<p>Well, this isn't exactly a what are my chances thread, so I will pose the question.</p>
<p>How do Cs affect a persons application? I have been told in the past that the adcoms look to see that your transcript reflects improvement (or stability if you're a 4.0 student) over your three years of high school. </p>
<p>I don't know what to expect, frankly, and thus, the investigation.</p>
<p>I realize your responses are all, quite thankfully, opinions, so please, divulge yourself and let me know your thoughts. </p>
<p>Oh and PS, let's say a certain student with a few Cs has the recomendation of a professor emeritus of Northwestern (10 years) and U Chicago (5 years) and another professor who taught at U Chicago (5 years), how do those things factor in?</p>
<p>Cs early in your high school career wouldn't count as much. If you enrolled in a hard course, or in something unfamiliar to you, to stretch yourself, and then received a C, I think they would forgive it. They would rather see someone stretch and fail than just hide and play safe. U of C wants to admit good students. They don't have so many applicants that they can afford to reject good ones for trivial reasons. If the rest of your application is good- test scores, difficulty of high school courses, interview, essays, evidence of intellectual interest, recommendations, I don't think that a few Cs will rule you out. They may also be more forgiving of weakness in one area (math, foreign language) than some other top schools.</p>
<p>Hah, math, foreign language, you nailed it.</p>
<p>And yeah they're early on, I've taken the hardest courses available to me, besides Spanish because for whatever reason I can't grasp it (ironically English is my favorite subject, so you think a foreign language would be easier!). </p>
<p>I just wanted to post here and get a few thoughts, you know, when you're surrounded by kids obsessed with college and you peruse forums like these with such outstanding students, it makes you feel pretty small :P.</p>
<p>So, thanks, I appreciate it.</p>
<p>You know there was an article somebody sent me once on U of Chicago, I believe they are the only school to ever let a newspaper sit in on their admissions. If I remember correctly they didn't even look at your standardized test scores, they just wanted to make sure you took them. </p>
<p>I remember one adcom making the comment afterward, when the median SAT score was like a 1400, saying, something along the lines of, "Oh, that's nice, it's usually pretty high but we don't try to do that." No big deal to him or the others apparently.</p>
<p>'with such outstanding students, it makes you feel pretty small '
i agree.... i feel small too
and i know i don't write great essays like most of the pple here claim they do</p>
<p>at this institution, you better have something to offset those c's, be they high sat or act scores, a sick family member you had to take care of that year or big sat II scores in those c subjects. the bottom line is whether the overall gpa can absorb those c's. if they can't, then you're getting a thin one.</p>
<p>"you better have something to offset those c's"</p>
<p>That's pretty much what it boils down to. And that "something" needs to be presented well in your application materials. The encouraging thing is that Chicago will give your application a fair read - so if you are going to apply, give it your very best shot.</p>
<p>C's are going to obviously hurt, and I don't think recommendations from professors will cover a weak transcript. But if you're very strong in all the other areas, you may have a decent shot.
By the way, I find your two sentences with flowery commas interesting.</p>
<p>Yeah I know, these "institutions," for the most part could give a rats ass about the kid applying. As long as he/she kissed up and got his grades, paid somebody to teach him/her about the SATs and then scored above a 1400, they are a good investment.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the kids who are less fortunate, and who are just as, if not more (and usually the latter) intelligent, get effed in the process. I'm not a good investment because my numbers suck. </p>
<p>To be completely honest I don't even care if I go to ASU or U of Chicago. I would prefer 100-fold to go to University of Chicago for the rigor of the curriculum, but I think what it boils down to is that it doesn't really matter.</p>
<p>We all get the same BS, undergraduate, spoon-fed crap anyway. Does it make a difference if I pay 46k (Compared to 6k at a school in the top 20 for business undergrad AND graduate) a year to go to a 1337 university and get my undergrad degree, then work for six or seven years and reapply to a graduate school?</p>
<p>I think this is just a confusing, and frustrating, microcosm of the ridiculous lives we all lead.</p>
<p>And PS, I'm not trying to sound bombastic or intelligent. </p>
<p>findr: although, i also tend to side with the non-pc viewpoint in discourse, i tend to find your thinking a tad lacking and simplistic. first off, bombastic is usually not a great thing, but we should all strive to be somewhat intelligent. i sense more frustration than anything else in your posting but i am on your side concerning asu. my understanding is that the student body at asu is smokin hot and that should be the highest priority in choosing a college. choosing academic rigor over smokin hotties is not what i would necessarily call the intelligent choice. that said, there are other reasons for choosing a uchi or better over asu than academic rigor. these types of schools open doors to worlds that are mostly closed to the asu student (although they may not even know because of the hangover). That graduate school they all eventually go to? a uchi degree can get you into one of the better graduate schools which can lead to a $175k+ job when you get out(i'm talking business or law school here). that kind of scratch can still get you the asu hottie you missed out on in college, just a little later in life. i'm not saying that you can't get into the better graduate school from asu, it's just a tad or more harder to do so. the graduate school you get out of coming from asu will probably earn enough after a couple of years for the downpayment on the trailer home you've had your eyes on, but not much else. worrying about finances when talking about a school of the caliber of uchi is short sighted. you will get all that money back and more with a uchi sheepskin. </p>
<p>lastly, the intelligent, less fortunate student? there's no such thing. many disadvantaged kids who stick to the straight and narrow make it big. they work hard and the adcoms take that into account when they read and when they allocate aid. if anyone tells you that they can get into an ivy but can't go because they can't afford it, they're just making excuses, screw em.</p>
<p>hm.. but they will look into the context as to where you come from right? cos.. for my college, it's a norm to get Cs.. and teachers will tell ya to aim for Cs.. cos with that, most likely you'd get A for that subject in the finals..
in fact, Cs will qualify you for honours programme</p>
<p>yea.. im glad it is... i guess the top 10% of a class of 719 will save my AABC grade.. hm.. just wondering, if I had taken the SAT2 in nov, if i rush scores over, will they look at them?? i think SAT2s will me to my advantage... and it will show the quality of the education I receive.. and perhaps, cover the AABC abit..</p>