Chance for UChicago EA; Brown, Cornell, JHU for RD

Applying to College
1

<p>I did some research and UChicago seems like the right place for me, especially the study-abroad program. But apparently it's becoming for prestigious every year (the EA % dropped from 30% to 20% in the last 2 years). I'm also looking at Brown, Cornell, and Johns Hopkins, but for Regular Decision. Could you tell me what my chances are from these stats if I apply EA? And if I don't have a chance at all, what other schools should I look at? Thanks!</p>

<p>Race: Asian
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted), 4.44 (weighted)
Class Rank: 3/210
ACT: 32 (33 superscored)
PSAT: 221
SAT: 2110 (760 MT, 700 WR, 650 CR)
SAT 2: Math 2-800, Biology M-790, Physics-740</p>

<p>AP Classes: Biology, Physics B, Physics C-Mechanics, English Language, US History, European History, Calculus AB and BC (All 5's)</p>

<p>Senior Schedule: AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, AP Environmental Science, AP English Literature, Orchestra, French 4, and Calculus 3 at local college</p>

<p>Extra-curricular/Volunteer/Work (not that great):
School and local youth orchestra all 4 years
All-state orchestra 2 years
Accepted but couldn't attended all-national orchestra
Played in 3 school musical pit orchestra, and conducted 1 community musical pit orchestra
1 year of Academic Decathlon, competed at E-Nationals
120 hours of volunteer through various organizations
Work at local tutoring center
Math team, won a few awards at conference (highest we could go) meet
A few JV sports, but didn't continue through high school
Treasurer of student council
Treasurer of Tri-M
Vice President of NHS</p>

<p>Awards (probably don't mean much):
National AP Scholar
Hopefully National Merit Semi-finalist</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

2

<p>Great List of schools! I think you are certainly a viable candidate for all those schools. The stats are good, and your ec’s are good (But not unbelievable), but don’t worry, i feel like most applicants don’t have amazing ec’s anyway. Chicago I guess is a low reach for you, I’d say you have a fairly decent if not good chance if you apply EA. JHU - probably a high match. The Ivies are a reach for everyone, but definitely apply. I am applying to JHU and Brown as well, and will probably apply to Brown ED. I have similar stats as you (2140 SAT, Top 2-3% of class, 4.0GPA, etc). Finally I would recommend you take the SAT once more, a 2100+ is a good score, but a 2200+ is a great score for Ivies. Iplan on taking the SAT once more. Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>Thank you for your feedback!
I’m wondering which score to submit, ACT or SAT? For Chicago at least, the ACT range (30-34) seems lower than the SAT range (1400-1530) in comparison. And also, Chicago doesn’t “require” SAT subjects, but does that mean if I do submit those scores, they will completely ignore them (they seem like the highlights of my profile)?</p>

4

<p>UChicago will give “some” consideration to subject scores if sent. Nevertheless, you should understand that UChicago, unlike many, consider test scores to be of lower importance than the combination of grades, course difficulty, essays, and ECs which help define you as an ideal candudate for UChicago (for example, your ECs including music ECs will help with UChicago) You should note that none of the schools you mention superscore ACT. They will use that test with highest composite. They all superscore SAT.</p>

<p>For Cornell, you must send all SAT and SAT II scores, and all ACT scores if you choose to send any ACT. For Brown, it accepts ACT in lieu of both SAT and SAT IIs and considers those blocks separately; thus if you send ACT, it will consider it, if you send SAT and the the SAT IIs it will consider those (note it uses two highest SAT IIs if you send more than two), but if you send ACT plus SAT IIs it will consider only the ACT because the SAT IIs are part of the SAT package; if you send all scores Brown will use that which it thinks is better for you, SAT plus the SAT IIs or alternatively the ACT.</p>

<p>Since your actual ACT is 32, I would likely just send all your scores to all those schools and let them decide which they believe is more favorable for you.</p>

5

<p>I have a question about GPA and class rank. My school gives me the choice to not report class rank and just have the GPA appear on the transcript. Do you think it would be better to just have my GPA or have both my GPA and class rank (which I think doesn’t accurately reflect my school work because I have straight A’s…no. 1 and 2 simply could fit more AP classes in their schedule) on my transcript?</p>

6

<p>Most schools want to know your rank, and if it really is number 3, that is certainly only going to help you. Report it. :)</p>