<p>All right, I'll just lay out my cards - I do not have straight A's. My transcript is littered with B's, though my junior year grades are substantially better than my freshman/sophomore ones. </p>
<p>So though I have a very small chance of getting in, I still want to apply, because I love U of Chicago - the city, advocacy of intellectual exploration over pre-professionalism, etc. </p>
<p>I know grades are an extremely important indicator for U of Chicago, but is there anything else I can emphasize to give me a bit of a hook? Sports? Do you think an utter adoration for UofCh + great essays would be enough? Any tips would be helpful, thank you.</p>
<p>S1 was admitted with a 3.46 GPA. How rigorous of a curriculum did you take? That means a lot at Chicago. But, as has been said before, past practices may not predict future admissions behavior, there is a new sheriff in town.</p>
<p>idad’s right – the courses you take put the GPA in context. My current Chicago student had a healthy scattering of Bs, but a wicked tough schedule.</p>
<p>I do crew and fencing, but after looking up the website it seems that UofCh doesn’t have these sports. </p>
<p>Thanks for the unhelpful reply, Highlander. Of course the answer is yes for any college, but I was hoping for more insight. Btw, my school does have a solid history of sending kids to good schools - mostly liberal arts - but how significantly does that weigh? I asked this question in particular because I looked up my school’s scatterplot history for UofCh, and it seems that anyone without a 4.0 seems to have been rejected.</p>
<p>It’s definitely helpful that your school gets some grads to top schools, because it means that your school is fairly good, so your lower GPA isn’t quite as detrimental. Despite your school’s scatter plot, I think you probably have a decent chance of acceptance if you effectively portray yourself as passionate and genuinely wanting to attend. I would try applying EA (unless you are going for an excellent first semester) because it may give you the slight push that you need. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Chicago has crew and fencing as club sports, I believe. Vibrant ones, too. But the coaches won’t carry any weight with the admissions staff (and they probably don’t even know who the coaches are). That doesn’t mean that the admissions staff might not take fencing into account as an interesting EC, but it’s not going to be a big factor.</p>
<p>On the scattergrams, how many kids have applied to Chicago? If there have been a fair number of applications and acceptances, it may mean something that Chicago seems to want very high grades from your school. (Sorry.) Or, maybe it just means that they haven’t seen a “Chicago kid” from your school yet who didn’t have great grades. Talk to your GC at school if you can and ask about it. </p>
<p>Even more important try to talk to the regional admissions rep. It’s a fair question to ask, even if you know the answer – I see on the scattergrams that Chicago has only accepted 4.0 students from my school, should I even bother applying? The rep is going to say of course apply, but that’s not the point. Make certain to introduce yourself, and to give the name of the school. Use the opportunity to market yourself and the quality of your school. Not heavyhandedly – make certain you can say what you need to say in 20-30 seconds, coherently, before you start – just enough so that they get the message that you’re really engaged, you’re really excited about the University, and you go to a good school where they may be inadvertently discouraging applicants. That’s how you try to turn lemons into lemonade.</p>
<p>Ditto with the sports. While JHS is absolutely right that the crew and fencing coaches are unlikely to help your case, the fact that you are engaged in two sports that have a “vibrant” presence on campus adds to your answer to why you’re right for Chicago and Chicago is right for you.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone for the articulate and thoughtful answers. If any of these posters reflect the UofCh student body as a whole, then I’m quite impressed.</p>