Deffered UChicago and UPenn applicant

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello! I was deferred from Chicago and Penn and I was wondering what you guys thought the chances for me getting accepted were! Please be honest bc based on the replies I will decide whether to add a couple more schools to my list or not!

Here are my stats:
•Asian-American - First Gen- Fluent in Hindi and English (if that helps )
•Planned major: Biology/Management double major w/ a pre-med route

Academics:
•35 ACT w/ 10 Essay
•SAT - 2220
•SAT IIs - Bio (700), MathII (720), Lit (720)
•GPA: 4.49 W/3.99 UW (Ranked 4th in a class of 371) Red flag here- I have 2 Bs (AP Calc AB/AP Chem)

Classes: (most rigorous at school with a science focus)
Freshman:
•Hon. English 9, Spanish II, Hon. Alg II, Hon. Biology, World Studies, Orchestra, Public Speaking, Sports Medicine (Alg I and Hon.Geo 7th/8th grade)
Sophomore:
•Hon. English 10, Hon. Chemistry, AP Biology (4), APUSH (4), Hon. Pre Calc, Human Anatomy, Spanish III
Junior: (very few at my school take all AP- extreme rigor)
•AP Lang (4), AP Chem, AP Calc AB (3), AP Stats (4), AP Euro (4), AP Spanish 4.
Senior: (Mid-year report should be very good- about a 5.1 GPA (All As))
•AP Lit, AP Spanish 5, AP Psych, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP Gov

ECs:
-3 Year Tennis
-Founder and President of JSA club
-Founder and President of Dance club
-Officer of a leadership club at my school (Jaguar Ambassadors)
-Chairperson of Pennies for Patients (raised $5,000 for cancer patients with financial needs)
-400+ Volunteer Hours at Local Hospital & Temple
-Research Internship at local hospital (did very well at science fairs using the research I did here; currently working on 2 papers for publication in medical journal and won state level awards)
-Raised a $7,500 to help build a school in an Indian village and helped set up curriculum- big project
-Shadowing a surgeon here as well as in India (when I visited)
-Teach Sunday school classes at local temple relating to a foreign language and religion
-Tutor a lot with ACT and classes

Awards:
-A few minor writing and public speaking awards (worth reporting?)
-AP Scholar w/ Distinction
-National Merit Semifinalist (223 in Ohio)
-Science fair awards previously mentioned

Recs/Essays should be good, tried my best on essays and picked good teachers for recs

2

When you are looking at colleges ranked up there, it is unpredictable. Plenty of people with high GPAs and ACT scores can easily get rejected from every Ivy League school.

Did you apply elsewhere? Do you at least have an acceptance to somewhere in your hand?

3

Your application is pretty good I’d say, which makes me think either your essay or recs weren’t that good for you to be deffered. Get more people to look over your essay unless your totally confident that it’s superb.

Chance back?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1847372-final-chance-thread-ivies-stanford-ucb.html

4

Hey again. I was accepted to Chicago with worse stats than you, which also makes me think it might be your essays. Does Chicago give you the opportunity to update your essays?

5

You can’t count on getting into these types of schools even though you are a solid applicant. Have you applied to safety/match schools? If you have not, then you need to apply to some lower ranked schools.

The suggestion to reread your CA app is a good one.

6

@umcoe16 @ayyyyyyy @jarrett211 @txstella Yeah I have applied to safeties and I do have an acceptance to UMichigan already! I was wondering about applying to some more middle of the road schools with late deadlines like WashU!
And my essays were all very worked on and superb! Even my CA app was well worked and and I didn’t even find a single typo
If you guys think it’s my recs what can I do? If I had a bad rec wouldn’t I be rejected?

7

I would not count at all in getting into a school you were deferred from. Focus on your other apps. Send accomplishment updates if you have them, but your odds are not great.

8

@VaishS umich is a great school in many different areas of study. If you have questions about umich, feel free to ask. I am a senior about to begin my last semester as an undergrad.

9

@VaishS I doubt it would be a recommendation problem. That doesn’t seem like something they would defer a person for. Oh, and UMich is a fantastic school! (I was going to apply there, but I enrolled at UChicago already). If you are confident in your essays, then all you can do is update both of the schools with your interest (like what we were planning on doing in the Penn ED thread). And I would absolutely apply to WashU. It’s not a middle of the road school. It’s actually quite elite, and there are no supplements, so it really seems like a no-brainer to me.

And for your essays, I wasn’t talking about typos. People really seem to think that typos will keep them out of schools don’t they lol? That really isn’t the case. My common app essay had a few typos, and I was still accepted. It’s about the story and what that story conveys about you as a person.

10

I’m honestly a bit surprised that you were deferred from both. This means your stats and the rest of your package were fine, it is just that they want to see what the regular applicant pool looks like before accepting you.

This means that you are likely competing in a tough niche (asian, pre-med). There were simply other candidates who filled this niche with better credentials than you. Not much else you can do except hold your head up and look at other schools. Good luck

11

Can you afford Michigan? If it works financially for you, you might consider embracing your opportunity at Michigan. This is a fantastic school that wants you. A lot of OOS were deferred EA.

12

@txstella yeah thats the problem with Mich. Its a great school but really a last choice for me since I can’t really afford it.
But atleast I know I have a school if nothing else works out!