Chance me for University of Chicago

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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I know… I hate these threads too but I am wondering if I should put all my eggs in one basket and apply to U of C early decision for anthropology. I’m currently a junior.

Grades-
100 weighted GPA, I’m in the top of my class but there’s like a good 50 people at my school ahead of me(about 700 in my grade, yikes). I come from a very competitive high school. I mostly struggle in tests and doing work. History and english are better than math and science.

Classes-
9th- AP World History, all honors in other classes
10th- AP World (it’s a two year course at my high school), AP Pysch, all other honors, women in history
11th- Pre-Calc AB, AP lang, APUSH, AP comp sci (singlehandedly bringing down my gpa lol), all other honors, US Middle East Relations and Criminal Justice
12th (projected, but pretty much set)- AP lit, AP stats, AP comparative, AP bio, AP italian, AP AB calc. Maybe like journalism or public speaking for fun

Tests-
34 on ACT (33 math & science, 35 reading, 34 english), 8 on essay
1530 superscored SAT (1490 not superscored), 800 math, 730 english

Everything else-
I have been working as a waitress/hostess for 2 years
Fundraising to build a school in Malawi
Have a penpal in Kenya, fundraise for his education
Solo organized the 30 hr famine event at my church for three years since I was 13, raised $10,000
Skype tutor a student in Jordan, help with his english
Varsity winter track, spring track and XC for 3 years
Some community service awards

Circumstances
< $90k (may seem like a lot of money but I live in a wealthy area and we can’t sell my house so taxes are veryyy high)
Single mom, one of 3 siblings (middle child, one in college)
My parent’s divorce was really bad, my mom lost all of her investments and my dad went to jail. My mom now has full custody and I haven’t spoke to my fathwe in 8 years.

Hope this is enough information! I know my GPA is a little weak but hopefully my community service and standardized tests make up for it! I don’t know about my essays yet, maybe something about reclaiming my body (sexual abuse, catcalling, creepy guys touching me, etc.). Idk about Why U of C yet but I’ll figure something out. Thanks so much!

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Big picture, your grades and test scores are good enough, though I worry a bit about class rank and your rigor both in comparison to your classmates (simply because I really know nothing about your school). Your ECs are probably fine, but it will depend on how you describe them—I read your short description and figure I am looking at a kid who has to work, who plays a varsity sport (which sucks up time as well), and otherwise seems to devote herself to community service type activities. That is a nice picture. Superficially, that can sound less impressive than an applicant in eight clubs and four leadership positions, but my guess is that you do not have the time between work, sports, and school to add anything else, unlike the kid who doesn’t have to work and who doesn’t play a sport. Just make sure your descriptions on the App and your essays and/or teacher/counselor recs make that clear.

Go have a frank talk with your counselor and ask two specific questions: (1) whether your course schedule qualifies as “most rigorous” in comparison with your peers, or whether the counselor believes yours is merely very good; and (2) how your GPA stacks up—being 50/700 is fine if all of you are bunched together at the top, but if there is a wide spread among you that may not be as great though being top 10% is still very good. Also ask your counselor for assistance converting your weighted school GPA into the traditional 4.0 unweighted scale, not because you are required to in any way but just because it will help you in doing research and evaluating yourself against the competition on websites like this and the common data sets of the various schools.

Chicago, like any of the “top 20” schools, is a crapshoot due to the sheer number of reasonably-qualified applicants per spot at these schools. You are in the competitive range, but that is about all anyone can say. In the past, people could evaluate an applicant to Chicago by looking for certain traits of quirky intellectualism, but the school has purposefully been moving away from this in admissions the last few years (letting in more athletes, more artsy types, etc., like standard HYPS), so it is harder and harder to make that evaluation.

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For UG application purpose, your Unweighted GPA is the only gauge for adcoms.