Ask away- it's UChicago Prospective Students Advisory Committee

<p>Grace, i was planning on applying EA, but i’m having some misgivings. Stacked against the stiffer early action crowd of applicants, will my application be more likely to get rejected than if i had applied regular decision with a more generic demographic, or is it more common for EA applicants to just be deferred to RD?</p>

<p>Thanks Grace for the help! I finally got my essay to about 700 words, and I think I’m almost done with it. I just didn’t want the limit to be double spaced and be way over.</p>

<p>Guys- thanks for all of your great questions so far! To the last few- I don’t have answers to these questions. Remember, I am not an admissions counselor, and am also not on College Confidential to give you super secret insider knowledge- if you’re interested in statistics, definitely have a look at our website or at various rankings websites (sometimes they have it more together in the stats department than we do!), but if you’re interested in your chances, I can’t help you. Remember that UChicago uses a holistic review process, so your class rank, GPA status, scores, etc etc etc are not the ONLY part of your application- just one of many parts your admissions counselor is looking forward to seeing.
Keep the awesome questions coming, though, and remember that I’m always around to clear up things that are confusing, or to talk about programs or aspects of student life on campus.</p>

<p>I have another question - the common application only has a space either an extended resume or a supplement. I plan to submit both a resume and a supplicant (an abstract for independent research). Will both of these documents be looked at, and is this permitted? Thank you so much in advance!</p>

<p>Did not realize that you could do that - is it okay if I submit a supplemental essay that I have written that is >2000 characters (a tad over 4000 so ~1 page single spaced) for the additional information section on the common app?</p>

<p>uchicagopsac-</p>

<p>How long does it take for chicago to send an account? I’m applying for financial aid and have not applied to chicago yet. If i send my common app on October 29th, will I be able to receive an account for financial aid by the november 2nd financial aid deadline? Do I have to submit both the common app and the supplement before Chicago sends me an account or does the school send one when I submit the common app only.</p>

<p>Also the reason why I am waiting for October 29th is because I am waiting for my SAT 1 score results. I know I can leave the score section blank but would it look odd considering that Chicago will receive my scores a week or two after October 29th?</p>

<p>concerning financial aid.</p>

<p>am i correct in saying that i need to submit both my commonapp and my supplement before able to fill out my financial aid supplement?</p>

<p>If I’m a Questbridge finalist and I don’t rank Chicago as one of my top 8 choices (in fact, I ranked none) but apply for EA anyway, do I qualify for a waiver?</p>

<p>Thanks for your answers, Grace!
Another question: I would really like to elaborate on one of my extracurricular clubs, but the short answer portion in the Common App designed for this purpose asks to limit the answer to 150 words. I understand the importance of being concise, but I am really passionate about this extracurricular, and would like to adequately communicate that. Would it be detrimental if I go over the word limit and put down about 250 words? Anything short of this would most likely not be able to express the meaning and importance that I wish to convey.</p>

<p>are you guys double spacing or no?</p>

<p>UChicagoPSAC - do you know when application status information (i.e. receipt of various parts of the application) will be posted on the Chicago account for RD students? My senior’s account still says “eventually, you will be able to check the status of your application and admission decision through your account.” Thanks.</p>

<p>A-punk: try putting in your 250 words and then do the PDF preview (print preview) at the end of the application. Chances are some of it will be cut off. In other words, if you put in more words than what fits, the admissions officers will not even see the entire essay. I only had 150 words but because of my frequent paragraph breaks, it still didn’t fit. I had to combine some paragraphs to make my 150 words fit in the space provided on the print-out.</p>

<p>Some schools want AP scores sent by college board, others just want it to be self reported. I believe Chicago wants it self reported. Can you please confirm the policy when applying for admission (not after being admitted for waiver). Thanks</p>

<p>I’ve got so much to tell why Uchicago is my perfect. But it only requiers a one-to-two paragraphy essay, can I extend it to 4 or 5?</p>

<p>on the common application, there’s this box asking us if we want to apply for a merit scholarship. just to check: is this merit scholarship is open to ALL applicants, and is independent of financial aid?
ie. if i’m an international applicant, can i be considered as well, without my application being read in a more selective process?</p>

<p>thanks grace or whoever’s answering this! much appreciated.</p>

<p>On October SAT deadlines- as long as you designate Chicago as a recipient of your scores, it is OK to send in an application without your new October scores if you had planned on using those scores. So, go ahead and submit your application when you are done to get financial aid forms ready, and just make sure you’re sending your SAT scores in when they come out- no need to wait to submit the application until scores come out. You do NOT need to rush send these scores.</p>

<p>On essay length (FOR EVERYONE… OH MAN SO MANY QUESTIONS ON ESSAY LENGTH!!)- try to keep them to 1-2 pages, or around 500 words for the longer essays, double spacing doesn’t matter. On the short response, 1-2 paragraphs is fine- these should not be as long as your other essays (if you need to get them a little bit longer, do it if it makes sense to do so- see why below). The Common App has a character limit on the essays you can upload there, so you’re restricted in that way- our supplement (to my knowledge) does not, but just be nice to your admissions counselor and try to keep it to that length. If you need to go over, go over, but evaluate why and do some editing before sending in a 10-pager- ask yourself, “is all of this relevant? does this all say something new about me?”</p>

<p>On applying for merit scholarships- all you need to do is check the box saying “I would like to be considered for merit scholarships”. These are for the $10k/year University Scholarships (about 100 per year) and the full tuition College Honors Scholarships (about 20 per year). Merit scholarships are independent to financial aid and are open to all first year applicants, both international and domestic- unfortunately transfer students are not eligible for merit aid. There are also a few other scholarships available to CPS students and to the children of active duty Chicago police officers or firefighters. Information about those and about National Merit scholarships can be found here: <a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/scholarships.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/scholarships.shtml&lt;/a&gt;
The Odyssey Scholarship (which you may have heard of) is NOT a merit scholarship, and is part of a financial aid package for eligible students- Odyssey grant funds are made available through financial aid, and so applying for financial aid is your key to possible inclusion of Odyssey funds- see here for more info: [Office</a> of College Aid](<a href=“http://collegeaid.uchicago.edu/faq.shtml]Office”>http://collegeaid.uchicago.edu/faq.shtml)</p>

<p>I guess I’ll reiterate this question (I’m really concerned and curious about this last-minute issue! sorry for being so impatient) - the common application only has a space either an extended resume or a supplement. I plan to submit both a resume (via mail) and a supplement (an abstract for independent research) on the commonapp. Will both of these documents be looked at, and is this permitted?</p>

<p>D is applying EA. For D’s school, 1st quarter ends in early November. Does Chicago require that the 1st Quarter grades be sent for EA or is the transcript for grades 9-11 sufficient?</p>