Any areas of weakness? Any Advice? UChicago Class of 2015;

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
1

<p>To my knowledge, the essay is very important at Chicago and demonstrating ability. Should I do anything this summer to help my chances at Chicago? I will be applying EA(I think).
Should I take a risk on the essay and kind of write it edgy or would they prefer an “honest emotional essay”?</p>

<p>My stats are below:
I’m at about a 2050 SAT right now as a junior(Took it in January, I’ll take it in May and twice more just to make sure I can squeeze out the best score possible)</p>

<p>Mu Alpha Theta Honors society 3rd place national prize winner for a stat project
APs: APWH(5), AP Stats(4), AP Micro(5), AP Physics, AP BC Calc, APUSH, AP Macro
Top 10% of my class, Dual sport varsity athlete, on merit scholarship to a New England Prep school. </p>

<p>My GPA is a 4.8/6.0 unweighted.</p>

<p>Junior year classes: AP Phyics, AP BC Calc, APUSH, English, Honors Bio
Senior year Classes: Independent Study on Financial Accounting, AP Bio, Post-Calc, English, AP Chemistry(Or not) and three term contained courses or I can take an AP History. I was thinking about Con law, Capitalism and business ethics for three term contained courses…</p>

<p>I’m a big Model UN guy, Math Team, I participate in REACH(Community help), Investment Club, Republican Club, School lit magazine and I think I will be an AP Scholar with distinctions.</p>

<p>I attend a boarding school in the NE(On scholarship).</p>

2

<p>4.8/6.0 = like 80%, try to bring that up to closer to a 90% if possible.
Classes are good, just get as many A’s as you can. </p>

<p>Doesn’t need to be said but SAT needs to be higher by about 200 points at least (which you should be able to accomplish if you just grind the practice tests I think).</p>

<p>Essay: go for whatever you feel most comfortable/ passionate about. I wrote a weird one on my road after death so feel free to do w.e. you want as long as you know you would like writing it. (I’d go for honesty btw instead of trying to impress them with something your not)</p>

<p>You seem pretty business oriented though which is kinda fine if you wanna do econ here, but I think you might wanna look at schools with undergrad bschool (which we don’t have, uva, emory, wharton, and tons of others are good choices on this front).</p>

3

<p>At my school a 4.8/6.0 is a 88%-86%. </p>

<p>Babson, UVA and Wharton are on the list as well… I like U Chicago alot. I can probably get a 2250, but I thought UChicago only looks at your Math+CR? SO If I get that to a 1520(I did a practice test a few days ago and scores a 1480) would I be golden?</p>

4

<p>Your school counselor at Kent is going to be your best source of information – colleges like UChicago may look at GPA/class rigor and ECs differently since Kent is more of a known quantity. They can advise you in terms of what past students stats were that were admitted to UChicago.</p>

5

<p>At Chicago (and at most other universities with comparative selectivity), SATs are kind of a minor factor. Most of the applicants have very high SATs, so although high SATs will be required, the thing that gets you in will be your essays and recommendations. If you do get a 1520 on CR+M, that should be fine. Make your essay unique, though.</p>

6

<p>I have a meeting with my advisor planned in a few days, but I wanted to continue to refine my list of goals/strengths/weaknesses in my app before I meet with her… </p>

<p>I think that essays and recommendations will be very important, especially from my background</p>

7

<p>phuriku does make a very good point about SATs really being a minor factor in the whole process (I got into uchicago with a 2140, 1400 if it’s just M and CR), although it would be great if you could get the score up. However, though I do understand that you want the best score possible for your SATs, you might want to reflect on whether or not you do want to be taking your SAT in May and then twice more to get the best score. Remember: you probably are going to be taking SAT Subject Tests as well (at least I imagine you will), so it’s also important to make enough room for them, too (a lot of people take the same subject tests twice for a better score). </p>

<p>As for your essay, I can PM a few of my essays to you if you would like to read them and sort of get a sense of the types of essays you can pull off. They definitely got me into UChicago (my academics definitely didn’t). Just PM me if that’s what you’d like.</p>

8

<p>Any other sick essays would help =)</p>

9

<p>could you send some of your essays to me for inspiration?</p>