My kid did this with relative ease, with his shirt always buttoned up, never a care for the multiverse (although he did enjoy his AP Physics, DE Astronomy classes). And he scored a 36 ACT back in early 9th grade un-prepped. Perhaps in the eyes of these admission officers, he stopped “striving” because he was already at the top of his game, academics.
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in the state flagship, with all his DE credits, will he graduate in 2 years? Is the career he wants one that requires graduate school. I know many kids who did not get into T20 schools for undergrad, but did so for Grad school. I assume at the state flagship he is also in honors college?
It does not seem right that a child that has done everything but “walk on water” cannot get accepted to T20 school/Uchicago , but this is how admissions goes these days.
My S did not attend a T50 school, graduated in 3 years, and is working in his field and knocking it out of the ballpark. College sometimes is a means to end for some, though for others, they truely love academia and go on for advanced degrees.
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Yes he can likely graduate in two years, and has honors acceptances. I do see him pursuing graduate degrees, PhD even. The point I am trying to convey (as a disappointed parent with the admissions process) is that academics just doesn’t cut it, these kids are seen through a unipolar lenses. It’s not as if T20 have hundreds of these kind of applicants (I am saying this because my son is considered an exceptional student by his district). If there isn’t a spot for him at T20, it’s their loss. He will do well no matter where he goes, and like someone who said up here, will one day make a difference.
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Does anyone know how many applicants UChicago waitlists? And how many waitlisted applicants did they admit last year?
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They do not share this information, it is omitted from their CDS.
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The rest of that sentence was my point about the kid who might not have, on paper, the same stats as kids who have been waitlisted or denied - the kid who is a math prodigy and thinks about math and string theory all the time, learns about it outside of coursework, reads, attends lectures, and asks intense questions, and devotes most of his EC time to that pursuit is pointy. So that kid might have an 80 in Spanish (no walking on agua for him), but graduate school level independent work in math, published research, and a rec from a professor saying he is a prodigy that one comes across rarely. I have been teaching since 1994 and that kid stood out as the best kid in math in over 20 years. But if you look at his stats you might wonder, why him? Your child is super good at everything, which makes him amazing in a different way. I am sure he will stand out and get a spot somewhere where he will bring his brilliance and it will all work out. Wishing him (and everyone on this thread) the absolute best.
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I appreciate your note. My kid is that pointy math nerd you refer to. He has done college level math for past 3 years, after AP Calc in 9th grade. He hasn’t studied string theory but that pursuit may be fraught with other competing theories anyhow! He has taken linear algebra and other DEq, PDEq and related classes in micro/macro economics and performed at the top of his classes at our flagships. All of this pointy stuff somehow must reflect in transcripts, grades, LoRs, which he has, otherwise it’s BS with a kid pontificating 11 dimensions needed for string theory (say in essays) and not have anything to show for. I sound bitter (I am not actually, just trying to understand admission policy), but I am told his level of performance and academic rigor is considered exceptional by his district. The thing that works against him is that he is of Asian ethnicity. He is happy to compete, meanwhile here I am, expecting a reward, even as he goes about his ways nonchalantly! Appreciate all the insights you have provided here. Best to one & all.
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I feel your pain. My kid has slightly “lower” stats but taught himself calculus and I once found him studying 200 level college physics in the middle of the night on summer vacation (he got the book from his high school teacher). He’s terrible at self promotion, though, so I’m sure his UChicago essays/interest wasn’t enough. Denied. We don’t even have a way for him to take dual enrollment at a university except online (how he completed Applied Linear Algebra this year). People in forums always mention research and we tried to connect him with some but couldn’t figure out how to make that happen (I’m a little cranky about that). It felt like I was butting my head against some secret “elite” glass ceiling.
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Not so helpful for you after the fact (and I am sorry about the denial - he sounds amazing and will rock the math dept wherever he goes), but research access is, unlike pay to play programs, free and open to all. Regeneron or Siemens research programs are an equitable path to get involved in research. My kid did Regeneron without a mentor because it was Covid lockdown. Finding a mentor can be challenging, but it is not because of anything I would term elite - it is because grad students are abundant, then undergrads, then, if there is space, high school students. However, small local colleges often do have space. My kid ended up, in the 11th hour, finding a CUNY Baruch professor to read the paper. No special elite anything - just willingness to write a LOT of e-mails to ask. I don’t think research necessarily is the make or break item, but if it is something you want as part of the profile, it is doable. Data science, for example, is a good way in because you can take publicly available data and use it for an investigation. There are fancy companies that charge you to help you figure out how to do all this, but all the kids we know who did research paid $0 and had no special “in”. The one thing that it does take is a lot of time - so a kid who needs to work to make $ for a family contribution is disadvantaged in terms of taking on research, but otherwise, it is an EC that is cost free. Hope this helps someone reading this thread with younger kids who might want to get involved in research. Best to all the math nerds out there - some of my favorite students of all time were the math nerds, even though I am an English teacher (who taught the research paper class!). 
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In case you want to peruse the types of projects that finalists did: 2023 Regeneron STS Finalists - Society for Science
Exactly this! My son was actually rejected by UChicago ED1, and we are expecting to go 0/4 on Ivy day (maybe Cornell will come through as he is a double legacy, but I even have my doubts on that). But, do you know which schools actually look for the super bright students, in their subject area? The ones in the UK. My son was accepted to Oxford University in January, and now I am so thankful that Chicago rejected him ED in December. And luckily, not at all stressed now about ivy day. These US institutions have their priorities and those priorities do not necessarily include taking the brightest kids, as one can see from reading about all the waitlists and rejections in this thread, despite highly impressive credentials.
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Congrats on Oxford. Our student is also leaning towards UK if he gets into LSE or UCL. US college admissions has become an agenda filled/non-transparent/stressful/legacy/sports/nepotism/corruption (AKA Singer) process that doesn’t really use any objective criteria to admit students. I really wish couple of private colleges step out of the mold and just admit students on academic criteria only and as objective criteria as possible including strict standardized testing like Oxford. They can save lot of money on admissions office tea leaf readers. That should give a choice to students who are just interested in academics and not in sports and other things just like UK colleges. If they start thriving it should provide a balance to the holistic admissions and give a true choice to students/parents.
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There’s more to a person than just grades dude, you can’t just look at academics and just let a bunch of book smart people get access to higher education. There’s a reason the US universities often take a holistic approach, they’re looking for well balanced students that they believe have the same mission as theirs.
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Well I respect your opinion if you believe in the holistic admissions. I don’t believe in holistic admissions for rigorous academic disciplines. All I am saying is why not have that diversity out there and give students/parents the choice on what they prefer. If one believes in holistic admissions, they are free to apply and go there and go through this nebulous process of reading tea leaves. For students/parents who prefer a more objective approach they can go to those colleges. Those colleges can reduce spend on admissions offices and instead invest more in labs and R&D. That way everyone is comfortable with that process they want to go with.
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Its interesting to note that besides rigorous academics, UChicago seems to favor “quirkiness” and outside of the box thinkers that show through in the essays and video…gone are the days were high SAT scores and GPAs were a guarantee of admission…
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It’s much more than that, most T20 schools see academic excellence as the sole contribution the candidate makes towards school applications (the super overachievers, my kid has rigor & cumulative GPA that’s unheard of in prior 20 years that I know of). They get boxed in as unidimensional students of ORM ethnicity, devoid of soul in so called “holistic” criterion. Answer me this, are there thousands or even hundreds of students scoring a 36 in ACT in late 8th grade? Or take higher theory of math (beyond linear algebra) in high school? Best I know, there is a handful of these kids in a state. If a beautifully written essay or an LoR overcomes a lifetime of proven academics, god help us all!
I have experienced holistic admissions now with both my kids, both destined to state flagships (nothing wrong), without any offers from T20 schools. It’s disheartening. One kid already made it to T20 for graduate school, and the other likely will, but it’s a long circuitous way to get there and unhelpful for kids who don’t aspire to graduate schools. There has to be a place in T20 for super academic achievers, but unless you are hooked, there isn’t.
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Teacher here: I not only grade students and write college recommendations, but I also choose students for research and I promise you, choosing kids solely on their academic record which is a number out of 100 is not how I would ever operate. The students with the highest grades do not always posess the qualities I need them to have to excel in the lab. Once kids hit a certain threshold, there are other things that differentiate them. One more or less DE class or AP is not it. One more or less point on their GPA is not it. It is like my Dad always said of his surgical residents: I don’t care if you went to Harvard Medical School if you don’t know how to tie a knot, you are not going to be a good surgeon. I need my research students to be able to handle rigor, but I need more than that from them: I need them to be intellectual risk takers, to be able to handle failure, and a host of other things that are not measurable in a grade. High SAT scores and GPAs were never a “guarantee” of admission. And high SAT scores can indicate only so much: once you hit a certain threshold, what they can tell you to differentiate students is almost nothing statistically significant. High GPA’s are also limited in how they can be used to differentiate students for many reasons, but the fact that sometimes intellectual risk takers care less about the A than the research question, and the kid with the A did something safe they knew would produce an A (very real in my teaching at both the high school and college levels) is something I design my research application to help me suss out. There are no such things as guarantees, and objectivity is mythical - it has always been that way (whether it should be or not, I am not going to open that can of worms here), but the language that suggests that something has changed to make the process less of a guarantee or less objective just seems like a faulty narrative. I am not sure what is meant by “rigorous academic disciplines” - I think that might be a code for STEM subjects, but UChicago is a liberal arts school where math students take Humanities, art, languages. And Humanities students study math and science. And what makes a humanities student stand out is also some degree of intellectual and creative risk taking. That is always going to be subjective to some degree. So, out of the box thinking is not some BS factor - it is often the factor that matters the most. In a room full of smart, able kids, the out of the box thinker, in my experience, is often the one who makes the most impact. Earning A’s vs. discovering things, making something new, taking chances. I am not saying UChicago does not miss students who have all of that and a bag of chips. They do. It is not an exact science. But I am not sure it ever could be, or should be.
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You call “Quirkiness”. I call “Reading tea leaves”.
I don’t think folks who prefer holistic (subjective) will ever agree to Objective (data) and vice versa. I just wish there were some colleges that go beyond reading tea leaves to offer objective admission standards to students/parents who would prefer that. Nothing wrong with giving that choice to students/parents.
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Beautiful writers are also valuable because to be a beautiful writer, you have to be a deep thinker. There is a place on a liberal arts campus for this kind of student, too. Beautiful writing is insightful, self aware writing. A beautiful writer can also have a lifetime of proven academics, but the proof can be in the advanced writing courses they have taken, the publications, the awards. Letters of recommendation - I write them and have done so since 1994 - are important because they speak to who a student is in class, in a community. A college campus is a community. I also interviewed students for my alma mater, an Ivy and can tell you that a few students came in with binders full of accomplishments. Truly impressive academics. And they did not get in. I can never know why, but I do know that as a teacher, those students do not always get glowing recommendations. Why? I am not suggesting any of this is true of any of you, but in one case, a kid was unable to successfully work with others and share the stage, so to speak. He was impatient and condescending to his classmates. In another, the kid was so concerned with being impressive, he only talked of his accomplishments and not about what he wanted to do with all of that accomplishment. One of my most successful students ever was an artist who was inspired by her CAD teacher’s injury to design a prosthetic hand that not only functioned better, but was more lifelike. She had a story about what she wanted to do, what skills she would use from her impressive array, and had a hand prototype to show for it. Yes, she took a lot of hard courses and did very well in them. Yes, her scores were impressive. But she had this extra thing she really cared about and was applying her skills to. So, if you think I was reading tea leaves when I selected her, so be it. I am a good tea leaf reader, then, I guess.
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The “problem” is that there genuinely ARE that many super smart, competitive applicants. How are schools supposed to differentiate them all? They have to find ways to look for something unique. It’s a lot of pressure on kids and their parents. We start to feel that them being themselves isn’t enough.
And, not every school/ kid has access to the same opportunities that others have, like “beyond linear algebra”.
My kid was accepted, and it is the number one choice right now. 
Also had amazing sat, gpa, etc, etc… just happened to attend a very average high school who didn’t offer anything or allow anything after Calculus BC.
I think the “soft” factors show a student cares about more than just doing well in school, such as volunteering or contributing to their school and community, which I’m sure most kids do.
When I see other kids “stats” (like they’re race horses 
) I wonder what made my kid stand out? Amazing essays for sure, just unique and heartfelt, a video that hopefully showed a very genuine personality, but I’m also sure that plenty of kids had those as well and didn’t get in or were waitlisted.
Also has gotten rejected already from several.
I can’t help but imagine that many of these amazing kids who haven’t already, will be accepted to ivies next Thursday or get scholarships at other schools.
The reality is that the quality and quantity of applicants to top schools just keeps rising. Many people who I’ve met that went to great schools say they wouldn’t be admitted now.
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