Hey guys I’m a future international student from China and am applying in the Early Decision round for U Chicago. I’m so freaked out by the release of Stanford REA decision yesterday and would be so grateful if someone chance me for my application… Thanks!
GPA: We don’t use GPA in our HS
Rank: 30 out of 350
SAT I: 1560 (770+790Math) 20 on my essay
SAT II; 800 Math II and 800 Physics, still waiting for my USH and World History scores
AP: 4 subjects
Scholarship: Full scholarship from my high school because I did top 5 (school-wide) in high school entrance exam
Honors (mentioned on CA): High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling Meritorious, Harvard MUN and MUN of U Chicago both Verbal Mention, National Olympiad in Linguistics second prize in 9th grade and first place in 10th grade
Activities (mentioned on CA): President of school’s MUN Club (took part in MUN started 9th grade), Founder and organizer of a city-wide public speaking training student organization (started 10th grade), Founder and organizer of an international gender equality organization (started 11th grade), former president and former vice president of school’s Anime Club( started 9th grade), President of the Actors’ Department in school’s Dram Club (started 9th grade), independent fashion designer and model (starting 10th grade), paid English tutor(starting 11th grade and with average wage of 200 RMB, or $40 per hour), volunteered to be a tour guide at local Natural History Museum, Member of school volleyball team
Summer School: At U Chicago, with credit, B+ on Literature course (Gothic Fiction) and A- on Gender Studies course
Additional recommendation letters: one from the CEO of a company my student organization worked with, one from my literature professor (Professor Emeritus at U Chicago)
Supplement: How I self-learned how to draw and eventually led me to the field of fashion and makeup designing as well as the exploration of other art forms (which says a lot about who I am)
Major: Gender Studies
You have a solid chance, and you surely know what you have done and want to do, that’s great. Whenever you go it will be fine for you. I have some Chinese friends in UChicago, though I’m in different college, coming from mainland or HK. They said mainland education system is very different. However, UChicago might be one of few elite colleges really likes and understands Chinese students. They admit more than 60 people from China, so you have a good shot.
But you have to know that MUN is so popular and common in China, it will be really hard to stand out (quoting from my sister, who have been Beijing for her 9th grade and really likes China.) So I believe your focus might be your student organization and international organization. They’re interesting, but I don’t really know how you handle all these presidency works. How you train your students and how you manage an international organization? How many people in there? Do you hold international meetings, events and organization them into something solid? Like a volunteering project in Mideast or Africa? It would be really interesting if you have ever managed and lead your own international project.
Good luck with it, you’re excellent and you will find out the decision soon. Hope this post give you some comfort.
Thanks so much!!! My main focus is definitely on my student organizations. My speech training organization has over 60 members and even more volunteers for out activities- we have held two large scale city-wide events and one nation-wide event, including two speaking competitions, hold public speaking workshops once in a while, posted online class video clips, and received generous help from our sponsors (including Citibank, who provided their meeting room for our workshops). We have developed a system of speech training courses throughout our years of experience. As for my Gender Equality org, we have this website of our own and keep updating editorials written by us about gender issues occurred worldwide. Members of my organization contact each other through Groupme, which is more efficient when we’re in different countries. My GPA is not that great cuz I had to balance study, activities and work- but I don’t regret doing these things because they gave me the chance to discover my own interests and helped me become a mature, confident, and assertive person :DDD
@elainew728 You’re excellent. Don’t worry about your GPA, it doesn’t really matter since you SAT/SAT2 is good. I believe the make/break thing will be how they think of your organization and your related essays. But in my eyes, they’re pretty good. Please let me know if you’re admitted or not by PM after the decision day, my sister and one of my best friend (who is Chinese as well) are also applying EA/ED to UChicago this year. If you all get in, I assume you guys will be good friends.
Cheer up a little right now, take a rest and work on RD. All my best.
I’m in the same boat as you on that fear. I’d say as long as you were able to express why all of these activities were important to you and how they changed you, you will be perfectly fine!
Hey guys I haven’t logged into CC for long- I got deferred by UChi in the ED round but it’s not a bad thing to me anymore, cuz I feel that now I have chances to be admitted to other great universities or colleges in the States! Good luck to all the applicants this year!