<p>Yes, it's a shameless chances thread, but it would be great to know what you guys think.</p>
<p>General Things
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: East Indian (international)
Country: India (but living in Singapore for 18 years)
Current Grade: Senior Year (in singapore, schools run from Jan-Dec)
Financial Aid: Not applying for any sort of FA</p>
<p>Grades
GPA: 3.8 out of 5.0
(RISING TREND -> Freshman: 2.5/5.0 Sophomore 3.5/5.0 Junior: 4.2/5.0 Senior: 4.88/5.0)
-Very tough international magnet school specializing in Math & Science</p>
<p>SAT Reasoning Test
SAT Critical Reading - 770
SAT Math - 800
SAT Writing 800
SAT Composite (M+CR) 1570
SAT Composite (M+CR+W) 2370</p>
<p>SAT Subject Tests
SAT Math Level 2 - 800
SAT Physics - 790
SAT Chemistry 780
SAT Biology M - 770</p>
<p>AP Tests
AP Calculus AB 5
AP Chemistry 5
AP Physics B 5
AP Biology 5
AP Calculus BC 5
AP Statistics 5</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities</p>
<ul>
<li>Captain: Debate Team</li>
<li>President: Creative Writing Circle</li>
<li>Editor: School Yearbook</li>
<li>Editor: School Newsletter (we don't publish too actively tho)</li>
<li>Editor: Official Newsletter of Singapore Int'l Mathematics Competition</li>
<li>Captain: Scrabble Team (placed 3rd nationally in 2007, several individual awards at national level too)</li>
<li><p>Head Delegate: Model UN</p></li>
<li><p>Tennis Team</p></li>
<li><p>National Education Ambassador</p></li>
<li><p>300ish Community Service Hours</p></li>
<li><p>Creative Arts Program (very selective program for writers and poets)</p></li>
<li><p>Research on atomic spectroscopy</p></li>
<li><p>Research on oxygen's behavior on palladium and applications in fuel cells</p></li>
<li><p>Interned at a renowned museum of biodiversity research</p></li>
<li><p>2 Commendatory Awards @ Commonwealth Int'l Essay Writing Competition</p></li>
<li><p>Gold (Drama) @ Singapore Youth Festival</p></li>
<li><p>Best Delegate @ Singapore Model United Nations 2009 </p></li>
<li><p>Best Delegate @ WE Model United Nations 2009 (International)</p></li>
<li><p>Poet, published in various literary magazines</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Well, you’re obviously qualified, but I honestly don’t know. If I say “you’re in” and you’re not, that would be pretty horrible.
If we say “you’re out,” then you would just be stressed out.
Basically, you’re in the running. I mean, come on 1570 SAT is something GOOD. Most people (like me) don’t even feel like they will be in the running. So that’s something good for you. Good luck!!!</p>
<p>Haha, that’s a good reply, but I’ll assure you (and anyone else who stumbles upon this thread) that I maintain an appropriate sense of distance between myself and chances threads in that, whatever my outcome turns out to be, I won’t wail or gloat about it turning out differently from what people have said. Most people said I’d get in at Columbia, but I got rejected ED without even being deferred. But the functionality of chance threads, especially at this moment is for me to be rational about whatever outcome I receive tomorrow.</p>
<p>Anyway, do you think my GPA would keep me out?</p>
<p>Assuming that you don’t have rampant grade inflation like we do in the US (which isn’t exactly a baseless assumption), then your GPA won’t kill you. However, if it’s possible, I’d be able to better assess your chances if I knew your rank. I must say, though, that you seem to have a good chance and from your posts, you seem like a genuinely interesting person and hopefully that showed through your essays. We’ll see how you truly fare tomorrow though :P</p>
<p>I don’t understand why people like you start chance me threads - you’re obviously qualified and unless you wrote awful essays or something, you stand a very strong chance.</p>
<p>Well, we don’t have grade inflation. In any case, we don’t rank so I wouldn’t know my rank myself. Also, I’m the only Chicago EA applicant from my school. I did feel that I showed some sense of uniqueness in my essays which were about topics such as my cultural dislocation (common app), my insistence that reality is a film *par excellence<a href=“favorite%20things%20;”>/i</a>) and a little something about playing professional scrabble (chicago supplement)</p>
<p>@Wahooo: I started this thread because “people like me” (whatever that means) can and have gotten rejected at schools of Chicago’s caliber. Columbia’s applicant pool is hardly as self-selective and as interesting as Chicago’s is and I’ve been rejected flat-out there. Also, I’m genuinely interested in how you guys think my GPA situation is going to affect my chances.</p>
<p>I understand that no matter what caliber of student you might be, admission to a school like Chicago is never a guarantee - my only point is that your test scores and EC’s obviously put you in contention for admission so there’s little benefit from asking a bunch of anxious CCers to speculate for you. </p>
<p>As for “people like you,” I was referring to an overwhelming overqualified applicant (statistically speaking from your test scores - I can’t comment on your GPA).</p>
<p>Well I’m glad that you think I’m overqualified, even if I may disagree with that conclusion. My Columbia rejection has made it hard to think of myself as T-10 caliber but with these schools - and with Chicago, more than anywhere else - you’re right in saying that one never knows. At the same time, it always helps to see what other people think. Not only because I can go to sleep happy that oh this percentage of people think I stand a shot and only this percentage thinks my app’s in the dustbin somewhere. That’s actually not my intention, and neither should it be. I’m more interested in the rationality behind each prediction so that when I do eventually get accepted/deferred/rejected tomorrow I’ll be able to rely on that collective wisdom to try and understand why. In that spirit, the most interesting part of your comments would not be that I’m overqualified or that I’m in contention for admission but that you think my test scores and ECs would play a significantly positive role in my admissions prospects.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for you, with the vast majority of posters on CC being high school students, I don’t think you’ll find the kind of answers your looking. Since the AO that made a decision on your application did so based on their own discretion, I imagine any answers you receive on this forum are likely to be wrong. I could say that a particular EC of yours stands out (which many of yours do in my opinion) or that your test scores are high, but that’s just an unqualified speculation that warrants nothing more than a comment suggesting that you’re in contention.</p>
<p>^The irony of this is interesting. Yes, I do take your point that most opinions floating around on CC come from ‘unqualified’ high schoolers, but in your conversation with me on this thread, I find that you’re able to articulate your thoughts in a very sensible and thoughtful manner. Also, there’s little to suggest that adcoms are onto something that applicants are completely incapable of grasping. Most of us on these boards have a pretty good gauge of what a clear admit or a clear reject looks like and we’re uncertain about the in-betweens the same way an adcom is - largely because there’s little precedence. I guess the more apt question that I’m trying to ask with this chances thread is: Based on your own opinions and experience, do you think Chicago will admit me and why?</p>
<p>Like I said, your test scores (1570 is way above average) and extracurricular involvement (not many people play competitive scrabble) would put you in excellent contention based on the typical students from my high school that go to Chicago. However, my impression of your candidacy is relative to my personal experiences and might not hold true for an international student like yourself. For this reason, I leave my evaluation at “you’re in contention” and nothing else - to look for a more elaborate answer, as I said, is counterproductive.</p>
<p>But anyways, I enjoyed this discussion and wish you the best of luck tomorrow - people like you are why I want to go to Chicago.</p>
<p>Yeah and about your GPA: I have no idea what a 3.8 out of 5.0 means because it’s all done in the 4.0 system here so I can’t comment on that much either. Good luck!</p>