<p>I'm kinda anxious for decisions when they come out in December, so I feel the need to ask about the importance of class rank in the admissions process. If I'm in the second 'decile (top 20%)' at a public high school and only have a 2050 SAT will my chances be fairly low? </p>
<p>I realize that a lot more than these two things goes into the admissions decision, but I can't comment on them as they are subjective pieces of my application and my opinions will (obviously) be biased. However, I don't want to be that disappointed (if I were to get get rejected right now...I would cry) if I see a rejection whenever I receive my decision, so be honest please.</p>
<p>Since you asked for honest opinions, I will provide my honest opinion based on what you provided. </p>
<p>If I remember correctly, something like 80% (perhaps more, I don’t recall exactly) of the students are ranked as top 10%. Your SAT is below 50% and closer to 25%. Class ranks are actually pretty important, and if the rank is lower than the norm (top 5-10%) then very high SAT scores can go a distance to make up for it (visa versa). By the way, Chicago is more flexible with the class ranks. UPenn for instance, has something like 95% of the freshman class in top 10% class ranks: they definitely choose kids with top class ranks - this is by design. </p>
<p>If you are one of those students with hooks (such as, URM, athlete, legacy, development case, first generation college applicant, very under-represented state, etc), you have a chance. If not, based on the stats you provide, the odds are not in your favor: unhooked students should really be close to the upper end of the middle 50% range of the tests and top 5% of the class ranks to be considered a solid match.</p>
<p>Of course, I don’t know what else is in your application package, so I can’t say whether you will get in or not. Since you asked a question based on your stats, I can only provide general assessment based on your stats only.</p>
<p>However, college admissions is not an exact science. So, who knows: perhaps you will get in.</p>
<p>Thanks for the opinion. However, would it help if I had a 2250 (I took it last week and I’m 95% sure I got 2250+, but of course I could be wrong) instead of a 2050 on the SAT, or would there not be much of a difference due to class rank?</p>
<p>It would definitely help. If you take a december SAT and it improves greatly, then you will have a much better chance for the RD even if you cannot count on the results for the EA outcome. In the end, EA acceptance, RD acceptance, or wait list acceptance: who cares. If you are in, you are in. </p>
<p>Look, there is no evidence Chicago trades off SAT vs. class rank as ROTC suggests. There is little evidence that it cares about class rank (i.e., it may get a lot of high-ranking kids because it has a lot of smart kids coming from public schools), and a huge chunk of its class comes from schools that don’t rank. </p>
<p>There is no evidence that Chicago cares about legacies – although maybe it does, or will. </p>
<p>And no one on the admissions staff will see your writing score, so the relevant SAT scale is 1600, not 2400. It might make a difference if you went up from 1400 to 1550 (how much of a difference is anyone’s guess), but if you improved by 150 on your W score it won’t help you at all. </p>
<p>And since there is a new dean of admissions, everything may change.</p>
<p>Darn…I actually think I did go up 140 points on my writing section lol, but (barring any stupid mistakes) only 60 on the math and maybe 20-40 on reading (1390 on CR/M before). Hopefully, though, they continue to weigh the essays more than the SATs and class rank (or at least as much as).</p>