UChicago Chances? + Loyola and Berkeley

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

My top school is UChicago for various reasons, but the most important one is that my mom works at the UChicago Medical Center and as her dependent child the tuition discount is amazing. But being her child doesn’t give me any advantage in getting accepted, that’s all on me. In freshman year I thought I was just going to have to work hard and I’d get it, sophomore year I stopped being naive and believed I absolutely could never get in, and now I just want to know what others think.

Junior
Unweighted 4.0
Rank 5 out of 290
30 on the practice ACT taken in sophomore year, plan to take it next April
PSAT taken sophomore year:
620 reading/writing
580 math
(Very average, I know. I took the PSAT again this year and I think I did much better, I’ll be taking the SAT through my school as well as the ACT, because Illinois does the SAT now)

Took 2 AP’s in the past, scored 4 on both
This year I’m taking APUSH, AP Bio, AP English, AP Psych, and honors algebra 2.
I plan to take a trig/pre-calc class at a nearby college over the summer, and in senior year I’ll be taking AP Calc, AP Computer Science, AP Chem, AP English, AP Gov, and AP Microeconomics.

Now, for my biggest flaw, and the sole reason I’m convinced that I can’t get in; my extracurriculars.
I just started getting into some this year and it looks like I just stacked up on them. I never took any in freshman or sophomore year because I was new and transferred (within the same district) and was just scared off of joining anything. Also I didn’t have rides home.
Now I’m in mathletes, NHS, I do tutoring, and I’m in science club and literary mag. I know they’re good extracurriculars, but the fact that I just started doing them this year is so glaring.

That’s about it. I don’t do any crazy volunteer work outside of school, I’m not a part of any cool programs. I’m middle eastern so while I’m technically a minority, my race is still white so I don’t think I could pull that card. I have 0 absences if that counts for anything lol.
Also, what do you think of my chances for Loyola and Berkely? I want to ask about Northwestern too but I’d assume that the response for UChicago would be the same.

2

If it helps any, my parents are immigrants, dad dropped out of college and mom went for a 2-year program. I’m hard of hearing so maybe that shows that I’ve put in more work to be able to do well despite a disability?

3

bump

4

Applying ED would probably boost your chances significantly.

I would not dwell on what did or did not happen in the past. Enjoy the ECs that you have begun this year. And when you apply, spend time on the essays because they are a significant part of your application. Also do what you can to obtain competitive ACT/SAT scores.

There is a place on the common app to discuss special circumstances if you wish to include your hearing disability.

5

I agree. While your class rank and GPA look good, you’ll need to boost your test scores to get in. All of these tests can be prepped for, so if you can afford one, get a tutor. If you can’t, go on khan academy, or other prep sites that can help. A lot of these tests just come down to practice. If you’ve gotten a 30 on the ACT without prep, it’s feasible to bump it up 2-3 points, or even more if you really, really work at it. As for extracurriculars, it’s not over yet, but don’t try and diversify yourself unnecessarily to compensate for not doing many early in high school.

In fact, i can see you making something of a story out of your extracurricular history: You came in to high school without much exposure to them, it took you a while to get up the courage or something to start trying them, you tried out a bunch of different ones junior year, and in senior year (This is to close it all off, I think doing this will help a lot) you took a big leadership position in just one or two of the clubs you’re in because you found you were passionate about those. Just being a member of clubs doesn’t really matter to colleges. Take some leadership roles in them, and that will strengthen your app a lot. Oh, and you’ll probably have a good shot at loyola, more of a reach at berkeley, depends on tests scores and what you apply to though.

You’re still a junior, so you have time. Nothing is final until you send in your app, you’ve got almost a year until then. Good luck

6

Those test scores will not gain admission to Berkeley.
The UC’s are public universities funded by the state, so you will not receive any funding to attend. Can your parents afford $55K per year?