<p>I'm currently a junior (class of 2006), interested to know if I'm going in the right track and have a chance at U-Chicago...</p>
<p>GPA: 3.877 (Academic)/3.91 (Overall)/3.96 (UC)
- Freshmen Yr (4.0/4.0)
- Sophomore Yr (3.83/3.67)
SAT: Around 2100+/2400 on the new SAT (roughly 1400+ on the old)
Classes: 3 AP's this year, 5 Honors so far -- Aiming for 5 or 6 AP's for senior year; so, roughly a total of about 9 AP's, 5 Honors.
School: Top 50 in the nation; Top in Northern California
Rank: School doesn't rank, but definitely top 10% out of 350</p>
<p>Extra-Curriculars:
Speech and Debate (9th - current)
Tae Kwon Doe (Age 10 - current)
Percussion (Age 10 - current)
Cycling/Cycling Team (9th - current)
Student Advisory Board for Congresswoman (Hopefully 12th)
Planning to start Politics Club (11th-12th) and serve as President
Community Service - About 200-300 hrs by time of applying</p>
<p>Awards:
- Speech and Debate: Excellence Award
- School: Principal's Letter of Commendation (9th)
- Karate: Black Belt
- (Probably) National Merit Commendation; (Maybe) Semifinalist</p>
<p>Thanks for the help in advance.</p>
<p>You seem to have a handle on ec's. Chicago does not care about grades so much, although they obviously do not hurt. Definitely need more academic involvement/interests
if you are wishing to be a top candidate. The type of candidate admissions officers at Chicago are really looking for (I believe) is essentially an expressive intellectual. Chicago would choose a deep-thinking, so to speak, and creative individual with interesting, insighful essays over a list of stats and positions that mean little. What is your intended major?
If you are at all interested in math or science, DO RESEARCH NOW. I have this theory that research can be more influential than any other after-school activity. Its academic and personal, you can re-use your project for science fair, and simply IT IS WHAT YOU DO IN COLLLEGE, more so than any standardized test and even grades. A kid I knew graduated last year and went to MIT with a 2.8 and 1390 because of an amazing science fair project (yeah sure it went international, but Chicago also is not MIT). Even a job at a lab is THE best job to have in high school.</p>
<p>"Chicago does not care about grades so much, "</p>
<p>I was shocked to hear this. Since CHI is so rigorous, grades seem to matter much, in the realm of ablity to do the work.</p>
<p>While you do have many ECs, you don't really seem to stand out anywhere - to be honest, your recognitions are not exceptional. An "Excellence Award" for speech? AN excellence award by whom?</p>
<p>78% of students at UChicago are from top 10% of their class. Compared to other similarly ranked schools with similar student calibre, that is pretty low.</p>
<p>And how can one get research outside of a competitive summer program? Few professors are willing to take in HS students.</p>
<p>An excellence award by the National Forensics League. Not everyone earns that type of award, although I'll admit, it's not rare.</p>
<p>Wait, are you saying excellence award as in you went to a competition and weren't quite good enough for superiority so you got excellence? Because if that's the case then that award doesn't mean much I'm afraid, or at least it doesn't in my neck of the woods.</p>
<p>It appears you are really unfamiliar with the National Forensics League structure. Clearly, an award of Excellence wouldn't make sense for a competition - only rankings are given. Basically, the Excellence award is given after a student has consistently done well at tournaments (winning records - above .500). And it takes about 2 years for a student to achieve Excellence Award and about 3-4 years to get to Distinction. There are 5 types of awards you can attain through the NFL, and I've received 3 out of the 5; most likely will get the 4th, as the 5th award is extremeley rare (about 100 students out of about 10,000)</p>
<p>Sorry, I thought you were referring to the Superiority and Excellence Awards that are given out at smaller NFL tournaments (there are some with only ~5 people per event and don't warrant finals and whatnot). My school is primarily in the National Catholic Forensics League, or something like that, but we always do some NFL events as well. I thought that you might be one of those unfortunate people who thinks things like Who's Who and National Honor Roll are great awards. I just didn't want you to seem a little silly.</p>
<p>K, I understand where you're coming from now. Sorry if I seemed a bit ****ed off, because the awards I listed weren't supposed to be like Honor Roll or Who's Who... I knew that those awards just don't really matter at all. Yeah, our team only competes in the NFL and not the NCF, so that's where the misunderstanding was. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>DJB:</p>
<p>Do what you love! For top tier universities, it is not quantity but quality that matters. You can do research all your life, but without some results, it is not worth as much as a penny on the ground. For what I have noticed, Research is very a infuential + on a college application, but so are high test scores, high grades, and high anything for that matter. If you love something, do it...and do it well. This is what any university wants to see: people who are committed.</p>