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Old 08-10-2009, 05:24 PM   #2
enderkin
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: NJ >>>University of Chicago '12
Posts: 1,275
Chanceswise, you have a shot. Chicago's never been rigidly emphatic about grades or scores. It generally looks for certain types of people, those who will carry the Chicago tradition proudly. You seem like you are able to handle that burden. I would say to raise your test scores, but I have friends with scores like yours and grades much lower.

When you write your essays, be real. Parse your words a little bit, but say what you need to say, naturally. My response about my favorite books/movies/whatever turned into an adoring praise of Orson Scott Card and Terry Pratchett. I wrote a story about growing old and watching my wife pass away, because I'm the lame, stupid guy who likes to make love out to be as wholesome and sweet as the movies say they are.

Think about UChicago, then put that in words. Work off of that.

UChicago has a pretty rigid curriculum, depending on the major you want to pursue. The Core consists of humanities, social science, civilization studies, physical science, bio, and a language (varying quarters for each; most are not extraordinarily difficult classes and tend to be very interesting). These are classes that people would want to take regardless of the requirement--oftentimes they are taught by PhD professors and are extremely educational. It is a solid part of UChicago--a bad joke is that a pickup line here consists of a guy saying "So what SOSC section are you in?".

On the flipside, you will have enough room for any electives you want (caveat: certain majors ARE very demanding, but doable). The quarter system is hard as hell, but the upside is that you can take 33% more classes than any semester-based school. Schedule to your heart's desire.

I never had an interview, so I can't help you there. Then again, I got into UChicago, so I don't particularly vouch for/against it.

Japanese and C++ is easy to fit in. You can come up with more than that, right? You'll need to if you come here. I think we have an entire department devoted to studying Russian writers and civilization. Hell, some will count for the Core as well. No Forensic science to my knowledge (although the Midway turns into a virtual tundra during the winter), but most of the Humanities classes are essentially Greek philosophy and/or Great Books classes.

If this is your style, come. It will not be easy, but we'll be good to you.
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