I’ve been thinking more and more lately about this. Can someone chance me for here to calm my nerves?
ACT: 31 SAT: 2030 GPA: 3.4 (at a good private school not too far from Chicago)
Accomplishments: NHS Member, soccer player (one-year varsity), silver dean’s list
I am a pretty good writer and I wrote my essay about how much I love to learn because of what I’ve heard about U of Chicago. What do you think?
For reference I am a white male.
I think that your ACT and EC’s are good, but not good enough to ensure acceptance from Chicago. Because the number of applicants is so great for UC, and because many of them have greater than a 31 on the ACT, your score will look weak, along with your EC’s currently. However, don’t be frustrated with a 31!! It’s a awesome score!!! I suggest getting at least a 33 on your next ACT and try to be well rounded with EC’s. Join theatre club or national art honors society, and do something that shows leadership. Become a student ambassador at your school, run for class president. Being in state will definitely help. Also, try taking as many IB or AP classes and do well in them, because that will help boost your GPA. GOOD LUCK!! 
Being in-state will not help with UChicago, because it’s a private school. There’s a lot missing from what you present. What’s your intended major? What kind of activities do you do outside of school (This list is pretty scarce)?
It’s good that you like writing and have aspirations to go to a great university such as UC, but you also need to face the facts that in your current situation getting accepted into a school this selective is a huge upward battle.
To be honest, unless you have a major hook it is very unlikely that you will be accepted. Your GPA is far too low, your ACT is below their average, and you have nothing outstanding in your EC’s to set you apart. If you are a junior, then you should certainly follow the advice above. However, there’s not much you can do if you have already submitted your application. I would suggest you look for schools in the 50% acceptance rate range.
Wow, don’t listen to @cc8912 at all. Seriously, he’s insanely wrong. With your stats, you could easily get into a college with a much lower acceptance rate than 50%. I honestly have no clue where he got that from (well this is college confidential and he’s an example of what can be awful about this website). I do have proof: I have much lower stats than you and got into a few colleges in the 30% acceptance range that are in the top 50 LACs.
@Hizeus I said 50% acceptance rate as he listed no EC’s. 50% is a comfortable range for a person with a 3.4 GPA and a good ACT score but with nothing else to back that up. That said, I did not say he can’t get into schools with a 30% acceptance rate, but those would likely be reaches for him. I apologize if my thoughts were inaccurate – I was just trying to be realistic.