GUYS! I left my regional counselor a mail telling him UChicago was my top choice, and then informed him of my future plans at another college but I had chosen the gap year option. Will that hurt my chances? I left a mail of continued interest as soon as I was WAITLISTED.
They tell you to make other plans, so you did. I wouldn’t stress too much. The chance of getting off the waitlist are low, so try to embrace your other decisions. I know this is hard. Hang in there.
@eviola17 Are you a violist? My daughter plays and I’m sure she’d love to meet you if you both end up at UChicago. She is planning to audition for the orchestra there.
@Kathy V Yes! If I got of the waitlist by some miracle, I definitely would audition for the orchestra as well.
Not sure if this will make anyone feel better, but the head of my school counseling department called my admissions counseor at UChicago to talk about me and my admissions counselor said, “We only waitlist people we are willing to enroll.” So really, everyone has a chance. Just try your best!
I know this seems obvious, but everyone is always going on and on about it being a soft rejection. While it’s hard to get off, it’s not impossible. She didn’t HAVE to say that, but she did. It was reassuring to me.
Does anyone know how many people are waitlistlisted and for how many spots?
Is everyone here taking a gap year?
I asked my regional counselor if taking a gap year means an automatic consideration for the class of 2023, meaning a guaranteed spot and he said no, no spot is guaranteed.
I am sorry if this smashed hopes. Genuinely sorry, it just hurts to know that you worked so hard for something only to know that you might have to settle for something that is far from your top choices. It hurts to know that you did all this only to know that they will take you if someone else doesn’t go.
Good luck everyone, I am sure we will succeed and excel wherever we go because college doesn’t guarantee success nor does it define our worth.
Guys does anyone have other plans, or is everyone taking a gap year?
@cutecrab Just to clarify what you said, by clicking the “Yes, I would like to be considered for a gap year option” or simply taking a gap year does is in no way guarantee you a spot. From my understanding, most people know this. However, if UChicago offers you a spot through the gap year option, then, yes, a spot is guaranteed. They’ll contact you saying something like “are you still interested” and if you say yes then they will either say “would you like a spot in the class of 2022?” or say “you can take a gap year and enter into the class of 2023.” When they contact you and offer you the gap year option then it is guaranteed as long as your 2nd semester senior grades are strong and you didn’t completely unwind.
I’ve heard that they generally take around 25 off the waitlist for this coming year and 75 for the gap year, but I’m sure it varies each year… Also @cutecrab I emailed my regional AO and she said the same thing about the gap year as @Ashtash
@eviola17 Ok so my counselor accessed some type of stats and said there was around a 12% acceptance rate from the waitlist last year. I thought that sounded way too high and I’m not sure that I believe it. But he did say that around 200 or so got off and around 1,800 or so were waitlisted, so that makes sense
I honestly think people think the UChicago waitlists more people than it does. If you look on a thread from last year or the year before, someone had gotten off the phone with their AO and the AO said there were about 1,000 people on the waitlist, and 80 spots (which I’m assuming they meant for that current year so not counting the gap year? idk)
@Ashtash that’s a far more palatable number than the rumors on this site lol. I keep hearing about the 4,000 person waitlist, which does seem unreasonably high…
@eviola17 based on what my counselor has access to and what I’ve seen from previous waitlist threads, I would go with the lower number:) Best of luck to you!
does anyone know/can make an educated guess about whether choosing the gap year option (as well as the waitlist option) would deprioritize you for the waitlist?
@reindeercoffee I would say it increases your chance to be admitted over all. However, if you don’t want the gap year option then don’t say you do. I’m someone who really wants to attend regardless of how, but if you want to start in the fall regardless then I wouldn’t say you want to be considered for the gap year.
I would say that there are about 4000-5000 people on the waitlist, about 60% accepts a spot leaving this number to about 2500 people. And perhaps a third of the people dont even bother writing a LOCI and are just throwing their hat there. If you are full pay, thats around 1/3 of the total people, and chances are better.
@Ashtash thanks for clarifying. I was really confused. Good luck to you!
@fakemonk I honestly think there are less on the waitlist
I read in a previous post that ~3000 people were waitlisted and that was in 2012 or 2013. Not everyone accepts the offer so I guess that is where the number 1800 in your post came from.
@Ashtash Where did your counselor get those stats? Just curious. Because 12% seems way to high to me. I really hope that we can all get in!