<p>I kept getting stuff in the mail from UChicago awhile back, so my mom called the admissions office to see about financial aid and if I had a chance of getting in. My mom told my SAT scores at the time, 690CR 600M 590W, and they said yeah I was in the running for acceptance. </p>
<p>Those definitely aren't the strongest scores that are applying. Was the person just telling my mom that so the school can get the 50$ application fee or are SAT's not the biggest factor on the application?</p>
<p>Read this. I think it still applies even though it’s old and O’Neill is not chief AdCom anymore.</p>
<p>[Newsweek.com:</a> Society: Inside The Admissions Game](<a href=“University of Chicago News”>University of Chicago News)</p>
<p>Wow great article. I hope it still applies even though it’s a decade old…</p>
<p>My new favorite quote!
“We’re the University of Chicago, we can do what we damn well please.”</p>
<p>But yeah. Even though that’s 10 years old, you can probably still trust it. The admissions standards at the U of C are based more on an educational philosophy than on a bunch of random numbers. You’ll get told this over and over again: it’s all about the essays, and to a certain degree, the recommendations. I think as long as the applicant is passionate about the school, they have a good chance to get in. This ain’t Harvard, you can’t get in just because you can take a test. So check it out and consider applying!</p>
<p>Yeah, my sat’s score should improve a good bit when I take it on saturday, but other than that I’d say I’m a pretty strong applicant. I show a trend of improvement and all that good stuff as high school has gone on. Plus my schedule next year is unmatched probably in the whole county I live in. ha. I’d say the only things I have working against me is not taking a 4th year of math (absolutely no room in my schedule or time to self study) and not having a strong math SAT (I’m really not a bad math student, I just suck at applying math, and not being able to study just one specific concept kills me)</p>
<p>How long ago did O’Neill step down?</p>
<p>He steps down on June 30th.</p>
<p>Oh cool. So it’s not long his policies are long gone; the admissions process should still be carried out in the same way right?</p>
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<p>This definitely is a saddening line. I happen to think such an individual, if very passionate about what he does, should be accepted as a gem. There are many who get good grades and test scores, fewer who’re in love with their studies in a special way. </p>
<p>Also, if ideas are so lofty that they can’t be conveyed to someone else with ease, it almost gives them credibility to me – I believe it’s the responsibility to the listener to rise to the level of the expositor, not the other way around. Especially when it comes to academic matters.</p>
<p>I think SAT’s carry a lot of weight… Around 20 pounds… HHAHAA!</p>
<p>@rk33-- I don’t answer questions like yours (as good and as legitimate a question as it is) first, because none of us work in admissions and know that kind of answer, and second, because if the correlation was direct, you wouldn’t be asking the question. I imagine the answer a counselor might give is that it depends on context. You have verbal confirmation that the scores won’t put you out of consideration, which is nice, but the fact that Chicago rejects the majority of its applicants is a hard one to stomach.</p>
<p>@mathboy98-- I respect admissions officers for having to make difficult (and sometimes inaccurate) judgments like these, but I think that these yea/nay decisions are a fact of life-- on America’s Next Top Model, in boardrooms, and in job hiring. It gives me a little bit of hope to remember that just like different jobs demand different job sets, different college admissions committees are going to find different things appealing in a student. For example, my friend made it into the fly-you-out-on a corporate jet final rounds for an extremely competitive job and didn’t make the first cut for a much less competitive job. Some students are going to get in at some colleges and not at others. It’s good to remember that the admissions decision neither adds nor subtracts value from the student. Getting into Chicago doesn’t make you a smarter person or even a more desirable hire-- it’s what you do once you’re there that counts.</p>
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<p>I like your attitude, because it is positive - you look to appreciate many different kinds of students. What I heavily disliked about the line I quoted was that it sounded very dismissive. “Oh, so and so student won’t color our atmosphere, because only a few people will understand what is being said” – give me a break seriously! I respect that it’s hard, but I hope seriously this line I quoted does not accurately reflect the views of any admissions officer. If I met someone who talked about crazy physics I couldn’t understand, and I wanted to benefit from his/her company, I’d go pick up some physics, try to get basics down, and then talk to the individual. Not dismiss the individual as a lofty-in-the-clouds and ignore him/her.</p>
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<p>Sure, I believe heavily that one should work for personal fulfillment, not to get into schools. Nevertheless, I do thing there are attitudes towards students that’re pretty ridiculous and even offensive.</p>
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There is a difference between “being in the running” and likely being accepted. An applicant to Yale can have superb grades and test scores, but being “in the running” there means a 6-7% shot at admission.</p>
<p>That said, Chicago has long claimed to place little emphasis on [test</a> scores](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/2761509-post3.html]test”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/2761509-post3.html). How (or if) this will change with the departure of Ted O’Neill remains to be seen.</p>