Chance "Me" ED UChicago with possibly mediocre essays

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

Hi, this is the parent asking for feedback.

Academically competitive senior student with decent ECs, and probably strong LORs. However, I personally think my D20s UChicago essays are just okay. She thinks they are great and she likes them so I guess it is all subjective. BUT if I am correct and they are just viewed as average essays, how much of an impact do you think they will play into the admissions decision? They do display some of her personality.

Here are her stats:
White, suburban female
Upper middle-class
4.0UW/4.667W
Class Rank- 2/433
ACT Composite- 35
NMSF- PSAT 1500
Subject Tests- Physics 740, Chemistry 770, Math II 750
15 APs- Chem (5), Physics I (4), Physics II (tbd), Comp Sci Princ (5), Comp Sci A (4), English Lang (A), English Lit (tbd), Human Geo (5), Euro Hist (5), US Hist (5), US Govt (tbd), MicroEcon (tbd), Calculus BC (tbd), French (tbd), Psych (tbd)
National AP Scholar
National French Language Placement- 2nd year national rank 4, 3rd year national rank 13.
Varsity Tennis 9-12
Cello- played since she was in 3rd grade, All West, All State, local Youth Symphony, private lessons weekly, also was an instructor to two beginner students for 1 1/2 years.
Co-Founder and Instructor for a coding program teaching Scratch to under-privileged, inner-city Memphis students. Summer program 3 hours twice a week and will continue second semester in her senior year.
TN Governor’s School- Residential, 5 week summer program at ETSU studying Biology & Statistics. 7 college level credits given.
Duke TIP- Residential, 3 week summer program. Attended two summers and studied Chemical & Biological Sciences & Nuclear Science.
Plus a lot of other clubs such as NHS, NFS, Beta, French Club (president), etc.

She is applying ED. She attends a top 10 TN public school per the US News Rankings (top 5% nationally) and really wants to experience this level of academic caliber. As an FYI, Duke TIP has been one of her all time favorite activities. We all know that this school is a reach and we are prepared for her to get deferred most likely. The good news is she has been accepted to her safety- University of Alabama which should be a Full Ride:).

Thanks for your feedback and I cannot wait for this to be over!!!

2

Clearly her application is strong overall, and she’s off to a great start with the NMF full ride at 'Bama. ED would be the best choice for maximizing chances of applicants who are great fits and really want to be there. Does she have a compelling reason for applying to UChicago as first choice, and has she described that in her Why UChicago essay? That’s going to help her chances a lot.

One metric for determining quality might be whether she borrowed from other application essays to write them? If yes, then there is nothing distinct about UChicago. If no, then they are probably at least OK and probably very good after all (even if the parent is worried :blush: )

Two more things to consider: 1) she should definitely do the 2 min. video as well. My son chose something from his application that he hadn’t written about or touched on (if that’s a helpful guide), but she should do whatever she wants with this part. 2) If she loves her essays, that is what matters most. This is her voice, after all.

3

“She thinks they are great and she likes them”

At a certain point you need to back off and let them do what they think is best. If she loves her essay and there are no glowing grammatical errors, let her submit it as it will be authentic and in her 17 year old voice.

Have faith in her…and give her emotional support…she sounds like a great kid.

4

I don’t really comment on “Chance Me” threads because I think CC comments are very subjective, and I think that the essays do matter a lot because they round out what is missing in the application. (which means take my comment with a grain of salt too)

That said, your kid’s profile checks all the boxes and is competitive.

In my opinion, essays do not have to be written by the next Mark Twain, they only have to be written by a smart high school student. For your D, I think that the main value of her essays would be to complement the rest of the application by presenting a clear picture of who your D is and why going to UChicago will either be be a transformative experience for her or a perfect fit for what she wants to become. There are other things that the essays have to do like convey that the school would be a top choice if she were admitted but she does not need to do that since she is applying ED. The other purpose, I think, is to convey personal style, cultural fit, intellectual promise, and intellectual curiosity, but she may not need to do a lot of stretching to show that since her ECs and grades already do and you did say that her LORs would potentially be great.

One suggestion: have a non-parent, like a mentor, godparent, grandma, or uncle read the essays and ask them if these essays are missing any of the stuff I mentioned above. And then maybe tweak the essays based on those?

5

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I have been very positive towards my Ds writing. I have not expressed to her that I think they are average. I have always thought that her past writings for school have been phenomenal. I personally think she is a gifted writer, so when she asked me what I thought, I said they were good because I didn’t want to negatively influence her.

Before she began the application process I told her I was not going to critique her essays (other than grammar/spelling) because I wanted it to be all her. I do make an occasional suggestion and I proofread them. Her common app essay was reviewed by her English teacher who offered some minor tweeking. She has shown her one of her UChicago essays to one of her classmates who also is a top student. He thought it was just okay. I think I will suggest she share these two essays with her English teacher as well. She says he has relatives including himself who have gotten into Harvard and a couple of the other “elite” schools.

She touched upon many of the reasons she thinks UChicago is special and a good fit. Her “uncommon” essay is not a regurgitation of any past essays as far as I am aware. It is an original writing and it does have a GREAT ending. It’s just all the rest that I am concerned about. Oh well. She really does like it and she is a different generation than me so I have to have faith in her choices. I have told her if she is meant to go to UChicago it will happen. If not, she can hopefully enjoy receiving other fabulous acceptances from other great academic institutions.

Yes, she plans on doing the two-minute video. I think she will nail that!

All the best to everyone applying and I appreciate all the insight provided from past alumni and current students.

6

“I have told her if she is meant to go to UChicago it will happen. If not, she can hopefully enjoy receiving other fabulous acceptances from other great academic institutions.”

-Bingo. She seems like a very strong contender for a top school and competitive for UChi based on what you have posted. She will land somewhere great regardless of how it all turns out.

Good luck to her!

7

I’ll add one thing - that the consensus of my DD UChicago’s roommates was that the essay she wrote entirely by herself without any editing by anyone (including myself)and that was obviously written by a teenager was the one that put her over the top in admissions. I could see how a female AO could not only relate to it but find it quite humorous. Frankly I had to read it about 10 times to see how truly intricate it was (which I missed on the first couple of times I read it). Parents may see things a little differently then AO’s, many whom are recent graduates of UChicago.

8

I thought my son’s essays were average as well, especially his common app. He did not make any forced attempts to be clever, overly-funny, or artistic, as it wasn’t appropriate for his topics. However, for his Chicago essays, he was able to articulate and verbalize who he is, and I think that had a lot to do with it.

We were also hesitant to edit his essays too much, other than for grammar and punctuation, for fear of taking out his voice. Luckily, we realized this early in the process after my husband hacked it up. I say ‘hacked’ because after H was done, though well-written, it totally sounded like an interoffice memo, devoid of any personality. We found that hilarious, but that put the fear in us, and after that first day, we never edit any essays again. (We did proofread of course.)

Your D’s profile looks amazing, and I’m pretty sure no matter where she decides to attend, she’ll continue to shine.

9

This is my opinion, and I’m no expert on admissions, just a father who has 100% success rate (n=1) on advising a recent applicant through the process to admission.

I believe that the Essay is the most important part of the UChicago application (maybe LORs are close, as is the optional video) when everything else has to get you looked at. In the old golf adage, “Drive for show, put for dough.” The essay is the “put” of the application. The points mentioned above are why. It has to be UChicago specific. It has to be original from the applicant in the applicant’s voice.

The reason is that most people who apply are going to have great GPAs, strength of schedule, those that submit will have great test scores. The essays, LORs, and video give you a chance to show the AO that “You+UChicago=World a Better Place.”

If it is your first choice they have to be great and written only for UChicago, and written by the applicant. If you read many of the previous threads on this topic from years past, you’ll find quite a few examples of future UChicago students who wrote their essay in the minutes (hours probably) prior to the deadline. Not a ton of review/revisions by “experts” etc.

10

Ohhhh @brianboiler clearly you do not play golf, it’s putt, not put. :wink:

11

I thought he meant a type of option (put vs call).

12

@JBStillFlying as well you would being a graduate of UChicago’s GSB. ?

13

It seems @JBStillflying , with two kids at UChicago, has figured out the put thing. No one has figured out the putt thing.

14

I like that adage… Drive for show, putt for dough.

15

I’m an engineer, not a spelling bee champ.

16

@BrianBoiler well I figured either engineer or doctor…more likely engineer since doctors play a lot of golf.

17

“Put for dough” : I immediately think about delta, gamma and vega and then I stop myself. Maybe that is not what BB means :wink:

18

My parents thought my essays were just okay. I had similar test scores and GPA, etc, etc. I got in ED2. I think she’ll be fine; let her express her own voice in the essays.