Chance at UChicago? Low Gpa/High SAT

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello, after reading/asking friends in various colleges about their respective college, I've come to the conclusion that UChicago (culturally speaking) is my best fit. Also, I'd like to run track/cross country for them. (I'm applying EA) Problem is- KILLER GPA</p>

<p>UW GPA- About 3.1, potentially 3.15 (It's still summer break so the last time I've seen my transcript is middle of junior year)
WGPA- Something between 3.45 and 3.5 (school doesn't weight but I went through my transcripts and I think I came up with a pretty close estimate).
I have an upward trend going approximately: 9th uwgpa-2.8/3.1w 10th uwgpa-3/3.4w 11th uwgpa3.3/3.7w. Also, I'm in the top quintile of class of 363 in a decent public school.</p>

<p>Onwards, I'm not a consistent B student, I've gotten C's in classes that are considered relatively easy (such as chem/bio) because I simply didn't care, while getting A's in harder classes such as APush or APwh because I was genuinely interested. So I figure I'll dedicate a big portion of my essay describing why there was an achievement gap between classes. </p>

<p>I've taken all honors/ap except for one enriched class. AP classes/ scores/senior year schedule as follows Senior Year Schedule- AP Micro, AP Latin, AP Lit, AB Calc
Ap US Gov-4 AP Comparative Gov, and AP Euro
APUSH-4
APWH-4
AP macro-4
AP lang (didn't take class)-4</p>

<p>SAT's -720cr/730m/720w SAT II's- Math 2-710 Lit-700</p>

<p>Also, I'd like to run for them. I'm a 4x varsity xc guy, 2x varsity indoor track, 3x varsity outdoor. I think I'd do well on their team and I'll be talking to their coach(either way I don't think running for their team has an affect on the application) </p>

<p>Finally- I have the random and awards and not like the AP scholar awards yadayada, but unique potentially attractive things- I'm born in Romania, Romanian being my first language (I had to take the toefl so I suppose I'm a urm?). I've taught Sunday School at my Romanian church for about 4 years.</p>

<p>So do you with good recommendations/a good essay I'd have a reasonable chance getting in? Oh and P.S. if I'm taking the SAT's in October, do you guys think I should shoot for 2250+ I think I could get, or try to fix my SAT II's?</p>

<p>THANK YOU SO MUCH!</p>

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<p>oops meant random awards LIKE* ap scholar with distinction yadada</p>

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<p>UChicago ain’t happening with those grades and class rank.</p>

4

<p>If you’re a recruited athlete, you may have a chance. Although I don’t know how much weight Chicago puts on recruits compared to DI schools.</p>

<p>Without some other major hook though, cortana is correct, you have very little chance.</p>

5

<p>I am sorry to say no, UChicago is extremely unrealistic with anything lower then a 3.7+. The only way would be if you had a legitimate excuse (not you didn’t feel like doing work), such as a long-term illness. That being said there are plenty of other LACs and you can probably find one that is more realistic that you like.</p>

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<p>Even if you had like a 4.0 gpa, I would still say that its near impossible. This is because you literally don’t have any extracurricular activities besides running, and if you’re not like 1-10 in your state, I don’t think you have much chance of being recruited. sorry.</p>

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<p>They’re d3. Not very many d3 schools get kids ranked better than 20th in the state, let alone UChicago, which is not known for it’s amazing running program. And seeing how I was around 30th in the state last year as a junior when many of the people ahead of me were seniors, being “good enough” for them isn’t my primary concern. Thanks though coach</p>

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<p>Right, but Uchicago is a very competitive school, one of the most sought out in the nation after ivy leagues, MIT, Stanford, etc. They basically get the athletes that trickle down, if I’m not mistaken. So the question is, why would Uchicago want a subpar runner when they could get better ones with higher GPAs and other extracurricular activities? You say that it isn’t your concern to be “good enough” for Uchicago, but in reality, that should be of utmost concern, because its your only extracurricular, even more so since you have a subpar gpa. Basically your only chance is to get recruited, even though Uchicago is known for being ridiculously holistic. I apologize if Im coming off as offensive, but Im just repeating whats been said over and over again in this post. If you want to get into Uchicago, you should concentrate on doing well your 1st semester of senior year, getting some more community involvement (don’t start new activities, relate it to your running) and writing your essays. Uchicago apparently puts a ridiculous weight on the statements.</p>

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<p>Well, I agree with the last half of that. I definitely need to focus on essays/first half of senior year, but I do have EC’s I didn’t talk about for the sake of brevity, but they definitely won’t be more impressive than sports. Also I have at least 500 hours of community service teaching Sunday School + my urm status. I definitely have a subpar gpa, but I wouldn’t consider my self a subpar runner seeing as my junior year times would place around the top third of their team.</p>

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<p>URM status? Romanian doesn’t count. Even if you are black or hispanic you still wouldn’t have really any chance. Competition among URMs is becoming tougher and tougher every year.</p>

<p>500 community service hours is good but not outstanding enough to ‘save’ your application</p>

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<p>That GPA is not getting you into UChicago (they have applicants with your SAT scores with like a 4.7 gpa), and unless you’re a star athlete I would say they really don’t care. Also it seemed like you wanted to explain your grade gap by saying you weren’t interested in chem/bio and that’s why you did poorly…DO NOT do that, neither for this college nor any others, it makes you sound lazy.</p>

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<p>Your GPA gap is too great for UChicago that even with being a URM (which I don’t think you are, since Romanian is not an URM) and your ECs you won’t get in. If you had like a 3.5 and those stats maybe, but still probably not, but the fact is your grades are unrealistically low. I know people with 4.0s and better ECs that have been rejected by UChicago, it is beyond competitive.</p>

13

<p>I am sorry but I do not see UChicago in your future.</p>