UChicago Class of 2023 Applicants

@LANYLA congrats on your daughter getting in her #1 ED…so she will have to withdraw her application now from Chicago, right? If she applied ED to the other school? I wasn’t sure what you meant by “in the meantime”?

@eaglez316 There is still hope for merit. My daughter was accepted EA last year and got a merit scholarship. But she was notified about merit $$ several weeks later - can’t remember exactly when, maybe late Jan or early Feb. Congrats on your acceptance!

This is my first comment on this site, but I was accepted ED1! Does anybody know if there’s a group chat for admitted students or anything yet?

accepted ed!!

I was just accepted test optional for ED 1

@gugugu
Congrats! Did you submit any act scores and did you even submit your sat score?

My stats are pretty weak compared to some that I’ve heard about… I have a 3.9 GPA and don’t take honors/AP’s/IB’s due to the fact that my school doesn’t offer them. I sent my progress report with comments instead of my ACT, which was pretty dismal. I have a C and a couple -B’s on my transcript from freshmen year. I didn’t think that my stats were good enough, especially since I wasn’t going to send test scores, so today was a rather pleasant surprise. I guess they’re serious about accepting people test optional, because I made it in! So happy to be a part of the class of 2023 :)))))

@afw2023 some admissions committees will weight the freshman year less than sophomore or junior. Lack of access to AP/IB isn’t generally an issue since the student has no control. 3.9 (uw?) is a great gpa and you clearly demonstrated something that the admissions committee liked. Question: what are you planning to major in?

@JBStillFlying My gpa is unweighted. I’m probably going to major in poli sci. I also applied from a state that they don’t get many apps from and isn’t as academically competitive as other regions of the country so idk…

@JBStillFlying My stats are good, I was just surprised that I was accepted test optional because I don’t have some of the crazy academic accomplishments that other competitive applicants have. For example, one of my friends that is a national merit finalist got rejected and I thought they were going to be a shoo-in. I think that my recs, activities, and essays were pretty strong.

Sally Rubenstone has an interesting take on the “optional video”:

https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/are-optional-application-essays-and-videos-really-optional/

Wondering who did and who didn’t submit, and how their decision came down.

D was deferred EA. Really wanted Chicago but we were unaware of the ED bias and hence applied EA. Lesson learned so She will ED2 now. Can you pls advice what can be done to improve chances. We felt she has good stats and essays, within range of what we see for those accepted. She has decent refs, EC’s, No FA. Applied to Econ.

@BinBon My daughter and I went on the tour yesterday and it sounded like Econ is what they’re known the most for, I presume that is the most difficult major to apply for. Good luck to your daughter!!

My son is in the UChicago class of 2022. He applied ED1 and was deferred to RD. We knew it was a longshot to get accepted after deferral but he was determined to do everything he could to get in to the school he knew was where he was supposed to be. My advice if you were deferred is to write a heartfelt LOCI (letter of continued interest) and be sure to mention every accomplishment since the original application was submitted. Make sure that UChicago knows how much it means to you. Don’t give up hope but definitely focus on other schools you’re interested in as well. Good luck!

@alliblues You can have a feel of the distribution of majors at UChicago College by checking University published statistics. As of Autumn Quarter 2018, there are 940 declared Econ majors, by far the largest number.

https://uchicago.app.box.com/s/trkqpw1ztu0lc4niahgz0y7g6eyqt6z6/file/337879473889

That means Econ major is popular but I personally don’t think it will affect the student application status if the applicant declares himself/herself a future Econ major. Students change their majors frequently upon entering The College.

DS was accepted ED! good luck to everyone.

DD accepted ED1! Physics major, music minor. No hooks. 1530 SAT, 34 ACT, 4.0 unweighted gpa, 4.3 weighted, NMSF. She did do the optional video. Recorded in her room by herself - very amateurish, but sweet. She played her cello in the video and just talked about some things that were not highlighted in her app. She’s beyond excited. I truly think it was her essays and the video that put her over the edge. She also had a handful of email conversations with her admissions counselor over the last few months.

Do admissions know if you applied ED or REA elsewhere while Applying EA to UC?

@BinBon That is a controversial question. I don’t think so, it technically doesn’t say they can’t, but many people believe that the sharing of lists is a violation of Anti-Trust statutes. There has been some discussion that some schools may share information.

I think they only share lists if you are accepted and there’s no evidence that UChicago does so.

They might presume that you’ve applied ED elsewhere; I have a hunch that might have hurt my kid in the EA round two years ago. She loved UChicago but had signaled that it wasn’t necessarily first choice. She hadn’t applied anywhere ED, but UChicago didn’t know that.