<p>@Limabeans- thanks for the nice note! Actually, many of those postcards were written and co-designed by students… I actually wrote the information on the Scav Hunt postcard you received (if you’re talking about one received in the past year) and helped with content for number of other postcards last year, so you aren’t getting a “fake” student voice there- I’m a 3rd year on campus. Scav Hunt is definitely a blast, and it’s great to know that you think it looks awesome!</p>
<p>Thanks UChicago, for taking the time to answer all our questions so we don’t waste a bunch of time second guessing one another. Much appreciated. </p>
<p>Here are my three questions - </p>
<p>1st question - You had indicated in one of your answers, “If we read an application before the mid-year report arrives, we will review it again before making a final decision.”</p>
<p>So does that mean that if an application is without a doubt not going to accepted (bad test scores, poor essays, etc), but the mid-year report hasn’t arrived yet - the school will still wait for the mid-year report to come in before issuing a final decision?</p>
<p>2nd question - Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how much weight do the essays carry? I believe my scores, ECs, recommendations are fine - but keep thinking I should have written on a much stronger topic. How worried should I be?</p>
<p>3rd - I took the SATs three times (bad idea, by the way), and submitted all my scores. Would’ve it been better if I submitted only my top scores?</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>Which California’s high school(s) is the biggest feeder to UofC?</p>
<p>I know that UChicago doesn’t require any SAT Subject Test scores, but a couple of my Subject Test scores still got sent. Would they affect the application in any way?</p>
<p>I’m kind of worried because I took this Subject Test “just for fun” and didn’t do that well on it. I’m fine with my SAT 1s and everything though.</p>
<p>Your website says that University Scholars are notified by April if they were admitted early, like me. (I’m not even dreaming of a College Honor Scholarship, haha.) However, how many notifications do you really have left to send? Should I assume that, at this point, not having heard means no? Thanks so much.</p>
<p>UChicago,</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying that answering prompts 1 to 4, often referred to as the uncommon prompts, does not give an applicant any technical advantage, and perhaps even a statistical disadvantage based on some of the responses in this thread, over the free topic prompt 5. My perception is obviously wrong and hindsight this makes sense because the creativity stimulated by a free topic prompt would be unbounded, much more so than topic ones, because it’s free. </p>
<p>That’s great news for my younger sister! She is a junior wanting to apply this fall but has been silenced by the perceived challenges of the so-called uncommons, both this yr’s and previous. In fact, she would gain a technical advantage timewise by starting the free prompt now (although I seriously doubt that) because the other prompts won’t be released until July. Thank you very much again.</p>
<p>UChicago,</p>
<p>I was accepted to the class of 2013, deferred a year, and will be joining the class of 2014. Would there be a possibility for me to defer another year and join the class of 2015? I’d be (if all goes as planned/wished) working in the rainforests of Australia’s northeastern coast.</p>
<p>@HisBeloved- </p>
<ol>
<li>Yes, to reiterate what was said earlier, we will wait to make a final decision until the Midyear Report is received. </li>
<li>Don’t worry! Since we use a holistic application review process, all of your admissions materials- essays, recs, transcript, etc- will be taken in to consideration. So, while essays are definitely important, they are not the only portion of your application that we consider. </li>
<li>We will take the highest SAT score that you send us, and we will also “superscore”, meaning that we will take the highest scores of each section you have taken (even if these occur in different sittings). So, no worries on the multiple scores- the best combined from all tests is the one we will consider.</li>
</ol>
<p>@XoKiwiKisses- no worries on the subject tests. They are definitely not required, and while (as a note for others) if you don’t feel you did well, you can save yourself some $ by not sending them to us, sending in good (or bad!) scores does not tip the scales in terms of admission.</p>
<p>@Lirazel- we will be continuing to send out merit scholarship notifications through the RD notifications. For everyone, please be aware that we do not offer a large number of merit scholarships, so please do not worry if you do not hear back from us about them- but you still have the opportunity to hear back from us about merit decisions (both University Scholar and College Honors awards) up until our RD notifications are released.</p>
<p>@signit- you should e-mail your regional admissions counselor to discuss this; any decisions like these would be made on a case-by-case basis, and we’d definitely want to consider your entire situation before making any sort of comment or decision on your request.</p>
<p>Are the April visit days open to students who have already accepted admission to UChicago but want to visit anyway?</p>
<p>@Gail AnnB- yes, you are more than welcome to attend one of our April overnight preview days if you have already accepted your offer of admission.</p>
<p>UChicago, are you saying that EA admits may still get scholarship letters, or are you saying that the only ones who will get them now are the RDers?</p>
<p>UChicago, I have noticed that there are a ton of people in the Facebook group and on CC who were accepted EA. Many, many of them have already enrolled or are planning to enroll should Financial Aid/Scholarships come through. Mind, this is only EA! So, hypothetically, what would the admissions office do if more than the desired number of admits enrolled. E.g. if 1,500/3,200 paid their deposit. Is the admissions department worried about that situation at all?</p>
<p>UChicago, this is more a question in general for admissions reps than specifically being about the University of Chicago, but I figure you can probably help me out anyway. I have two questions actually.</p>
<p>First, I am a senior in high school, and I may not be able to attend any of the schools I applied to this year due to financial issues. However, I don’t really want to go to community college, at least not yet. So my plan is this: take a year off and work to help pay for college, and apply to some new schools. Would this be favorable or unfavorable in terms of my application strength.</p>
<p>Second, my high school offers very few honors/AP courses, and I have not even taken all of them. Maybe half or a little less (think like two AP’s and two honors). It has also hurt in other ways, because while I am easily the most capable student in my class (~20 people, not being egotistical), my class rank has suffered accordingly. My reason for not taking the classes is not what I consider to be a good or valid excuse, so I don’t think it would help to state, but maybe you have a different point of view. Basically, the kids in honors were in the same classes with me, but had maybe 2-3 extra assignments per semester, and, while this is not a very significant increase, I did not see the point in taking them just so I could have the word “honors” next to the name of the class on my report card. I am a first generation student also, so my parents had no insight into the college application process, nor do we have a real guidance/college counselor. Anyways, my question is, if i were to take a few courses at a local community college this summer (as I plan to do merely to explore my interests) and get A’s, would that help make up for the lack of high school course rigor/class rank (~ top 30%)? Also, would it be more beneficial to take them at the local university (U of Colorado- Boulder)? If so, how much of a difference would it make, because we’re not exactly swimming in money and I wouldn’t want to pay extra for a rather negligible difference.</p>
<p>Well, thanks for reading that giant wall of text (if you even bothered).</p>
<p>OMG, josh, do you go to Boulder HS or Fairview (or one of the other smaller schools)?</p>
<p>Haha, I nearly ended up going to Fairview, but my parents ended up sending me to a small Christian school instead.</p>
<p>UChicago,
How does the university look upon an IB diploma? as i am attempting to attain mine next may and am considering U of Chicago for college</p>
<p>My brother completed an undergrad double major with a 3.97 gpa. He then completed an MA from the same university. Then completed an MA from an Ivy League university. He then completed another MA from another major university. He was in a Ph.D. program, nearly completed, from the first university where he completed his BAs and first MA. He was expelled from the program because he plagiarized on the rough draft of a paper. He admitted this and did not give any excuse. I know that he was undergoing severe depression at the time and that was the cause of his problems. This was five years since his expulsion and he wants to finish his Ph.D. in the USA or elsewhere.
He has published severe academic articles in scholarly journals in the past few years, gotten treatment for his severe depression, gotten remarried, and works for nonprofits. I know little of the academic world, but can he ever get back into a Ph.D. program anywhere and feel he is doing what he should be doing?</p>