We heard that more girls might get off the waitlist – are you male or female (sorry if you don’t mind me asking!)
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Male, quite an odd assumption for them to make lol
That’s so odd. How did you hear that? Not that I mind because it is my daughter that is waitlisted. Whoever gets off this waitlist is so so fortunate. What an amazing institution. Good luck to everyone.
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I think because the enrollment is 52% men and 48% women, in the waitlist they historically have tried to get more women. But this is what someone who told me who was admitted off the waitlist last year. It could be different this year.
Princeton, ehem, is wildly overrated. And even if it weren’t, you could not pay me to go there.
College isn’t just where you go to school. It’s also where you live your life. Why would anyone want to go to Princeton over Chicago, other than the joys of spending 4 years in a New Jersey suburb as far from New York City as it is from Philadelphia?
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Honestly, there just happens to be a lot of factors behind my decisions here lol
My S, strong academics and strong SATs, was waitlisted (Class of 22) and then rejected. He decided to defer another acceptance and take a gap year; during the gap year, he reapplied to UofC and was accepted (class of 23). He graduates this year!
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This is great for your son, but not an option we would consider. My son has enough credits (16 DE classes and 8 APs) to graduate in ~two years from our state flagships. No point taking a gap year. My contention here has been that the work academically exceptional students put in goes unrecognised. In fact, this year not a single student from top 30 students (of 1200) in the school district is going to any HYPSM or T20 schools including Chicago. They are just not seen attractive at T20 schools, their academic accomplishments pale compared to other soft factors T20 consider. My son does have CMU offer though and will likely go there or at the flagship.
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What did you mean “defer” a college? Did your son make a deposit to reserve a seat at the accepted college and still be able re-applying on the following year?
My son got into 2 and waitlisted of 3 colleges. He is not sure 100% that he wants to go to any of the 2 if he will not get off from any of the waitlisted. He wants to take a gap year. I want him to make deposit to an accepted college, then will re-apply during the gap year. Is that possible? Thank you!
Yes, that is exactly what my son did. He accepted and placed a deposit at another school by the May 1 deadline, not realizing at the time that he would later choose to take a gap year. Later that summer, knowing his heart was set at UC, he wrote to the admissions at the other school and asked for a deferment in order to take a gap year. The admissions dept. were very generous and gracious, and granted the deferment. My S then went about his gap year plans and later reapplied to UC (ED), outlining what he was doing in his gap year. He was fortunate that by December he found himself with a place at UC for the Class of 2023.
I think it depends on the other schools’ deferment policies whether that will be possible for your son, but in my limited experience, as long as your son has strong gap year reasons or plans, many schools will accommodate.
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If you look at the number of school districts across the country and the number of spaces in the schools you are referring to, plus international applicants, you might adjust this perspective. Your entire district is one third the size of our high school. There are more “academically excpetional” students at our one school than you listed in your entire district. Example: 90 admits to Cornell. I don’t think you can draw the conclusions you are drawing about “their academic accomplishments paling compared to other soft factors” - the reality is in a huge applicant pool there is a critical mass of students whose academic accomplishments also clear the bar for admissions, so they all need to be the full package. Academics have to be strong, but with so many students who have that, what else will distinguish them? CMU is a great school, so obviously, your student is an attractive candidate. With highly selective schools, at a certain point, it is a lottery: Harvard, for example, has said that they could scrap the entire admitted class and admit a whole other incoming cohort who are equally impressive. So, it is probably not academic vs. soft factors, but academics + other aspects of the application. And there are far more attractive candidates with both than there are spaces.
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We are like a thousand miles far from Chicago, we visited it once about 10 years ago. After my son got waitlisted for U-Chicago even without an interview, I became interested on it. The university is much nicer than I expected, and we definitely will make a college tour if my son get off from the waitlisted. As of now U-Chicago is his top choice if accepted. Hopefully thing is going well to him.
I don’t think you have understood my perspective in numerous posts here. The incremental effort that goes into being a top student, from say a 10th ranked student (in a large school) is significant, however, T20 deem them to be of same cohort, students of equal academic strengths. Similarly, if you chip away at a 1600 SAT and 36 ACT being in the same pool as 1500-1550 or 33-35 ACT, you are diluting the objective standards. Add to that academic rigor, GPA and all the other measurable things, if they all appear same to you, you begin to differentiate between their soft factors (essays, ECs, LOR, adversity, volunteering etc). Point being these top students don’t do their academics in absence of other soft factors, they do it in addition to. But they are pooled as all equally accomplished cohort, and their effort put into academics is neglected. Of the 30 I mentioned, 28 are headed to state flagships - 5 are NMF, have high or exceptional SAT/ACT, have class rank 1-2, cumulative GPA approaching 5.0, 12-25 DE/AP, are varsity captains, volunteer etc. I could go on, all headed to flagships. Problem isn’t at Chicago alone, this is true at all T20 schools. You say there are too many of these students. I say there are appx 1000-2000 such students nationwide, and they deserve a shot at T20 (with 40,000 slots) for their exceptional academic results.
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For those with waitlisted kids, where should they send their continued interest letter? Upload it to the portal or email it to an admissions officer? How do they know who their admissions officer is? Thank you!
At Chicago the essay is not an add-on or a “soft factor” to more important measurements. If a kid believes that’s all it is - or that writing cogently and originally are easy - well, that’s the reason that kid isn’t going to get in to Chicago.
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Chicago does not do interviews.
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I think I DO understand it and am pushing back on it as gently as I know how. Your estimation of how many 1600 SATs or 36 ACT there are, alone, seems inaccurate and the sample size of your tiny district may be too small to be meaningful in the big picture. There were 24 1600 SAT scorers applying from.our one high school alone to UChi. The other big specialized high schools in NYC have at least as many. There were 30-50 acceptances to UChi per year from our school. That not one out of 30 from one tiny school district made it might speak to the district not being known or having a track record the schools are familiar with. Our school is nationally known. Prep schools that are feeders are known. It may have zero to do with your kid, the application, etc and everything to do with the rep, deserved or not, of your district. Small district may just be too small to be on schools’ radars. That said, the word dilute, quite honestly is sort of offensive. Like get that 1580 dummy outta here before they ruin the applicant pool with their inferiority. Honestly, I am a teacher and I wonder about the implications of that statement. I would love to have you read apps and see if you can tell a 1550 from a 1600. I am pretty sure you won’t be able to.
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So, my son knows a kid who, is a bonafide math genius, math Olympiad medalist As a high school student he is a teaching assistant at Princeton and has a patent pending for the military He is only one of.many such kids in local test-entry high schools. I feel like the 30 kids you feel “deserve” T20 do not have this kind of resume. I will stand corrected if they do. Our school had nearly 200 NMSF at at least half usually become finalists. I think the perspective that there are only 1000-2000 kids with top grades and scores is not only sort of besides the point, but also off base in terms of data. No one deserves a spot. Not even this kid. But he was offered a bunch of them.
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I did not imply that all 30 deserve a spot at T20, there are 1-2 standouts like the student you mention, GPA, rank, extreme rigor, co-curriculum interests, and other things to go with it. They aren’t just singular with academics alone, they also have a unique combination of other “and” clauses. I stand by my comment, there aren’t too many of these kids, even at your school (there is only one class rank 1, unless you stopped ranking). If your school has 30 of 1600 SAT scorers, it’s outstanding as there are fewer than a 1000 in the country. If there are 200 NMF, that’s also outstanding because there are fewer than 15000 nationwide of which 7200 will be scholars. But amongst this cohort, there is that first amongst equals, who shines in multiple fronts, yet is often overlooked by T20. Perhaps not at your school (being a feeder school), but is common in the Midwest where I come from.
I have beat this horse to death. If you don’t get my point, move on. No offence was intended, nor one should be taken.
Does anyone know what the contract looks like for the gap year option? What does U of C require that students do during that gap year?