Care to debunk my Parchment prediction?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>On the Parchment service:</p>

<p>Without legacy: 30%
With legacy: 75% !!!!!
(my dad got his MBA with Booth)</p>

<p>Both numbers seem ludicrously high. Without getting into the details of that service, please give the the cold, hard truth: what is my chance, and how much does legacy really factor in? Thanks!</p>

<hr>

<p>ACT: 35 ........ English - 34, Reading - 36, Math - 33, Science - 35</p>

<p>GPA: 3.641 (unweighted), 4.456 (weighted). I'm not ecstatic about my unweighted.</p>

<p>School rigor: Ranked #5 in my state, just outside top 100 nationally (it's public).</p>

<p>Course load:
Honors - 6 classes (fresh/soph)
AP - 8 classes..............Calc BC (4), Lang/Comp (5), Physics B (4) Junior Year.
Psych, Lit/Comp, Physics C, and Stats.
Calc A sophomore year.</p>

<p>One particular honors course was a 3 semester Critical Thinking class. I had to qualify by taking the Watson-Glaser, and I did multiple extended-length projects. The two most notable were the Toshiba Exploravision competition (Alzheimer's and the blood-brain barrier+nanotechnology). The second, I think, could be a big sell for me. It was a semester-long personal project, and mine was analyzing whether media piracy was beneficial or detrimental to different types of business entities, and based on my conclusions, determine a guideline for future legislation. My mentor for this was Professor Michael D. Smith of Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business - he provided research and data, and guided my area of focus.</p>

<p>I'm hoping that my courses help with admission because of the number of major-related classes I've taken. Business Explorations, Consumers' Ed (1 semester), Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, and Econ/Govt.</p>

<p>Essays: Supplements are fantastic (9/10), and common app is great too (7.5-8). No word on recs yet.</p>

<p>EC's:
I'm heavily involved with my church (Lutheran). I'm on the student ministry's leadership team, which plans the curriculum for the high school students, and leads the night occasionally. I present announcements each night (5-10 minutes). I was nominated by team members to join. Last year, we founded a service-dedicated team to coordinate/plan serving opportunities for the ministry and increase the overall level of volunteering.</p>

<p>I've also been on two 10 day mission trips, and done various serving camps and vacation bible school work. Other service like repairing computers for a Haitian computer school and acolyting. About 250-300 hours.</p>

<p>Freshman advisory program: I'm a co-mentor to about ~20 freshman for academics, social issues, and acclimation to HS. We meet half an hour daily.</p>

<p>HS and Club soccer: Injured this year, now the captain of JV2 team. Won the state cup at my team's level this year for club. I've played club since 1st grade.</p>

<p>Guitar: started as a junior, practice ~1.5 hrs a day, about 700 hours of practice/study so far.</p>

<p>National Honor Society - senior year Could end up on a couple boards/teams.</p>

2

<p>Honestly, given your information, I’d say you have pretty good chances. 75% is a bit optimistic, but it’s well known that Chicago is trying to build a more dedicated alumni base, and admitting more legacies likely occupies a part of this plan. (How much, though, is anyone’s guess.)</p>

<p>Chicago is still a low reach for you though, as it is for virtually anyone, and note that Chicago’s admit rate will likely be 2-3 percentage points lower next admissions cycle as well. If you exhibit your passion enough in your essays, you should stand a pretty good shot. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thanks!</p>

4

<p>I think you should be a pretty solid applicant. The only think that might stand out might be a slightly low GPA, but I think you compensate for that with class rigor, which UChicago prefers to emphasize anyway. As long as your essays are good as you say, I think you should have a solid chance. As Phuriku said, Chicago is trying to build a strong alumni base. Regardless, you never know with hyper selective schools…</p>

5

<p>Parchment’s prediction service is kind of a train wreck. I have the same SAT/ACT scores, slightly higher GPA at a non-competitive school, and didn’t put any Extracurriculars on my Parchment account and it said I have a 70% chance. No legacy status either</p>

6

<p>@arpeggios‌ youre getting in.</p>