is uchicago a reach?

<p>Asian Male from Califonia</p>

<p>Highschool: Public, Pretty Competitive, sends lots of people to top schools, and as far as i know, the school does not rank</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.76 (pending 2nd sem junior grades)
W GPA: 4.2 (an estimate)
UC GPA: 4.1</p>

<p>from a highschool of almost 4000 people, with 900+ people in my class</p>

<p>SAT I
710 CR
780 M
760 W
total: 2250 (will probably retake)</p>

<p>SAT IIs
750 Bio-M
800 US History
800 Math iic
780 Physics</p>

<p>i have a few extracurriculars.
letter in track, 5th and 6th in long jump and triple jump in league resepectively
yearbook & journalism in sophomore year
now im in a bunch of academic teams, sci bowl, quiz bowl, ocean sci bowl and we've done pretty well. </p>

<p>I currently have no idea what i would like to major in and really havent narrowed down a list of schools i would consider/like to apply to</p>

<p>(because im in california, applying to UCs is a given)</p>

<p>uchicago
duke
brown
columbia
cornell
stanford?
upenn
umich</p>

<p>any help will be appreciated</p>

<p>Are you a rising senior?</p>

<p>yes i am currently a rising senior</p>

<p>With a good essay, you should get into UChicago, and some of the others, too.</p>

<p>I attend a school with similar numbers...4000 people, 900+ in my class. Interesting. </p>

<p>Your standardized test scores are definitely good enough for UChicago -- no doubt about it. Most people feel that a 3.7 UW GPA might be on the lower end of the median for competitive schools; however, since UChicago has a disproportional weight on the essays, you can definitely score some big points by writing good essays. Besides, a 3.7 is NOT BAD AT ALL, especially if your weighted is 4.2 (implying you took a bunch of honors/AP courses). In fact, it's fairly impressive. I'm sure adcoms will overlook something like a C+ in precalculus or something...especially if you aced the consequent class (ie. AP Calculus BC).</p>

<p>Regarding your extracurriculars: when you say your teams did "well," does that mean you got special distinction? It is worth mentioning any and all your awards and distinctions (first in state, second regional? etc.) Your sports distinctions are fairly impressive (considering your grade level), so that is a definitely plus.</p>

<p>As for your list of colleges, I can't say any of them are matches (no idea what a match will be for class of '08), but you definitely have a good shot at UChicago. Brown and UPenn are reaches along with Stanford. UMich might be the easiest school for you on that list.</p>

<p>Depending on your major, I know some of the adcoms will add some sort of weight if your NSB or NOSB team did well in competitions. Maybe you can talk about your experience in those teams if you choose a science major?</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>