<p>I am 15 years old and a junior currently and i have couple of questions about age.</p>
<li><p>I am going to be 16 when im applying to Uof C, so is my age going to be a good thing or a bad thing during the admission process?</p></li>
<li><p>Should i mention about my age to the adcoms or are there a lot of people that are young?</p></li>
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<p>i know im still a junior and that i have a lot of them but Uof Chicago is my first choice and i was just wondering. thnx in advance</p>
<p>Hey, Crick got in when he was 15, I’m sure if you’re an exceptional student, they won’t care about your age.</p>
<p>That being said, I’ve only had four birthdays, so I feel for you.</p>
<p>You don’t need to mention your age… I mean, you give your birthdate. I’m sure they can do the math. ;)</p>
<p>Your age shouldn’t matter unless its dramatically out of their normal range. I think they get a good number of sixteen year olds. I skipped when I was a kid, so I’m younger than most applicants, as well.</p>
<p>Ack, correction, WATSON got in at 15. :P</p>
<p>ok, thanks for all the replies.</p>
<p>i got another question, so i might as well ask it here instead of starting a new thread.
Here’s my problem:
i dont participate in a lot of clubs or work during the school year because my school is more than 6 miles away and i cant drive yet. My parents cant drop me off or pick me up because both of them travel because of their work. Like, right now my mom is at greece and my dad came back from california for the weekend. BUT i do have a lot of community service and volunteer work during winter breaks and summer. So should i still apply and hope that the adcoms will forgive me or should i apply somewhere else?</p>
<p>oh, and couple more things: all the clubs are before/after school…so we have absolutely nothing to do at lunch except eating or going to the library. I tutor spanish during my lunch hour once a week (teacher wont allow us to tutor more than once per week).</p>
<p>thanks in advance for reading and posting.</p>
<p>Even if you are sure that you will not be admitted to school, if it is your first choice, apply anyway! It can never hurt. That being said, your age should not be a problem. The only thing the ad com might worry about is if you are mature enough (academically and socially) to enter college early. </p>
<p>You can prove this by keeping your grades up (if you don’t, they’ll wonder why you skipped a grade). To prove that you are socially mature, you should definitely have an interview next year. You could also explain about your extracurriculars then. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to discuss it on your app. If you’re not careful, it could sound like you’re making excuses. Anyway, your summer activites should make up for it. If you’re still worried, ask a guidance counselor or teacher to mention it in their reccommendation.</p>
<p>thnx for the reply Ria215. Socially, i guess u can say im a bit shy but i dont have any problems making friends or talking to my teachers or anything like that. Academically, i will be taking 5 aps and some honors by the end of hs (i know its not very much compared to many of the people here…but oh well). All of my teachers know that im hard working and i will have a good rec from my chem teacher and an excellent rec from my english teacher. But the problem with my english teacher is that he was my teacher for 9th grade, but he knows me personally and likes me very much. we still talk to each other often and stuff too. so is getting a rec from a 9th grade teacher ok or does it have to be from 11th or 12th?</p>
<p>i have some other questions (sry for asking so many questions…i have a lot of unanswered questions and u guys are the only ones that can answer them):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>i didnt do so well during my freshman year. i mean, i did really really really bad but now im doing great. i got 4.0uw my 10th grade and right now, i pretty much have all As except for ap us and spanish. i also took some classes during my 10th grade summer. so, are my 9th grade grades going to hurt my chances at U of Chicago or can it be a good thing if i maintain good grades till the end of hs?</p></li>
<li><p>Are there any other well known universities or good academically like Uof Chicago in the midwest? As of now, my safety is UIUC…and i also did some research on northwestern but for some reason, im not really interested in it after looking at Uof Chicago. My major is probably going to be science related.</p></li>
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<p>thnx in advance for all the replies…again.</p>
<p>hmm…i just quickly want to say this before anyone else does…</p>
<p>i know that my chances getting into Uof Chicago are none or close to none, and im sure most of u agree but i still want to try my best and apply because i love Uof Chicago and so that i wont feel guilty (i know guilty isnt the best word…but u get the idea) later.</p>
<p>ok now i will shut up. thnx for taking the time to read and reply</p>
<p>Most of these questions can go to your college couselor, if you have a good one. </p>
<p>UChicago will take the time to look at your application and try to piece together who you are as a person and whether they feel that you fit in with the school. You should send along an explanation with why your freshman grades were so low (i.e. a parent’s death). Just work on keeping your grades up and following your passions.</p>
<p>Northwestern is a great school, so don’t dismiss it too quickly. You need to have schools besides your first choice, so keep your mind open. Your goal should be to love each of your schools (including your safeties). University of Notre Dame in Indiana is a fantastic school, as is University of Michigan. There are a bunch of smaller midwestern schools, but I don’t know too much about them.</p>
<p>Skipping one grade makes no difference. (I am applying this year as a 16 year old, and I never even though about it.)</p>
<p>As far as ECs go, Chicago looks for people who are passionate about one subject, so service could be your hook.</p>
<p>I know for APs, it depends on what your school offers. I will have taken 5, too. It’s not a big deal, as long as you are taking the hardest classes possible.</p>
<p>What really matters? Essays for Chicago. Start in the summer. It makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>Also, take a course at Kaplan or Princeton review for the SAT or ACT (if you’re good at math, SAT. I’m not, so I took the ACT.) I took one, and I went from a 29 ACT to a 33 ACT, with a perfect verbal. Scores can make a huge difference and taking a course at Kaplan changed the quality of schools I can apply to. Also, you can’t judge where you can apply until you get your results. I had a friend who wanted to apply to harvard and it looked like she could, until she got her ACT results (something like a 24). </p>
<p>Make sure you have a decent GPA. It’s pretty important, but not essential for Chicago.</p>
<p>I really like UMichigan, but if you’re out of state it is suprisingly DIFFICULT to get into. Purdue is OK. Northwestern is awesome (but I’m biased, as I was born in Evanston). Notre Dame is great, but you really need to be legacy to get in. All are very expensive, and I don’t know what your parents can afford. U of Illinois is incredible for engineering and not very expensive.</p>
<p>You know what you can do? You can write an explanation as to why you have few ECs on your application. It’s always better to explain than have them guessing.</p>
<p>how bad was your freshman year? Some colleges (not all) like improvement. Chicago really likes to see improvement, or so I’ve heard.</p>
<p>If you Private Message me, I can help you find some more colleges and answer more questions. (as this post is getting pretty long).</p>
<p>oh man, what a whiner. look, why are you worrying about all this stuff right now anyway? since you have no wheels, it doesn’t look like you can do anything about the ec’s right now. the best course of action for you is, as genevieve says, is to kill the sat or act. if you bomb on those, it won’t matter what your ec’s are. your 9th grade gpa suck? make sure you have a rising grade trend and some 700 sat subject tests won’t hurt either. i think you are putting the cart before the horse. it’s sat, sat, sat 24/7. post a 2200+, write some great essays and your ec’s will just be icing on the cake.</p>