UChicago Chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

So a couple things. I am a high school senior and I just submitted E.D. II to the University of Chicago. I’m looking for some opinions of what my chances may be.

I work at a research hospital working on the cure for Alzheimer’s, last year I was basically working full time at a restaurant, I have a bunch of volunteering and extracurricular activities on my resume including managing two nonprofits, coordinating 1000+ people events, gold medals from athletics and speech/debate, etcetera etcetera. I’ve lived all over the world, been to 30+ countries (not that it matters lol) and I can pay full tuition. Letters of rec. are good I’m pretty sure. I really liked my essays.

However, the catch for me is that I only have a 3.5ish GPA (my private school doesn’t do AP, so it’s only unweighted). Even worse(?) I have a 1300/1600 SAT.

My Freshman and Sophomore years drag down my GPA (was B student back then) but in Junior year I basically got all A’s or A-'s. This year I’m on track to get A’s in everything except my math classes (prob B+) which would bring me up to a 3.6 or so.

Best case scenario is 3.7 with 1300. What do y’all think? Do I have a chance?
Thanks!

2

Hey! I’m a high school student too, but I went to one of their info sessions this past summer and dean of admissions said that their essays can really make or break an application. I remember she mentioned a student who was kind of average all around but had really creative essays that got him in. In all honesty, the SAT score may be a little low (but what do I know lol) but if your essays are good enough and you can pay full I think you’d have a good chance.

3

UChicago is one that places an inordinate amount of emphasis on the essays. Pretty sure they’d let a turtle in if it was creative enough with its writing. SAT and GPA are definitely below average but maybe not enough to eliminate you if your essays are really good.