Looking for Advice (planning to apply ED in the fall)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

Looking for advice for the next few months before and when I apply. These are my stats thus far:

SAT I (breakdown): 1540 (790 Math / 750 CR+Writing / 16 essay)
ACT (breakdown): Did Not take
SAT II: Did not take, planning to take Math II and Physics in August
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): ~3.7 (5.5 on a weighted scale of 6)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 15%, school isn’t more specific than that.
AP (place score in parenthesis): Haven’t come back yet. Took Physics 2, Statistics, BC Calculus, and US History
IB (place score in parenthesis): NA
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus BC (or multivariable self study if I get a 5 on bc), AP Physics C, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Economics, AP English
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Qualified for the AIME (American Invitational Mathmatica Examination) this year and got a 6.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Programming Club (Current President)
-Science Olympiad Competition Team Member (Informal group leader)
-Varsity Wrestling
-Have been playing piano and guitar since 8th grade. Not sure how to integrate this. I take lessons an hour a week and practise for about 6.
Job/Work Experience: none
Volunteer/Community service: Was part of a service club in 9,10th grade but it conflicted schedule with Programming Club, so I dropped it.
Summer Activities: Getting an internship with a guy who works on Defibrillators.
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Plan on making them good, but that’s a summer thing.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: AP US History 9/10. Good guy: talked about history/ politics a lot after school.
Teacher Rec #2: Honors Precalc and Trig. I don’t really know how this one will turn out. She knows i’m really passionate about math and I was only one of three of her students who make the AIME, but I only have a B+ in her class (Im not good at doing fast mental math which leads to many costly arithmetic mistakes)
Counselor Rec: 10/10 - I have known her for 3 years now. She’s told me to my face she would be including that I am the most passionate student for physics she had ever seen.
Additional Rec: Hoping to get one from the man i’m getting an internship with.
Interview: Planning to get one when I visit UChicago this summer.

Other: Can speak Polish

Applied for Financial Aid?: Dont think ill get any with my families income bracket
Intended Major: Physics
State (if domestic applicant): MA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public- Consistently top 15 in the state.
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 200k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Mom didn’t graduate High School, but that kinda gets canceled out by my dads PhD, so not really I guess?

2

Try to avoid some one that might give you a bad recommendation.

3

I don’t think it’ll be bad- I just don’t know if it’ll be stellar. Its a 7 to 10 out of 10

4

Start working on your essays. Write them in a way that reveals (not tells) what’s interesting about you and how you look at the world.

Why are you asking Teacher #2 for a rec (rather than some other STEM teacher)? Is your counselor also your Physics teacher?

Make sure your parents are willing/able to pay full tuition. (I say this because $200K+ probably means no FA and, depending on how much + (and other family circumstances), it make or may not mean your parents can afford $70K a year.)

5

I don’t like my physics teacher too much. She’s the kind of teacher that hands out worksheets or teaches using a power point from 10 years ago. I’ve known my math teacher for two years now. Im pretty confident she would give me a much better recommendation than my physics teacher. As to my guidance counselor, she’s known me for 4 years now and all the extracurricular stuff I do with physics. That was the basis of her comment described above.

6

Anyone else have any advice?

7

How are your essays coming along?

8

Writing them right now. Assuming they’re good, do you think I have a good chance, or is it a long shot?

9

It’s always a long shot!