<p>GPA ~ 4.34 W/ 3.9 UW (only B's - first semester as a freshman)
Class Rank ~ 8 / 630
SAT's 2150-2200
SAT II's ~ 770/750</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities
US Tennis Association 9th-12th - nationlly ranked
Varsity Tennis 9th-12th Captain/MVP/District Qualifier
Student Government
NHS- honors graduate with distinction
Youth Group
Varsity Swim Team- district qualifier; state qualifier
YMCA Swim Team- district qualifier; state qualifier; volunteer coach
Piano
Spanish Club
Asst. Tennis Coach for Girls Varsity Tennis
Brain Drain/Equations/ other things like that
Work every summer as a lifeguard</p>
<p>very average. the tennis thing is a bit of a hook. did you ever do anything that didn't help yourself? any community service? what's that youth group thing? were you a leader or a part of the group? even though uchi accepts a large number of their applicant's, i just don't see why your credentials should separate you from any of the 60% that get rejected. forget about merit, you're going to need better than good essays just to get in.</p>
<p>Do you have any interest in playing tennis in college? If so, go to the athletics website and complete the athletic questionnaire as soon as possible.</p>
<p>joshb110: it appears from your original posting that you were serious about knowing what your chances were of getting into uchi. if that is the case, i will assume that trite little statements like expressing your "passion for learning" isn't really going to be of great service to you. so if you have 200 hrs of comm service, why didn't you say so in the first place? what was the community service? there's a book out analyzing 50 harvard students and their credentials that got them into harvard. granted uchi isn't harvard, but look at what those kids accomplished and look at what you have done, then you will realize that ec's are almost as important as stats. so pump up and represent on the 200 hours and make yourself look like a caring well rounded individual as opposed to just a jock.</p>
<p>okay... its not like im going to forget that on my app... i just posted a quick little thing to see what others had to say... and the community service is that i escort patients at a local hospital... im sure i forgot other things as well, i just posed the things that i thought were most important... i was also VP for NHS and Spanish Club... i just didnt think that the "little things" were that important.</p>
<p>dude, everything is important. throw in the commendation letter you got in ninth grade for impeccable penmanship. don't leave out a thing. this is not a time to be humble.</p>
<p>oh, i'm sorry, i didn't understand the gist of your posting. please let me try again. i think that you will probably have the highest sat score of anyone applying to uchi this year. also, since you're such a stellar tennis player, other people can volunteer at the food line. you should keep practicing your forehand, it's your duty to be the best tennis player in the world. let those other kids do the goody goody thing, you're vastly superior and shouldn't be bothered with stuff the little people have to attend to. if you wanted me to stroke your ego, why didn't you just say so in the original posting. "all those who think i won't get in, need not reply." hit a 100mph serve and you may get merit $$.</p>
<p>The guy was merely asking what his chances for acceptance are at the school. You stated your opinion already but proceed to deride him for some reason. Really..your attempts at insulting him are completely unnecessary.</p>
<p>While I'm not a big fan of sarcasm, I have to point out the validity in BlacknBlue's statement. UChic is not exactly the sportiest school; it's much more valuable to have community service hours than it is be good at tennis.</p>
<p>I have to say I think BlacknBlue is one of the better (if not among the best) analyzers I've seen on these boards. While I don't like "chances" or "shots," he really helps to point out strengths and possible weaknesses, and gives good advice.</p>
<p>hey mcsh: you're right, i gave my opinion and i thought i was helpful. the poster tried to be cute and i responded, what's the problem with that? i don't curse on the board, i don't call anyone names, i call it as i see it and express it the way i wish to. once someone posts, they open themselves for opinion, good and bad. college confidential sucks in that they don't have a method by which the more sensitive can filter out the negative opinions. wouldn't it be great if people could only hear positive things. what a wonderful world this would be.</p>
<p>I think it is interesting some of the notions of what Chicago is interested in. I would recommend that people take a look at what the Dean of Admissions, Ted O'Neill, has to say. He has stated many times that unlike many schools Chicago does not try to pick a well rounded class. A recent quote. "We didn't "shape" the class, we didn't look for angled or rounded students, we simply made it possible for you to choose us." O'Neill has said that he has no idea of the demographics of the class until he reviews who was admitted. </p>
<p>They are not overly impressed by the often well planned and trumped up extensive EC's, see the 2009 convocation speech, and the reference to EC statistics being kept in a file labeled "notorious liars" in a previous speech. </p>
<p>They look for students who can demonstrate a love of learning and can demonstrate, mostly via their essays and recommendations, a capacity for dealing with complex ideas, and the discipline to handle the rigor of U of C. EC's are important to the extent they support that goal. O'Neill has publicly stated that the school likes athletes because they are often disciplined and can manage time well. (There must be something to it, the football team has a higher average GPA than the student body as a whole.)</p>
<p>If you can show the "love" you have an excellent shot. This is indeed what makes Chicago unique.</p>
<p>I have to second what idad said. Not that it really needs seconding since it was said so well the first time. But as someone that grew up in Hyde Park, went to U of C's highschool, and then came home to U of C as a college junior because nowhere else will ever really stacked up... Take the man's advice. I have known hundreds of University of Chicago students and every single one of them was the world's biggest nerd--it doesn't matter if they ran the college radio station or a physics lab or went clubbing every night on the side. They were all insane about their academic pursuits. We had one friend who everyone mocked because he spent 40 hours a week in the library studying for his coursework in the now defunct 'geography' department... I think it was really 'area studies' but it sounded so damn silly. Finally, a word of caution. Chicago lets the students pick Chicago. That's terrific and is probably the making of many a great scholar. There is another side to this approach, however. If you are one of the lucky students who 'picks Chicago' (i.e. you have an average background and they are giving you a chance) but you are even the tiniest bit lazy, there is a slight chance that you will flunk out of school and a reasonable chance that you will get Cs until you shape up. There are plenty of students at Chicago with the Harvard background and they will kick your butt in organic chemistry or classics or anything else unless you work like mad and take things really seriously. So don't accept an offer from Chicago simply because it's the fanciest school you could get into. And definately don't fake nerdiness just to get in. You will live to regret what you have gotten yourself into although you might be a better person when you graduate...(with a 2.9 G.P.A...) :).</p>
<p>"we made it possible for you to choose us." that is one heck of a telling quote. that oneill doesn't look for a rounded class only says further that uchi will take anyone with ivy stats, just please please choose uchi. no other university goes on the record with the whacked out quotes oneill throws out. that only shows to me that the other schools are selective in choosing their class. oneill just hopes that the student will choose uchi, and to allow them to choose uchi, they have to admit most of them first. before all the sensitive types jump down my throat, i am not saying that uchi or uchi students are in any way inferior to the ivys, it's just that they do work harder because they (for the most part) have more to prove because they probably got kicked to the curb by the ivy's. uchi is not a bad place to land if that happened.</p>
<p>There might be something in the Ivy reject theory. I don't know. From my experience, however, Harvard 'rejects' go to the easier Ivies rather than Chicago. A fair portion of my Columbia class did a <em>lot</em> of Harvard and Yale whining... And there is a certain quality of nerdiness amongst Chicago students that isn't just about work. I had a classmate who supported himself through school by publishing sci-fi novels?! A favorite professor decided to to teach an undergraduate course one quarter on War in the Middle Ages and ended up with a hundred person lecture hall (perhaps the largest humanities lecture <em>ever</em> at Chicago) full of Dungeons and Dragoners who apparently knew everything that was every written about medieval weaponry and supply lines. That is simply not something that you read up on to kiss up in class. At least I would certainly hope not. One friend (who was not an Ivy reject by any stretch of the imagination) kept pet molecules on his desk and had a favorite element. Another friend <em>cried</em> when he realized that he was already 20 and hadn't come up with any mathematical innovations such that he wasn't headed for a Fields Medal. There is quantitative dorkiness. And there is qualitative dorkiness. Chicago has its share of good old fashioned "hard workers," I will grant you. But that isn't really the core of the issue. So choose wisely and apply like you mean it.</p>