Is U Chicago a "stretch" or a "don't apply" for my S?

“Exactly my point any college of Arts and Sciences has no engineering.”

However, in the case I’m most familiar with, Arts &Sciences students can take courses at other of the university’s colleges,. Including the university’s engineering college. So while that Arts &Sciences college does not itself teach engineering, the students do have access to those courses. Provided they meet prerequisites, of course. If desired a student can actually switch colleges at the university, although this is not automatic or absolutely guaranteed. But it’s a lot easier than an external transfer. I did it, myself. I imagine these policies vary on an individual university basis.

Did U Chicago grow an engineering school, now? News to me…
If so, I would suggest comparing majors and course offerings in engineering fields that are available at each school being considered. If this is of potential importance to the student. Engineering is a broad field. The "core’ areas of engineering are :electrical, mechanical, civil & environmental, chemical.

Re # 15, "This is the main reason that I encouraged her to apply to undergraduate colleges and not universities… "
Only a handful of undergraduate colleges that are not part of multi-college universities offer engineering majors, or teach any engineering courses at all. And in some cases the “engineering” offerings at those schools are rather limited compared to those at many universities with full-fledged engineering programs.

I am probably not understanding something.

The stats are clearly there, and kids do get in with similar AP load / EC background. And being undeclared is fine. I really hear you on the “lack of passion” thing, but I think you can’t hold that against him. I think asking a 17year old to have a “passion” is just not going to work for many, if not most. It’s a little like asking a 17-year old to be ready for marriage IMO. I second the importance of essays. The UChicago “extended essay” seems to carry a lot of weight, and if he manages to let his voice shine in that one, he has a better chance. (and you really don’t need to read a book on essay writing …). As for the financials, there actually is merit aid but you really can’t count on that when applying. I would strongly recommend applying either EA or ED (depending on what’s more realistic financially) if he’s serious about UChicago.

@moneydad I graduated from CU as an electrical engineer, and my oldest D as a chemical engineer, having been through that, 1) they start you in your freshman year on the way towards your engineering degree, most of your classes are set in stone (if you want to graduate in four years) 2) Normally your required to apply to the engineering school within the University and be accepted to that school 3) I believe that taking two years of college before having to declare a major is a wonderful thing, especially for exceptional students who are not only exceptional at math and science but reading and writing as well 4) after taking two years of her core courses she may fall in love with something else, and become a creative writer (much to my chagrin) 5) UChicago has one engineering program (molecular engineering) and it happens to be in the area she is interested in, but the bottom line is the idea of not declaring your major until your junior year and still be able to graduate in four years.

P.S. On the other hand, Brown is just the opposite of most Universities because the student designs there own curriculum, that is a little too much freedom in my opinion, and takes a particular student to be a good fit for that school.

Re #23: Where I went to school, the only “engineering” courses engineering students had to take freshman year were a computer programming course- which an arts & sciences major could also take- and a single “intro to engineering” course. The other freshman courses were all basic math, science & freshman seminars that were actually taught by Arts & Sciences college faculty.

A fledgling arts & sciences college student interested in majoring in physics would have taken nearly the same curriculum, with only a single course, or at most two, to make up if he switched after freshman year. Transferring later than freshman year would cause a delay, but that’s because there is just that much content required to fulfill an ABET-accredited engineering degree. If an ABET-accredited degree is not required or desired then its true another school may provide more flexibility.

It can work the other way too, I actually switched from the engineering college to the Arts & Sciences college at my university after my sophomore year, and it did not delay my graduation date.

Still, you must choose when you apply, engineering or A&S when you apply, and personally ABET is not a concern for UChicago in my opinion. If you would tell me as an engineer, that a student graduating in molecular engineering from UChicago is not as qualified as a student graduating from say, DeVry University (which has ABET accreditation) well, I don’t know what to say to that…

I would not recommend applying ED unless you are prepared to pay your EFC. If you do apply ED they have no reason to give you merit so you can calculate the odds on getting it. The total Cost of Attending for 17-18 is $75K+

I believe they look for people that are passionate about learning even if you are not sure which area you wish to focus.

Congrats on the test score.

Let’s discuss academics:

Where is he at in terms of class rank? Is he taking advantage of academic opportunities or are his peers taking a more rigorous schedule?

Outside of school what does he enjoy?

I would apply ED to whatever school is your first choice. ED helps you in your chances to get admitted. UChicago is trending toward the Ivy league in that they seem to be giving less merit scholarships. Ivy league gives no merit scholarship. Having said that my D has applied for plenty of merit scholarships outside of UChicago which will relieve her of her contribution.

The OP mentioned merit. Chicago uses merit aid extensively, although not necessarily in large amounts for any but a handful of students.

So far this year, I’ve only heard of I think two people being offered merit aid (a regular decision admittee on College Confidential and maybe an EA admittee??).

My D received a fairly competitive package but the word scholarship was not mentioned. It did exceed FAFSA EFC.

@Dolemite
Define “exceed” in this usage, if you would.

My D’s package exceeded in the sense that our EFC was lower on the FAFSA form. This was expected, as I had a pretty in-depth discussion wtih FA before we signed the ED agreement. D still got fin. aid and we believe that it’s still generous compared to what she would have gotten for need-based at other top schools (as she pulled her apps from all the private colleges she was applying to RD, we’ll never know for certain but we can guesstimate pretty well).

BTW, rumor is that the National Merit money that used to be doled out has been cut in half this year. (from $4,000 per year to $2,000). If true (D won’t find out till later this spring) then they are clearly re-allocating funds away from some groups and towards others. It’s their money so they are free to do this, of course. But I think that UChicago’s reputation of being generous with the merit aid is changing a tad - to me it looks like they are becoming more in line with other top schools which offer very little if any merit aid to the majority of high stats kids and reserve their funds to entice those applicants of extraordinary talent, or a certain demographic, etc. In other words, to get the kind of incoming class they are looking for.

They covered about 25% of my FAFSA EFC with grants. Based on NPC Harvard/Princeton is more like 50%. Yale like 25%. So Yale-ish in their need-based grants.

Chill out, those are great numbers, your son will be fine wherever he ends up. Being undecided isn’t a bad thing, a very big proportion of students come in like that (and even more who only have a vague idea of what they’re into).