<p>The general letters of recommendation can be attached to the Common App forms - these forms are necessary to identify both you and the teacher, and help answer some additional questions.</p>
<p>My DS was invited by e-mail to a local prospective students information session. He’s visited Chicago, will be applying EA, and wants to know how different this meeting will be from the tour he took over the summer ? Any insight?</p>
<p>We visited UChicago and also went to a local info session that was a combined event with a few other institutions (Columbia, Rice, Cornell, Brown and maybe another one that I don’t recall). It was useful for S to hear how the different institutions, which were pretty much at the same level of selectivity, were trying to set themselves apart from the rest. But if it had just been UChicago, I don’t think that we would have learned anything that we didn’t know from the campus visit, especially since the adcom at the local info session was not the one that actually handled admissions from our area.</p>
<p>The info session he’s been invited to is just for Chicago…</p>
<p>If you attended the info session and tour on campus, then the local session will not be dramatically different. However, it would be a great opportunity to meet with the admissions counselor who handles your region, and the question/answer time may bring up some new topics as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. And he’s got a few questions about the essays he’s written, so that’s a good forum to ask them, I suppose. The humor in them is a bit ‘off-beat’ and “R” rated… so he can decide whether that’s a good idea or not.</p>
<p>Does UChicago consider foreign language teacher recommendations to be supplementary and not part of the 2 mandatory teacher recs?</p>
<p>I consider French to be an academic subject, personally…</p>
<p>That’s a question that comes up all the time. I am not UChicagoPSAC or anyone official, but I think the answer is really obvious: An advanced French literature course is clearly academic (e.g., AP French Literature). A course where you are mainly memorizing grammar and vocabulary and learning the odd cultural factoid clearly isn’t. In between is . . . in between.</p>
<p>But here’s the real test: If the teacher writing your recommendation isn’t going to be able to address, in detail, your analytic abilities, creativity, and ability to do original work and original thought, then it’s not going to be a very effective recommendation, and you are not going to be serving yourself well by relying on it. If your French teacher CAN address those things – in my case, my high school Spanish teacher could have and did – then his or her recommendation will be fine. If all the French teacher can say is that you learn vocab well, ace the quizzes, and work hard on your accent, that’s almost as bad as having no recommendation at all.</p>
<p>I’m sure that the Admissions Office will rarely if ever reject applicants based on determining that one of their recommendations wasn’t from a teacher whose course was “academic” enough, without even reading the recommendation. But I’m equally sure that applicants get rejected all the time because they submit recommendations from teachers who – regardless of what course they taught – don’t know enough about the student’s analytical abilities to write a convincing recommendation. And if the content of the course isn’t mainly academic, there’s no way they will be able to give effective information.</p>
<p>The risk is on you.</p>
<p>A French teacher would count as one of the two mandatory recommendations.</p>
<p>I have a different kind of question: my son was suspended junior year of high school for sharing ONE of his own prescription meds with another student. He was given long term after-school suspension so we decided to enroll him in a private school. He did great there and got a 3.0 avg with several 90s. Good SATs.</p>
<p>Because we will need to “check the box” for high school disipline on college applications
our guidance counselor is suggesting that we contact the college Admissions Director BEFORE we send an application to see how they would treat this.</p>
<p>Is this something that we should consider?</p>
<p>This is something you could email the Admissions Office about at <a href=“mailto:collegeadmissions@uchicago.edu”>collegeadmissions@uchicago.edu</a>. It definitely wouldn’t hurt, and you could get some sort of “official” advice.</p>
<p>I have a couple questions concerning letters of recommendation:</p>
<p>First, is a recommendation from a sophomore teacher allowed or must all recommendations be from junior and senior year teachers?</p>
<p>The second question is a bit more complex. I took a college class over the summer and got a letter of recommendation from the professor. It was just a letter and did not contain any of the additional evaluation contained on the Common App. I already have the two required recommendations (even without my sophomore teacher) but I am wondering if this would be allowed. If it is allowed, would it count against the max of three letters?</p>
<p>I’ve got some questions about submitting a music arts supplement to UChic:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>On the Common App arts form (which UChic says it accepts), it specifies that a music supplement should be 10 minutes long. Would it be a bad thing if I went over this limit? The two pieces that I’m thinking of including are likely to go over the 10 minute mark by 2-5 minutes when combined on a submitted CD.</p></li>
<li><p>Since the arts supplement has to be snail-mailed (to my knowledge), does that mean I have to postmark my supplement by an application deadline or does it mean that the supplement materials have to be in the hands of an adcom by the deadline?</p></li>
<li><p>The arts form requests that a music teacher should send an additional recommendation with my arts form. Does that mean the teacher has to send his recommendation online via assigning him to be a recommender on the Common App website, or does he have to snail-mail it (on certain types of paper with certain titles)?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hi, I know that UChicago essays are supposed to be creative. But does that apply to the ‘Why Chicago’ essay too? Or can it be as straightforward as we like?</p>
<p>Sorry to steal PSAC’s thunder, but these are more Admissions Related questions.</p>
<p>@Grape1 Sophomore teacher recs are fine; just be sure the teacher can represent the extent of your academic talents. A supplemental rec is fine. However, please keep in mind that we have quite a bit to read and simplicity is valued. </p>
<p>@101060
- See above; brevity is the soul of wit (and a source of AdCom joy). But again, there are no numerical cutoffs.
- Postmarked deadline for supplements (even a bit after is just fine).
- Either option is fine for the recommendation. </p>
<p>The moral of the story is this: an application is a complex entity–there are very few strict rules (but to note: be sure you attach the right essays to the right schools!). </p>
<p>Please view our website for more details: <a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/</a></p>
<p>Hey Grace,</p>
<p>I plan on transferring to UChicago but I have an misdemeanor (possession or use of alcohol under the age of 21). It its the only thing on my record and it has happened only one time. Does UChicago look down on this? (Btw I have a 4.0 from a top 20 usnews school, so basically my question is if I am a fit for Chicago will they reject me because of the misdemeanor?) </p>
<p>Thanks sooo much Cause I am a little worried about it lol.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I sent in my test scores and css profile from collegeboard to the school BEFORE I submitted my common app. Is that ok?</p>
<p>I have a question about scholarships. Is the University of Chicago still giving out full-tuition scholarships? If so, how many are awarded each year, and how are the recipients determined? Thank you!</p>
<p>@kt1993
its on the web site, 30 full tution scholarships per class and god knows how they choose. you will know if you apply and get it.</p>
<p>@PSAC or UChicago</p>
<p>I was a part of uChicago’s summer session. I’m applying EA; do I still need to send the transcript?</p>