<p>I'm applying EA next year to Uchicago. Yet, I am wondering is it in my favor or against me that barely anyone from my school ever applies to Uchicago? I think only 2 students have gotten accepted there in the past 5 years or more, and I'd say 15 students in the past 5 years have applied (there are about 360 students in each grade, so thats 15 students out of about 1800), and they've all applied RD, except for 2 students applied early. So will it be in my favor in U of C sees me as someone who genuinely wants to go to their school and apply early, who comes from a school where most kids do not even apply?</p>
<p>My school has sent 2 kids there in the past decade, out of ~250 per class, in a school that sends ~10-15 kids to Top 20 schools a year. 1 person applied this year, 1 last year, and the years before that were similar. I had pretty good stats, I think, and got deferred. So I don’t know how big of a help it is.</p>
<p>cep361… I’ve seen your stats on MULTIPLE (goshh so many >.<) threads and people have told you that you can get into HARVARD! I would work on bringing up your GPA that you always mention, try to play up your “unique situation” as you always call it, and apply to schools you want to go to, not simply the ones you think you will get into. None of us are on admissions committees and can’t tell you exactly what schools are looking for and what is or isn’t advantageous. Just do your best for now (which is pretty darn good if I do say so myself) and hope for the best. Everything happens for a reason.</p>
<p>@cep361: No it will not help in the sense that you’re imagining/hoping it might. Chicago will consider you in the context of the opportunities and impediments that might have come your way due to your school but I don’t see why UofC will reward you for something your classmates don’t do.</p>
<p>If your the only one who applies its definitely better than if 10 guys from your school applied. Think about it this way, Chicago needs a certain amount of qualified candidates from your geographic area (quite honestly I’m almost sure they try to cover as many states as possible so the statistic looks cooler). Now if you have a 4.8 gpa and your friend has a 4.9gpa and everything else you do is the same and of Chicago’s standards, who would they pick (assuming they only pick one)? Now if your friend didn’t apply here, it’ll be obvious whose left right?</p>
<p>That’s a terrible hypothetical scenario. First of all, ceteris paribus (all other things being equal) assumptions are rubbish - that’s the reason why we go through comprehensive/holistic admissions procedures in the first place. Second, while a school might select students from every state for geographic diversity, it can very well make a point to select a large majority of those students from the handful of elite schools in each state instead of having to decide between your two hypothetical characters. No college, to the best of my knowledge, publishes a record of how many students it accepts from each high school and with many colleges, the size of the freshman class is smaller than the number of high schools in the country. If both your 4.8 and 4.9 friends have ‘Chicago standard’ profiles, then I’d argue that both will be admitted independently of the other. And even if you insist on the scenario that they have one place left (although I can tell you that’s not how college admissions works) then what’s to say that when the 4.9 guy pulls out, there won’t be another student from another school with perhaps a 4.85 or a 4.8 and a stronger profile. None of this is worth any thought because as I’ve said above:</p>
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<p>Instead of fretting so much just try your best on the application and don’t murder any classmates you know to be applying. :)</p>
<p>^ Spot-on, though I will point out that some colleges do publish lists of their feeder schools. For example, USC has a list of the top five or top ten or so high schools where it accepted the most amount of ppl. Still, this hardly detracts from your argument.</p>