<p>Ok...so I have taken the toughest course load at my school (in its history, probably) for my senior year (6 APs + EARLY ADVANCED FITNESS - AP english and AP euro are choking my grades so far). Suppose my rank drops a little...would the adcom. care, and if so, to what extent?</p>
<p>I've heard from past seniors that it's okay as long as you don't get C's.</p>
<p>you should get rejected just because you don't have a clue. anyone who goes to any open houses would know that the colleges don't want your grades to drop senior year because they know hs seniors tend to take the year off. if the grades drop significantly, the school has a right to rescind your acceptance. so a couple of ap's with a pottery class or intermediate hand warming class would be ok provided a student doesn't drop too much. instead, you load up on ap's (you must really want to save a couple of bucks on college credits) in your last year when the grades will not really help you, but could do serious damage. this isn't the smartest approach to this process. as far as class rank, i believe that most colleges will look at class rank after the junior year. so you should be good there</p>
<p>You will be posting your midyear grades online as soon as they are available; then you must follow up with an official grade report/transcript from the school ... along with a form that your GC completes. I don't think they would go to all this trouble if it didn't matter. With a very rigorous load, your rank/gpa going down a little should be ok as long as you are not a borderline candidate. Just do your best and try to stay focused.</p>
<p>I think you can relax. From the recent convocation speech by Ted O'Neill:</p>
<p>We hope, just because you imagined that when you arrived you would catch a whiff of the corpse of fun, that you didnt delay your departure. Maybe you thought you got the wrong letter! Or, that we changed our decision we found out that you didnt study for your calculus placement exam, or read The Iliad, or memorize French idioms, or, that we really paid attention to your spring semester C- in AP Chemistry that instead you went to the beach, de-tassled corn, or drank a root beer things no University of Chicago student is supposed to do. But we dont make mistakes, and, stare decisus the decision stands (for the next day or so, the Latin phrase newscasters will take the most pleasure in saying), stare decisus, unless you really think those old judges didnt know what they were doing stare decisus youre stuck is the English translation.</p>
<p>if that is what oneill really thinks, then i presume that uchi doesn't look at midyear grades, which means that the poster on this thread didn't take the time to research that uchi doesn't look at senior grades and thus wasted everyones time with this thread. on the other hand, if mid year grades are required at uchi, then oneill is an idiot.</p>
<p>I'm sure there is a tripping point, but it would probably take quite a change to have them rescind an offer. As far as Ted O'Neill, he is one of the most respected of all the Ivy Deans.</p>
<p>he's the most respected of the what? i thought he worked at uchi.</p>
<p>The Ivy Deans Group: the 8 ivy's Chicago, Stanford & MIT.</p>
<p>oh, i get it, it's either greatness by association or oneill carries the other deans bags.</p>
<p>No, they follow his advice.</p>
<p>"you should get rejected just because you don't have a clue...instead, you load up on ap's (you must really want to save a couple of bucks on college credits) in your last year when the grades will not really help you."</p>
<p>????? I'm saying I might get a "b" or two when I've consistently received A's, my rank might drop from 2 to 6, and I'm just unsure of how much that would weigh in (since colleges probably try to find upward trend). Are you saying that instead of taking classes that challenge me (which, by the way, doesn't save **** at Chicago), I should've slacked off on class load to keep my GPA higher?</p>
<p>asiaknight,
You're fine at Chicago. The upward trend part is important if your grades were a problem early on (as was my son's case). Taking the more rigorous load will better prepare you for college.</p>
<p>asiaknight: the answer to your final question is: YES. it's called protecting a lead.</p>
<p>I can't see Chicago rejecting a well-qualified applicant because their class rank was 6 rather than 2. However, I can see that happening at, say, Brown, which seems to be pretty fixated on class rank, at least judging by the statistics they publish on their website.</p>
<p>that may be true, uchi does accept 40 percent of it's applicants, however, one has to wonder about a persons judgement when they have little to gain and a lot to lose by loading up on such a strenuous workload. it may be a case of runaway hubris, but there is certainly a big difference between number 2 and number 6. the readers are human and although they may not reject the poster because of the drop in class rank, once again, they may think like i do or if asiaknight is lucky, they won't. in any event, they will probably say "what was this kid thinking?"</p>
<p>My guess is that what they would say is "this one didn't slack off - he should be able to succeed here and enjoy it."</p>
<p>IMO, the main danger of taking an overly heavy load of courses is running out of time - to do applications, take the remaining SAT's, sleep, do well in the courses, enjoy yourself, and so on.</p>
<p>for this guy's sake, i hope the reader is going to think like ohiomom and not me....but i doubt it.</p>
<p>Such negativity! I agree (in my extremely un-official opinion :)) in that I think Chicago would rather see a student challenge himself and struggle slightly than a student who plays it safe and is unchallenged and bored. After all, Chicago prospectives are expecting a hard challenge for the next four years. Slightly more than 20% of U Chicago's admits are not in the top 10% of their high school class, so a slight drop in rank will not kill anyone's chances, methinks. That said, a student should not be struggling so much (s)he can't do anything else. </p>
<p>
Really? I thought I only completed the on-line form last year. Maybe I'm forgetting something? :confused:</p>
<p>I'm sorry but what is SO ridiculous about asiaknight's workload. First of all, I don't understand why taking 6 APs should be considered "runaway hubris." For many students (myself included) AP classes senior year are just a natural progression. If I was to take anything else I would not be maintaining the same level of difficulty of my courses thus far. The only way I could minimize my number of APs would be to sacrifice one of my subjects. Secondly, the reason that students are attracted to the University of Chicago, at least in my experience, is the challenge of the workload. Why would someone who feared a challenge be applying to Chicago in the first place? Thirdly, even in stating that there is "so little to gain" from taking a difficult courseload you are cheapening the very idea of education- implying that the value of the actual education you are receiving is so minimal compared to the loss of a few places in class rank. I very much doubt that Chicago would agree with you on that. I'd be interested to know where your perception of Chicago comes from, BlacknBlue- are you a prospective student, graduate, in any way affiliated with the University? You seem to oppose the school in every way, yet you've previously stated that you respect Chicago, and if that wasn't true then why else would you spend so much time commenting on this board- unless you're bitter. I am befuddled! un-befuddle me, please.</p>