Do you want to continue Viola in college? Is your level high enough that you can play in a high level college orchestra> Can you meet the music faculty at the college that you ED and submit a music supplement? Viola may help if any of this is a possibility (except at U Michigan where there is a music school). Stanford definitely loves musicians.
Oh please. U Mich is a HUGE university. There are plenty of people who go there who are not from your high school or even your state.
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To be quantitative: letās say that your high school is really large, 4,000 students. You will know/be acquainted with/have heard of maybe 1,000-1,500. U Mich has over 32,000 students, and half of them are from out of state. Considering that the GPAs and ACTs/SATs of incoming Michigan schools, it would be unlikely that more than 10% of the students in your graduating class would be attending Michigan (the stats of incoming students would match the top 10%-15% of your graduating class, and many would not attend Michigan).
So, of those 32,000 students, no more than 150 would be from your class, and no more than 600 would be from your school from any age. So fewer than 2% of University of Michigan undergraduates will be people that you could know from high school.
My kidās high school was considered pretty decent, and the acceptance rate to our flagship was higher than Michigan, and even higher from my kidās high school. It was also the most popular choice, and very popular among state residents. Of the 950 or so kids who graduated each year from my kidās school, 90-120 students ended up attending the flagship.
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Even so, I am still incredibly lukewarm to the likelihood of going here.
My take on UChicago is that the essays really matter. We went to an accepted students event for class of 2027 (my son is accepted) and the admissions rep who hosted the event talked about reading all the essays and the kinds of inspiring originality in the applicant pool. So, avoid common topics, reveal thyself. What are your most important personal values or traits? How can you show a vulnerable human side (ie. the assignment is not to be impressive all the time)? What insights do you come to in your essay? How is your essay crafted? The essays are your chance to let the reader know you and understand how you are a fit for UChicago. Donāt just tell them what you have done - show them who you are.
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Fair- but it is important to recognize that that is as much about pride as anything more quantitative or objective:
I get it: your brother got into UChicago. You (and most likely your parents) expect you to do just as well as he did (and if you are anything like my brothers a little part of you would love to get a ābetterā name than your brother!). You have clearly worked very very hard to build a strong college application: good grades? check. Good rigor? check. Good test scores? check. Community service? check. Art & music? check. Leadership? check. Team sport? check.
You have checked every box, and you have the gold stars to prove it. So my suggestion to you is to shift your focus from trying to āwinā college admissions and try to do some genuine introspection. This is likely to be harder than you think.
Right now you have a short term goal- getting into a school with a name you & your family rate as higher than UChicago. You possibly have a longer term goal (at a guess getting into IB at one of the big names & making a lot of money), but whatever it is, spend some time thinking about that. WHY do you want to do that for the next 40-50 years of your life? What does your life look like at 30/40/50/60? who else is in it? what are your goals? Is music still a part of your life, or something you shed as soon as you get into the name-brand college? what about art, sport, community involvement- do they stay part of your life? In what ways does the life you plan to build resemble the life your parents built- and in what ways does it differ? Spend some real time playing these things out in your head.
Then come back and look at the next four years of your life. You note that Stanford and Columbia are your top choices- why? Why Columbia and not Wharton, why Stanford and not Princeton? There is no meaningful difference in prestige, so what has drawn you more to one than the other? Think about what specific factors are pulling you.
And then come back to all the activities you are doing now. Which one(s) has/have given you real satisfaction- and what made it/them particularly satisfying? Which ones showed you something you want more of - or (equally important!) less of?
Finally, bring it all together: what have you learned about yourself- through your activities, through thinking about what is important to you, where you want to go, etc. Who the person is behind the stats & gold stars. Collegedad would say you have 4 super cards in a hand of poker- but you need that last card to bring them all together to make a winning hand. Good luck.
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