Chance me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>I'm a rising senior at a public school in the Chicagoland area. I'm Asian, female, and my parents are both employed. I plan to apply to UChicago early admission.</p>

<p>ACT: 35 (36 math, 35 English, 34 reading, 35 science, 11 essay)
SAT II: 800 Math II, plan on taking Chemistry and French on the first of October, and I'm fairly sure I will score in the mid to high 700's on both.
(PSAT: 230, if that gives you a good marker of what my SAT scores will be like.)
Unweighted GPA: above 3.9
Weighted GPA: 4.62
Class rank: 3rd out of approximately 740 students</p>

<p>Classes taken freshman year: honors biology (A), world history (A), French I (A), honors algebra II and trigonometry (B), honors English (B, A)
Classes taken sophomore year: college algebra and trigonometry (A), honors English (A), AP US History (A), honors chemistry (A), French II (A)
Classes taken junior year: AP English composition (A), AP calculus AB (A), honors French III, AP chemistry (A), AP European History (A)
Senior year schedule: AP English literature, AP statistics, AP French, AP biology, AP psychology, AP microeconomics
All years included a physical education requirement (health and driver's ed during sophomore year), and choir.</p>

<p>I also took a psychology class at the community college between my freshman and sophomore years (A), and took high school physics but did not opt to put it in my transcript because it would have lowered my class rank (also an A).</p>

<p>AP scores: AP Chemistry - 4, AP English composition - 5, AP calculus AB - 5, AP Euro - 3</p>

<p>Extracurricular activities: speech team (freshman year), math team (sophomore through senior years), badminton (all four years, varsity sophomore through senior years, will likely be captain this year), select choir groups (all four years). I also plan to join a finance/economics club that is being formed this year.</p>

<p>Volunteer experiences: assisting at a senior day center (commuting got expensive, so my parents forced me to quit in a month), clerical work and cleaning shelves at the library, raised $1000+ by selling T-shirts with my artwork on them and donated it to the Japanese Red Cross following the March 11 tsunami.</p>

<p>Major awards: National Merit semifinalist (will be trying for finalist).</p>

<p>And if it matters, my parents' income is over $100,000 each, although my father works somewhere that means I get an automatic scholarship if I decide to attend.</p>

<p>More or less, I know my lack of awards and extracurricular activities is not going to work in my favor. But other than that, do I have a fair chance? Chicago is my first choice school, and I really want to get in.</p>

2

<p>I think you have a great shot at getting in. Everything in your app seems to be strong; I’m pretty sure you’re a strong candidate for any school you apply to.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>You seem like a very strong candidiate. I would say you shouldn’t worry about admissions at the UofC. That emphatically does not mean you should assume you’ll get in - you’re at the level where college truly is a crapshoot and your best bet is to apply to all the schools you would be happy attending, plus a few safeties, and cross your fingers. </p>

<p>That said, I think you should consider something many applicants seem to ignore when applying to the UofC because they’re too wrapped up in the question of whether they will get in or not, which is only part of the process (a massive part, I’m sure, but just a part nonetheless). </p>

<p>The other part is, are you really a good fit here? I’m starting to get fed up with all the high school students on this board saying they want to do “business” or “engineering” at UChicago. This shows (1) you have done no research on Chicago and are applying probably just because of its namesake and (2) you won’t be happy here even if you figure out a work-around. Yes, Chicago still has excellent options for those who want to go into business (what do you think half the econ majors here are for?), and there are accomodations for pre-meds and pre-laws, but overall, if that is your chosen destination, another Ivy League (say, UPenn) would probably be a much better fit. Of course, there’s always the possibility you could change your mind…it ultimately comes down to whether you REALLY like academics or not. Do you like learning for the sake of learning? If you think a college degree is nothing more than a stepping stone to your career and see no other intrinsic value to it, than apply here by all means (help us in the rankings!), but if you get in, think twice about matriculating. I have seen many people fit into this category that are perfectly bright and do fine at Chicago…but are otherwise bored and miserable. They tire of the incessant intellectualism that defines the community here. If you do see intrinsic value to education, welcome aboard. You get to be the annoying that-kid* basking in the intellectualism, and then there is no place to be other than Chicago. </p>

<p>*Not all intellectuals are that kids, but a lot of them are :)</p>

4

<p>@physiocrat14</p>

<p>(this is basically very long-winded and kind of rambly, so you could just skip to the end if you like.)</p>

<p>I actually am aiming for neither business or engineering or even physics at UChicago; the psychology program is probably my endgame. I’ve given a lot of thought as to why I want to go to UChicago, and if I wanted to go to a school for its name, I’d put all my effort into applying for Yale or Stanford.</p>

<p>My high school is not a fantastic one. The teachers are enthusiastic, but my classmates are not, and I’ve had a lot of trouble with my friends who constantly ask me, “Well, why would you want to go to a private university that’s difficult to get into, if you could easily get into a state school?” Most of my peers have always been the kind who want to go to a good school so they get a cushy job somewhere (which isn’t always the case, but it often is), or they want to have a lot of fun in college and party. I am not. I like to read nonfiction books and research things that interest me.</p>

<p>One of the things that really drew me to UChicago was the thought that the students there really love to learn for the sake of learning, and not just because they are forced to do it. It’s just… different, I guess, than my current environment, and I really love that. When I went in for an interview a few weeks ago, my interviewer was a recent graduate and was currently working in the admissions office; when I asked him why he’d decided on UChicago, he told me that when he had first visited, he had gone to a frat party and the conversation was either centered around “their courses, their course materials, or their research.” An intern at my father’s lab is an undergraduate at UChicago, and he told me that he had never had a boring conversation while there.</p>

<p>And that sealed the deal for me.</p>

<p>tl;dr, I like to learn. I love it. I don’t see a point in going to school simply to hang out with friends and do extracurriculars while thinking that physics is a waste of time, as I once heard a friend describe it. I suppose I just want to be around people that love it as much as I do, and not go to a school for its name or its athletics.</p>

<p>Think I’d fit in? :)</p>