Will I get an acceptance letter w/ a 27 ACT? :/

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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<p>I REALLY want to go here and I would be so happy if I got in.</p>

<p>-School: Public School--Illinois suburb
-First generation student
-Heart condition--granted a wish from the Make-A-Wish foundation</p>

<p>REACH/MATCH/DREAM?
NYU
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO</p>

<p>SAFTIES
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY--GOT IN--W/ Scholarship
BOSTON UNIVERSITY</p>

<p>ACT: 27 (I was sick...and i hate the act now)
Class Rank: 124/502 (25%), this was junior yr, I think I'm top 15-20% now
WGPA: 4.875/5.0 (before you wonder why my gpa is weird...this is directly from my transcript!--so it is CORRECT! haha--sorry just wanted to clear that up)
UGPA: 4.525/5.0
***BOTH WENT UP SENIOR YEAR-Mid-yr report
AP SCORES: LIT--4</p>

<p>Freshmen Yr.
French II-B/B
Global Issues-A/B
English I-A/A
Algebra I-A/A
Biology-B/A
other electives--all As</p>

<p>Soph Yr.
French III-B/B
English II-A/A
2D/3D Art-A/A
Honors Geometry-B/B
Chemistry-B/A</p>

<p>Junior Yr.
French IV Honors-A/B
US History Honors-B/B
Photo I/II-A/A
AP English Lang-B/B
Journ/Creative Writing Honors-A/A
Algebra II Honors-B/B
Physics Honors-B/B</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule:
AP Macroeconomics-2nd semester
AP Biology-B
AP Psych-B
AP English Lit-A
AP French-A
Honors Govt-B
Honors Pre-Calc-C (I know! It's my first C. But it is honors and my teacher sucks!)</p>

<p>XRTAS
-Newspaper Editor (9-12)--ALOT OF HOURS! TOTALLY EXTRACURRICULAR--Not a class during school. We have production week when we are at school until 9 pm!
-French Club Member (10-12)
-French NHS President (11-12)
-NHS (12)
-NArtHS (11-12)
-MHS (11-12)
-School Play Publicity Prodcution Member (10)</p>

<p>VOLUNTEER
-Messenger at Hospital (11-12)--every other saturday...two hour shift
-Dog Walker/Cat Socializer (8,11-12)--once a week--two hour shift
-Food Bank Volunteer (10, 11-12)--once every other week--three hour shift</p>

<p>ACHIEVEMENTS
-International First Place for Quill & Scroll--Overall Newspaper (3 yrs in a row)
-Columbia University Silver Crown Award--Overall Newspaper (3 yrs in a row)
-MHS, NHS, MHS, FNHS, NAHS enrollment award
-Upstate 8 Honorable Mention (Photography)
-Certificate of Participation at UC's Medical School's Mini-Medical School for a Day Biomedical Research Day--Got accepted out of all Chicagoland high school applicants...400 accepted. <em>Really sparked my interest in the medical field.</em></p>

<p>CAREER PATH
-Cardiothoracic Surgeon--same field as my heart condition...I want to pay if forward...in a way. I want to get involved in the same field that saved my life. </p>

<p>ESSAYS
-I've got alot of interesting topics with Make-A-Wish and my heart condition and different events...plus I used to want to be a journalist and have taken many writing classes. I am a skilled writer so these won't be a problem. Update: My essays (I believe, are amazing! and so do others! I dont wanna give away my topic but it was very creative!) Everyone that has read them was amazed at how interesting and creative they were. </p>

<p>RECS
-My AP Lang. Teacher-had him for two yrs. He went to Northwestern U. He is the best writer I know and we are great friends.
-I got my US History teacher--HIS REC IS AMAZING! he is very intelligent and really saw something in me. </p>

<p>I really want to know if I can get into here. I am applying RD. What are my chances? I'm hoping my weaker parts like my act and rank will be overshadowed by my writing and personality that will shine through my writing. Thanks so much...and for you fellow college bounders--Good Luck!</p>

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<p>You never can tell; granted, your ACT is not going to knock their socks off. If your essays are truly as good as you think, that should be a big help. If you want to make a last-ditch effort, contact the admissions office (especially your local officer) incessantly enough to communicate your interest in the school. If it’s clear you’ll go there, that gives them greater incentive to accept you. But I wouldn’t count on it.</p>

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<p>Don’t do this. You’ll just annoy them.</p>

<p>OP: Five years ago you would have had a chance. I’m not so sure about now.</p>

4

<p>Anything is possible, but just for comparison I have a 1570 out of 1600 on SAT, 3.9 out of 4.0 and I am a National Merit Finalist. I was deferred EA and everyone says deferrals have no chance of acceptance.</p>

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<p>HAAVAIN: That got me in EA with a 94% average, ranked 33rd in a class of ~400.
My SATs and essays also helped.</p>

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<p>hmmm. so do you think I should call them? Who do I call? What do I say? I really am in love with the school but will it just come off as desperate if I basically beg to be accepted? I mean, I really don’t know what I would tell them that wasn’t expressed in my essays.</p>

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<p>Well, I obviously didn’t call every day to “beg for acceptance”; but I was very liberal in emailing my admissions officer with questions. Rather than coming up with a comprehensive list of questions, I emailed whenever they came to mind; by the time my local admissions person visited my school, he already knew who I was. The point is that when he or she reads your application and prepares a recommendation on it, if he/she knows who you are, the predisposition is likely to be more favorable.
Sometimes, it could also help to contact professors and let admissions know. Anything that shows you’re sincerely interested in the school can’t hurt (so long as it is within reason). Or so was my experience.</p>

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<p>fineform: Anything is possible, but just for comparison I have a 1570 out of 1600 on SAT, 3.9 out of 4.0 and I am a National Merit Finalist. I was deferred EA and everyone says deferrals have no chance of acceptance. </p>

<p>hmmm this is a real head scratcher…
i had a 1460, 3.88, no nmsf…got in EA. what were your essays like</p>

9

<p>No one on this website can accurately chance you…so as long as your try hard enough, they will see that.</p>

<p>Good luck</p>

10

<p>It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to overcome a poor ACT score when your grades are also subpar.</p>

11

<p>Omg. 3.9 out of 4.0 GPA and 35 ACT. I was deferred as well. Im quite sad about it actually. :(</p>

12

<p>philosopher is right.</p>

<p>I had a severe downward trend in my grades (I had a personal circumstance… but it wasn’t really on my app that much). But, I emailed the rep 3-4 times with questions and talked to her with some really in depth specific questions at the visit (like, how my transfer credit would work… she could tell I researched). I also sent in an update to my application a couple weeks before decisions came out for EA. In the first paragraph, I was all like “I hope it isn’t too late to update. I love Chicago sooo much and I hope this helps!” the whole email was included in my app, so it was VERY obvious that I was interested. I had a 35 ACT and a 3.77 UW GPA (they only saw my 4.53 weighted GPA). NMS semi. I had a pretty good app except for the whole downward trend thing (worse than Bs… I’ll put it that way). But, really, who knows with Chicago? Anyways, I was accepted EA and I’m going.</p>

<p>Good Luck!!!</p>

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<p>@philosopher: It was the word “incessantly” that twigged me. If you have something to say, questions to ask, a good reason to talk to the adcom, then of course feel free but don’t contact people for the sake of contacting them.</p>

<p>I would also question how you know that’s what got you in.</p>

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<p>HonorsCentaur - I think my essays were good; that is what everyone told me. </p>

<p>I am not sure essays are ever the 1 thing that gets you in…or gets you rejected. College admission can be very subjective. I know that I did all I could to turn in an excellent application so what more can I say?</p>

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<p>Somewhere between a reach and a dream.</p>

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<p>@ fineform and Eurasianboy:
ahhh I am at a loss of words, what on earth could have happened? lol. sorry to both of you, but good luck in RD and everywhere else.</p>

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<p>If there’s anything to be taken from this and every other chance thread that’s on this entire website, it’s that it’s quite literally impossible to predict anyone’s outcome upon applying at a given school. I tend to think that chance me threads only increase anxiety anyway…are you really convinced when someone says you have 100% chance of getting in? You’re certainly not going to believe someone who says you have NO chance of getting in. At the risk of being criminally cliched, do your best and hope for the best. If there’s really something else that could possibly be done,I haven’t heard of it. </p>

<p>…unless you have inside connections, but that’s something you either already know about or don’t. ;)</p>

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<p>I’m not feeling confident about my chances :(</p>

<p>SAT… V:730, M:710, W:700
SAT II… biology: 730, history: 760, math II: 660, French: 610
AP tests… statistics: 4, biology: 5, US History: 5</p>

<p>GPA 3.71 (unweighted)
National Merit Finalist, Advanced Placement Merit Award, Varsity soccer, newspaper editor</p>

<p>Given the 42% increase in the number of applicants this year I’m not feeling too confident in my chances. I guess I can always hope :)</p>

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<p>wow fineform i am genuinely confused as to why you didn’t get in</p>