<p>everytime i ask someone about U of Chicago, the first thing i hear is "make sure your essays are amazing because that's all that matters"</p>
<p>is this true?? i mean, obviously grades and gpa matter to some extent, but how heavily does U of Chicago weigh the essays?</p>
<p>essays and GPA are #1, easily.
if your essays aren't good then you're going to have to dig yourself out of a big hole with the rest of your application.</p>
<p>also, if you're trying for merit scholarships, your essays should be pretty amazing. lots of people apply to uchicago with great stats, classes, and activities... fewer apply with the same and excellent essays, which is a grouping more likely to put you in the merit arena.</p>
<p>yes it's all about the essays...well actually i was also in volleyball and swimming all 4 years and like in 6 other clubs and ec activities. My tests scores and grades weren't that good tho...decent but not that good.</p>
<p>well actually it's good but not u of c good</p>
<p>I am proud of my essay, and the on campus interviewer made it sound quite substantial (and it went quite well). </p>
<p>My stats were good though. I had one reasonably devoted extracurric and a tech-skilled job.</p>
<p>The essay is very important, but it won't save you from mediocrity in other parts of the application. I have a close friend who wrote a very strong essay - easily stronger than another girl in my class who was accepted - but her GPA and SAT were a few notches below the other admits from my school.</p>
<p>I thought my essay was very good. The Val of my school was rejected although on paper she looked much better than me. I didn't read her essay but from her description of it, it didn't sound like it was very good.</p>
<p>yes, yes it is.</p>
<p>That's what I think. I was rejected for 2010 and I had statistics above or beyond the median stats that Chicago posted. I had a feeling that my essays weren't what UChicago was looking for, but I wanted to go there and I got deferred, waitlisted, and rejected. So it goes.</p>
<p>Be sure you apply to only places that you'll be happy at, I can tell you that I have no regrets but that's only because the hierarchy of my colleges was confuddled since I would have loved to go to any of the schools I applied to.</p>
<p>To the OP, yes the essay is very important.</p>
<p>Is it a better idea to answer one of Chicago's <em>cough</em> ridiculous essay prompts, or do one of your own (like one you've written for the Common)?</p>
<p>DO NOT SEND IN A COMMON PROMPT ESSAY. </p>
<p>They want an original question- not "who has inspired you most" or "tell us your biggest setback." Only something as imaginative as the other prompts would really work. </p>
<p>Taking one of the given prompts is always a safer bet.</p>
<p>Have you seen them?</p>
<p>Yea, you can make up your own, but it better be creative.</p>
<p>I'm a little worried. I have an essay written for the Common, answering the prompt, "Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you." I wrote another one that sort of answers that prompt, but in a more creative way, I think, and more suited for Chicago. I had my friend, who's a great person to give advice on this, read both, and he said my first essay was more like me. Is this a prompt they're likely to hear all the time? I'd write about one of their questions if I actually understood them. "Describe a picture and explore what it wants." Is that extremely vague on purpose?</p>
<p>Maybe I should give a vague answer. :-P</p>
<p>But yes, it's vague for a reason. There are many ways in which a picture may "want" something, and part of why it's an interesting question is that there are many valid ways to interpret it.</p>
<p>Yea, they're really important.</p>
<p>As for my essay, I used the same one as my common app essay; I wrote a narrative about my passion for music and how it has affected different parts of my life. The question wasn't very creative, but I thought it was definitely the best essay I've ever written.</p>
<p>And were you accepted?</p>
<p>dangnguyen was indeed accepted. The prompts seem vague because they don't want cookie cutter responses. Chicago wants to see how you think. They can learn just as much about you by how you answer one of their prompts as they could if you talked directly about yourself.</p>
<p>I agree with meow- in fact, I think my "big essay" included only one sentence with an "I" statement in it. They want to read how you think and process and decide how to organize something through how the work actually comes together and is presented, not necessarily just through having you write "I'm like this, blah." Keep that in mind as well.</p>