<p>I am living proof to any future applicants that "who you are" matters much more in an application than "what you are."</p>
<p>If you're nervous about the application process at all--I urge you to check my stats out. The University of Chicago Board is the most recent one, where I've posted after an acceptance.</p>
<p>I've been accepted everywhere and deferred from one place so far. I never would have expected this last year; I'm amazed--but it's true you can get in without extra amazing test marks. This is in no way to brag or promote myself, but to provide hope and the knowledge for future applicants to create a stellar application that reflects who they are as an individual. </p>
<p>For example: My SATs: 2130. There are plenty of waitlistees and rejected students with 2300+ in the decision threads from top schools.</p>
<p>chicago's not much of a numbers school though ;)</p>
<p>i'm guessing a lot of rejections come from the essay. they put a huge emphasis on that. i'd love to read some accepted people's essays, that would make for a very neat little anthology</p>
<p>i do agree it's not much of a numbers school, but i think more and more schools are pushing away from that. i mean chicago is ranked 8th--and it's not a numbers school? that's got to mean something. i don't know, i think it matters, and yes you should perform at least decent on the tests. but after they go through all the applications and see the scores, what more can they do with the scores? that's it. there isn't anything more to a score. </p>
<p>yes, a 2130 isn't bad. but still--that was after i studied for like two months on my own to bring my sat score up 280 points. seriously, i am not a good testing person. it's all relative, though i guess. </p>
<p>basically--i am just trying to encourage students to really develop themselves fully in an application. in every way possible. good luck!</p>
<p>maybe people who are generally more likely to self-select to apply to top schools such as uchicago are those who have already scored high? they probably wouldn't take somebody who got a 400 on every section of the SAT, but one could argue because those scores might be causally linked to a weaker overall application. i'm not sure. i'm still kind of gleeful right now, wondering how bad stanford is going to be when it finally happens.</p>
<p>yeah, i agree though - be yourself, show yourself off. kill those essays!</p>
<p>mine was a little 'out there' but i don't want to post it, hah! i remember the '50 essays' book from harvard, but there should exist such a thing for UC, don't you think?</p>
<p>or maybe i'm just running out of ways to avoid my homework.</p>
<p>Ummm…2130 is really good. What’s your point? I’m sorry, but if you really think that anything over 2100 is “low,” your views have REALLY been skewed by CC or something. The majority of test takers can’t even dream of scoring over 700 on each section.</p>
<p>I got accepted to WashU with a 2080 SAT and a 3.6 weighted GPA (regular decision btw). Just to reinforce the TC’s point, it really does matter who you are and whether or not your passions fit your personality and vice versa. After that comes fit, and the rest is history.</p>
<p>i got into ucla with no AP however, i am in a “middle college high school program” through my high school, i do two hours at a cc with a small high school class and the rest of the time i am a full time college student.</p>
<p>I’ve been panicky and paranoid for the last few months because all the stats and crazy involved super teens that are totally skewing my view of college…</p>
<p>“i’d love to read some accepted people’s essays, that would make for a very neat little anthology”</p>
<p>That’s only going to be more temptation for students wanting to copy off the essays. I highly do not recommend that anything like this should be posted up on the internet</p>
<p>^Yeah, I avoid looking at any essays, because I have a tendency to quote (I slipped some Millay into my most recent essay) and I fear I would start quoting essays.</p>
<p>It’s so true that CC ruins your view of stats. There was probably a time when I, like any reasonable person, knew that 2130 was a good score, but now I look at it and I’m like, “2130? Meh, average.”</p>
<p>Great job! UChicago is way up there on my list. Started my essays last week.</p>