Freaking Out! Chances!

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>I'm going nuts here with the essays. If the essays I've written are decent, how are my chances? Hopefully Idad or someone wth experience can help me out...</p>

<p>White Male from Maryland
Public School</p>

<p>4.00 UW GPA
13/513 Rank</p>

<p>SAT I</p>

<p>720 Critical Reading
800 Math
790 Writing</p>

<p>SAT II</p>

<p>800 Math Level 2
800 U.S. History
710 Physics</p>

<p>AP</p>

<p>USH-5
Calc AB-5
English Lang-5
All AP's scores</p>

<p>Extracurriculars</p>

<p>Varsity Cross-Country, Captain, 4 years
Varsity Indoor Track, 3 years
Varsity Outdoor Track, 3 years
It's Academic, Co-Captain, T.V. Team, 2 years
NHS, Treasurer, 2 years
Marching Band, 3 years
Maryland Math League, 4 years</p>

<p>Awards</p>

<p>Sportsmanship Award
Model Painting Awards
Top Maryland Math League Scorer
NMSF, 226 PSAT
2nd Place Haddassah 5K Road Race
Lots of Varsity Letters </p>

<p>Rec's from an English 10 and Math 11+12 teacher</p>

<p>Any comments, advice or help would be awesome</p>

2

<p>if you can't get in, there's no way I can, so I hope for your sake that you can :-p</p>

3

<p>Whats with all the chances threads with these unbelievable stats?</p>

4

<p>nervousness. and in the case of my own, it's actually 'cause I'm worried about my essays. nto that my stats will help that out at all</p>

5

<p>There is very little for the admissions counselors to criticize. Your essay will definitely be the determining factor.</p>

6

<p>Your courseload is kind of weak in my opinion, unless those are really the most rigorous course offerings available to you in your opinion. A lot of Ivy and Chicago hopefuls I know have taken like 6-8 AP's by Junior year end, although their GPA certainly isn't perfect like yours.</p>

<p>Secondly, don't get a letter of rec from your 10th grade English teacher since it's advised you only choose 11th and 12th grade teachers for recommendation letters by colleges. Besides, you took AP Lang, so unless the teacher hated you, get a rec from him/her since he/she can vouch that you can handle AP coursework and show college maturity.</p>

<p>Ditto on the essay comment made by the posters above me as there is little else that even CHicago adcoms can criticize you for. Good luck!!!:)</p>

7

<p>Well I already gave the rec. stuff to my tenth grade English teacher. And anyhow, my school only offers around 12 AP's total. Only one girl took 4 as a Junior, but she got mostly 3's and didn't take the one for AP Music Theory. Is it going to be trouble if I asked a tenth grade teacher?</p>

8

<p>darkruler -
my son is a second year now, and he only had 1 AP junior year.</p>

<p>Regarding rec's, see item four:</p>

<p><a href="http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=310%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=310&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Breathe a little from time to time!</p>

9

<p>^Hahaha, thanks. I was doing well, then I came back here. Plus I spent six weeks writing an essay that says nothing about me, as cool as it is. Thanks for the help!</p>

10

<p>yeah... not every school offers a million ap courses and at my own, nobody takes ap courses before junior year. I can't imagine having three coming into senior year would hurt him. if it did, it would be unfair.</p>

11

<p>It's all relative. The OP has little to worry about in that department, but someone who goes to a school with 20+ AP's might be at a disadvantage.</p>

12

<p>Well, I certainly hope not. Someone who actually manages to take the majority of 20 AP classes would die before they can manage to fill out their college apps.</p>

13

<p>I'm not saying that hypothetical person needs to take the majority of the AP's offered; my point is just that the more AP's your school offers, the more AP's you need to take to be competitive.</p>

14

<p>I didn't AP World, AP Theory, or the AP Foreign Languages at my school. I took all the rest.</p>

15

<p>"Is it going to be trouble if I asked a tenth grade teacher?"</p>

<p>Not if you don't think there's going to be. They only say not to get a 10th grade teacher because generally the teachers that know you the best are the ones that taught you more recently. But if you hang out with that 10th grade teacher all the time, go right ahead and get a rec. It's totally your call.</p>

16

<p>My S had a ninth grade teacher write for him. He was admitted, so I wouldn't worry too much about this as long as what is written reflects well on one.</p>

17

<p>Cool. I mean, He's worked with me on my essays a bit and he always says hi in the hallways, plus, he iss THE NICEST teacher I have ever met. I figured he would say nice things.</p>

18

<p>On APs: Do take them! They are basically the "College prep courses" the admissions people are looking for. This is the most important category they consider, more than average GPA and test scores. You should especially looking forward to take more APs when your high school does offer a variety of APs. Those people with fewers than five APs got in last year are those whose school did not offer more than five APs. As me, I took nine APs by the end of Junior year in addition to five in senior year!</p>

19

<p>At my school we don't take any before Junior year. And last year, I had four of my seven periods filled with AP; the others were Physics, an Engineering class and band. This year I have all AP's. I will graduate with 9 class worht 11 periods. That had better not be held against me...</p>

20

<p>darkruler, calm down, its gonna be ok.</p>