<p>People always give their GPA on here when they should give their class rank, that’s what the colleges are looking at unless you come from a school that doesn’t rank. But if you’re school ranks and you are in the top 10% that is the only metric they are looking for, you’d be surprised.</p>
<p>Also, @Oph3licat, I’d highly suggest applying everywhere in the top 20. It is getting insanely competitive and if you don’t get in as a freshman, you’ll be in my shoes with a 4.0 and 60 credits still trying to get in somewhere good. Take my advice on this one.</p>
<p>@PSC2IVY umm with my weighted gpa I’m pretty sure I am in the top 10%. Also thanks for the suggestion but not sure if I have the time and money to apply for 20+ schools haha. Plus I’m not interested in all of the top 20 schools</p>
<p>Spend the extra money and apply anyway because you never know if you’ll like a school later on.</p>
<p>@CollegeGoer789, University of Chicago is ranked highly because it is one of the best universities in the world, not just because of the test scores of its students. </p>
<p>Um - the USNWR rankings (the most popular rankings site) uses several variables to determine rankings. One of the main ones being the number of students in the University that were top 10% in high school along with test scores. You cannot quantify a university ranking by saying “best university in the world” unless you mean Nobel Prizes, Research etc., and in that regard USNWR does not bring Nobel Prizes or Research into the equation when determining undergrad rankings.</p>
<p>@CollegeGoer789, I know what goes into the rankings. What I am saying is that Chicago does not need to be that concerned with rankings because it already has a reputation for excellence. Chicago is right up there with the Ivys and other top schools. You shouldn’t underestimate Chicago. They didn’t have as many applicants in the past because of its reputation of being a very tough school. However, a lot of that has changed and the environment has become much friendlier.</p>
<p>They get a lot of great math and science students who also have high test scores (a fair number of the math and science majors I know from Penn were easily some of the smartest students on campus) because they are renowned for subjects like math and physics among others. This explains why it seems that accepted applicants have high test scores, a lot of students major in the sciences compared to other schools.</p>
<p>I see Chicago as a more intense and higher ranked version of CMU but not only Comp Science and STEM focused </p>