuju- In our admissions process, we must be “need-aware” for international candidates. This means that when reviewing international applications, Chicago takes into account whether or not an applicant has requested financial assistance. Applying for financial aid places you in an extremely competitive applicant pool. We therefore advise you to apply for financial aid only if you do not have the resources to fund your education. It’s an unfortunate reality that we simply cannot afford to provide financial aid to all deserving international students, but we encourage international students whose family situation requires financial aid to apply regardless.</p>

<p>Hi! I have a question. Are housing applications from EA admits processed ahead of RD admits?
Also: what kind of things should be included in the “additional factors” section of the housing application?
Sorry if these questions have already been asked/answered somewhere else. Thanks for your time :)</p>

<p>Does the University require a special form with my final transcript, and when will we find out more about this process?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>UChicagoPSAC, I am glad I kept my hopes and believed what my counselor told me. What you shared here was incorrect. I am very happy now.</p>

<p>hello!!</p>

<p>is lake michigan actually toxic??? :(</p>

<p>In general, Lake Michigan beaches are recognized as a consistently healthy place to visit; treated drinking water from the lake is considered to be high quality; and there are no lake-wide advisories against fish consumption.</p>

<p>UChicagoPSAC, hats off to the team responsible for “The INSIDER’S GUIDE to THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO”. You guys did a fantastic job creating this. Very very useful. Thank you!</p>

<p>^ seconded! It was a nice surprise to come home to straight after admitted students day, very well done. (Although I don’t know if it’s a bad omen that the person on the cover is stepping on the seal… was that on purpose? lol)</p>

<p>I saw something on the school website about Odyssey scholarships and understood it to be something along the lines of “any student whose family makes less than 50k can have all their loans replaced with grants.” Is how I understand it correct? Is the odyssey program competitive or open? What is the time line for applying?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>@Rural, the Odyssey scholarship is less of a scholarship and more of a grant- if your family qualifies, and you have applied for financial aid, Odyssey funds will be included in your financial aid package. There is no separate application beyond the required portions of a normal financial aid application, and it is need-based, not merit based aid.</p>

<p>Hey PSAC, </p>

<p>I’ve already committed to UChicago and my friend is about to commit to Northwestern. I was wondering what kind of discounts are available on the Metra and/or the CTA system for college students. I was dismayed to see that Chicago was not a participating member in the ultra low-cost U-Pass program for the CTA. I would like to be able to visit my friend fairly often and fairly cheaply…</p>

<p>Introspect- unfortunately the CTA/Metra do not offer discounts to college students beyond the UPass program, in which UChicago does not participate (although, trust me, I’d love it if we did, and every few years Student Government takes it up as an issue- could come in your time!) There are 3 busses within Hyde Park that are free to students, but beyond this you will need to pay full fare (actually not that bad- you can get to Northwestern for about $5) on CTA or Metra.</p>

<p>When do we get to register for our @uchicago.edu email address?
And how do we do this? The page I am trying doesn’t find my combination of birth date and SSN in the system.</p>

<p>Introspect: S has a very good friend at NU and they have found that available time is more of a problem than expense in visiting. Once you get busy, even going downtown is not something you get to do that often. S has mentioned that every time he hasn’t done as well as he wished in a paper or a test, he would have done better if he had put a little more time into it. Time management is something you learn very quickly at UChicago.</p>

<p>I can definitely understand that, as much as I don’t want to admit it.
Certainly, academics are very important to me. But I will hopefully get to see my friend at least once a week. What do you think?</p>

<p>Let’s just say that it’ll happen less often than you would like to. If it were a romantic liaison it would happen more often, in any case, they sometimes go half way and meet downtown with mutual friends from both schools.</p>

<p>@IntrospectIs- you will receive an e-mail containing instructions to set up your @uchicago.edu account (also known as a CNet ID) sometime in June or early July.</p>