<p>High School: Private Catholic School. Best in area.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Track and Field(Grade(s): 10,11,12) (Possible recruit by the University.)
Cross Country (12)
Member of Animal Rights group at my High School. (12)
Football (10)
Prayer Group (9,10,11)
Service work (9,10,11,12)
Church Youth Group (11,12)</p>
<p>Additional Details:
Only Catholic in my entire family. Obtained over 80 hours of service and expecting more. Very active in my church. I am a African-American hoping to have no debt after college. Both parents went to college. Excelled at my interview and essays are very good. (I had my essays looked at by multiple english teachers.) Have very good recomendation letters. Applied Early Action.</p>
<p>Possible Major(s) include: finance, political science and economics. </p>
<p>To be honest, it doesn’t look good for you. Your GPA is low for Uchicago, as are your test scores. Your ECs look decent but it sticks out a bit that you’ve only been doing 2 of them for this school year and football was just one year. No leadership either? Maybe you have good reasons for these things, but if not I’d say you should definitely not get your hopes up. Uchicago is a reach for pretty much everyone.</p>
<p>According to the website, UChicago takes a holistic approach to applications. I suppose that it was more on EC’s and yourself as a person rather than grades. Some of these I had to start later because they are relatively new at my school. </p>
<p>Your grades are not very good, and your ACT is below the national average. As for your extracurriculars, you need much stronger ones to make up for those bad grades and scores to have any chance at UChicago.
I would say your chances are 0% - People with perfect GPA’s get rejected to UChicago - just take a look at the average gpa/act graphs and you will see for yourself.</p>
<p>I disagree with blargenshmargen; there is no certainty at all in college admissions, ruling someone out or in by saying they have a 0% or 100% chance of getting in does nothing to help someone asking to help. It just ruins your ethos. Constructive criticism is great–even saying someone has a low chance is fine. I don’t know what you were trying to achieve by trying to predict mylifeandbeyond’s chances like that, but I’d advise that for further posts, you change your thinking. Also, it seems like he/she’s done some research on UChicago admissions, no need to say, “see for yourself” in such a pretentious tone. And yes, people with perfect gpa’s get rejected from UChicago, but people with perfect gpa’s could get rejected at a lot of places. It seems like you were going for some sort of shock factor here, but it ended up being more condescending.
Anyways, chances-wise, it will be tough to get into UChicago, I would say high reach, but the fact that you’re AA might help you.
Again, there’s no certainty in all of this.
Good luck.</p>
<p>@mylifeandbeyond
Being an AA won’t cover for your ACT, GPA, and less-than-normal EC.</p>
<p>I don’t usually say zero chance, but in your case, it’s completely out of reach. Yes, colleges take a holistic look on apps but I don’t really think that the admission officers will take your app seriously because your GPA and test result indicate that you aren’t academically fit in UChicago…do you know how rigorous and academically intense Uchicago is???</p>
<p>I don’t think the real issue is getting in, but doing well. Will you be able to handle the core? That is the first thing admissions asks themselves, even for recruited athletes. Your testing indicates that you may not be ready for college level work, much less U Chicago level work. </p>
<p>Yes as @neatoburrito mentioned, Uchicago puts a big emphasis in their core academics and the school is nothing to take easily. It also wants particulary creative students, so people without VERY genuine interest in certain kind of study and the school itself will have very hard time in Uchicago. </p>
<p>I am well aware of the academics of UChicago. I want UChicago because of the financial aid basically. Of corse I have other plans after high school if UChicago does not work out.</p>
<p>@mylifeandbeyond here’s some bitter things you need to know. </p>
<ol>
<li>Your academics records are far below the average kids who get good need based aid in ANY school.</li>
<li>Your academic records are far from enough to get merit scholarship.</li>
<li>Even if you had a good stats and other things, UChicago wouldn’t be a good fit if you applied there simply because of financial aid. There are many many top schools that offer good need/merit based aids as well.</li>
</ol>
<p>In my opinion, you need to go to community college, stack some good records, and transfer to other schools if possible. </p>
<p>I am also applying to Chicago. I am a black female with a 29 ACT and a 3.7 GPA which, no offense, are obviously higher than yours and I am worried about getting in Chicago. My Parchment chances say about 11%. You said that you want to attend this school for its financial aid. As someone implied, I don’t think it is a good idea to apply to a school solely for its financial aid. I think you would be better off applying to an in-state public school that way you won’t have to worry about financial aid as much. </p>
<p>Again I mean no offense, but if you have those specs and you go to the best private school in your area, what does that say about your school? What does that say about you?</p>
<p>I have asked for helped on these things and I rarely got any. I sincerely hope I put some things into perspective for you. Ultimately, it is in the hands of Chicago and you will never know if you never apply. Good luck!!</p>
<p>If money is your concern, it is especially important that you not be placed into remedial classes which you have to pay for, but don’t count towards your degree. I just checked our local community college, and your ACT would require you to take placement tests to determine whether you needed remedial courses before taking the college level ones. </p>
<p>I understand being lured into the elite schools’ amazing financial aid initiatives. I understand that it’s a struggle to pay for college for many families. But I also understand that it is very important to be realistic and to position yourself for success rather than failure. (and I’m not just talking about getting in) </p>
<p>Right now, you are a student who would likely need remediation in a community college. Please look for schools that would be a good fit for you and in which you can soar to new heights. </p>
<p>No, my ACT is not a typo. As replied before, I am relying on the holistic approach of UChicago to get me in. I know my test score is not high or my GPA like most of the students, but realistically I probability won’t be getting a near perfect scores or a 4.0 GPA. Now does that mean I am less than a person? No it doesn’t. All I am concerned about is paying for my higher education.</p>
<p>You shouldnt expect that the holistic review will give you even a slim chance…holistic review is only meaningful when you have something very spectuacular that doesnt appear in your test score, overcome life difficulty(being poor itself doesnt count)and manage school work at the same time, or have an extraordinary talent or all above the above. There are many many students in the us who suffer from dysfunctional background yet manage to pull out their potential in and out of school.
Or, you have to have everything on the top when you belong to none of thr examples above.
Whether you have had difficulty in your life or not, your academic credential and Ecs indicate you wont do well in the school. </p>
<p>Sorry, but you keep stressing “holistic” and though Chicago is holistic it is holistic to an extent. Not only is your GPA below there 25% but so is your ACT by a margin. To get a great upper education at a lower cost look at the state universities where you live. </p>
<p>If you are being recruited then there may be an inkling of hope as they will ask to pull up your GPA and test scores before you come to Chicago, if you are not a recruit, your chances are very slim. A lot of who you are as a person is displayed through your ECs, if your school doesnt have these, found the clubs. I founded a math and physics club at school, and a math circles within an organization. If the opportunities aren’t there, you make em. Whats the point of the aid when you arent in an environment where you arent learning, what would you do after uni? </p>