UChicago is my dream school, but I’m more than a little concerned about my profile right now. Please let me know what you think?
Grade: 11
State: GA
Cumulative GPA (UW / W): 89.17 / 92.00
SAT: N/A (taking in March)
PSAT: 1300/1520
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ECs:
• Student Government VP (2015-2016)
• Mock Trial captain and co-founder
• Writing Center tutor
• Evolutions literary magazine head editor
• Writing Fellow alumnus (participated in selective program 2014-2015)
• Lower School tutor (paid $15/week)
• History Club co-founder
• Model UN (2013-present)
• Track & Field
• Junior Deacon
• Junior Usher
• Georgia Governor’s Honors Program semifinalist (finalist results announced in March)
Current APs:
AP Euro
AP Latin Vergil
AP English Literature
Senior APs (planned):
AP US History
AP Computer Science
AP English Language
AP Environmental Science
Honors:
English 10
Hooks:
URM
Elite private school (top 15 nationwide)
Divorced parents
Hi, I was just admitted EA to UChicago and will be going, so I’ll give you my honest thoughts. Your ec’s look really good (perhaps I am a bit biased because I am also Captain of my Mock Trial Team at my high school). Your grades, though, are on the really really low side for Chicago. Do your best to get that up. Your PSAT score suggests you’ll have a below average SAT score as well, so I would study up as much as possible. The essays for UChicago are extremely important. They weight their essays more than any other school, and they care immensely about their student body. If you want, message me once you take the SAT/ACT in a few months, and I can help you further, but right now, your grades are really holding you back. Chicago has been known to look beyond test scores often if an applicant has displayed an ability to succeed academically and has really really really good essays (I mean stellar). You don’t need a perfect score. They care about the people they are bringing in. Right now, though, you need to focus on bringing up your grades as much as possible and studying for the SAT because they aren’t on par to be competitive at the moment. Good luck, and message me if you have any more questions about UChicago, either admissions or academics. By the way, just out of curiosity, what is your intended major? Also, does your school rank, and if so, what is yours because that might give some context?
@jarrett211 My school doesn’t rank due to the level of course rigor. As for my grades, I’ve been on an upwards tend since I made my first c ever in geometry freshman year. Last year I actually got the most improved student award at my school!
Okay, good to know. I would suggest when your counselor writes your recommendation to have them highlight your improvement because that will show maturity. Right now, objectively, an 89 UW will almost certainly have you rejected without any context, but you said you could improve it up into the 90 range, so that is good.
GPA needs to go up as do your test scores and spend a lot of time on your essays. UChicago takes a lot from the essays so if you knock them out of the ballpark you have a better chance even with a gpa on the lower end. I suggest you get started early on those essays so you can make them as good as possible! Best of luck!
Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1851091-chance-me-please.html#latest
@hssenior27 I think I listed up top that I have a lot of experience in writing organizations/publications, so I’m hoping that’ll translate to some stellar college essays. Part of the reason why I like UChicago is because it really focuses on the whole person and nurtures intellect, something reflected in the unique essay questions.
Hi, as someone who also attends an elite, top 15 boarding school in America, your 89 with context is probably in Chicago’s range. Private schools are extremely rigorous, and colleges understand that. An URM student at my school with similar ECs was admitted to Chicago EA with a ~3.4 UW gpa and 32 act. If she was in a non-competitive private school, her gpa would evidently be much higher, but she challenged herself by going to a high school with an <20% acceptance rate and colleges obviously have accepted that. Her trend was not oustanding (3.3, 3.3, & 3.6) Another student was admitted to Pomona ED with 3.62 UW GPA and a 34, and another student was deferred from Stanford with 3.7 UW and a 2090. I could list the other stories, but attending a rigorous, elite private school will surely help your chances.
@JDBoi78 Thanks for the reply! My school happens to be in GA, which, if I recall correctly, is a moderately underrepresented region in the UChicago recruitment scale. Does that mean anything? My school’s Naviance page doesn’t help much because it only gives the percentage of students accepted from my school, when in fact many of those accepted tend to go to other top universities… in the South.
It may help a bit, as they are probably looking to place students from all states, and if the pool of Georgia students is smaller, then they will compare you against that smaller pool. However, you are being compared against many groups, so the effect may not be as large as you may think. My naviance averages for UChicago are 3.66, 32, and 2229, with the acceptance rate from my school being 26%. Many elite private schools will probably have around 3.6-3.75 for elite schools, as all of the Ivys/Stanford/MIT/Duke on my naviance fall in that range, with the exception of Cornell being 3.45, and Stanford and MIT being 3.83 and 3.90 respectively.