chance for 2016?

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
1

<p>Basics:
Gender–Male
From–Suburban Chicago public school
Financial aid–Yes
Ethnicity–Hispanic
LD/ADHD–Yes, not diagnosed/treated until end of junior year</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA–3.02 unweighted, 3.88 weighted <==
Class rigor–All honors/AP
AP schedule–English Lang., US His. (jun.); Calc. AB, Biology, US Gov’t, English Lit., Economics (sen.)
Class Rank: Surprisingly enough, top 15% (class of ~650)</p>

<p>Scores:
SAT–2340 Blue Book (taking Oct. administration) <==
ACT–35 composite (36 R, E; 35 M; 33 S) <== only took the test once!
AP–English Lang. (5), US History (5)</p>

<p>Leadership/extracurricular activities:
Varsity scholastic bowl–Co-captain (9-12); MVP (9-11); top scorer (9-10, but only because my coach liked pulling me out of tournaments for falling asleep)
Jeopardy!–Finalist, invited to and completed audition in Kansas City. I’ll hopefully be on the show in December
School newspaper–Copy editor (established position, 12); production editor (11); staff writer (10)
Blogger–I spend, and this is a pure guesstimation, about 15 hours per week researching, interviewing, and writing for two incredibly popular hip-hop/music/fashion blogs
Chicago Tribune–Staff writer for teen newspaper (11-12)
Varsity baseball–Hurt junior year, but came back during summer (LHP, 10-12)
Travel baseball–Co-captain/member (LHP/OF, 10-12)
Freshmen swim team–Member (9)
Wind symphony–1st chair, alto sax (9-10)
Jazz band–Alto sax (9-10)
Marching band–Alto sax (9-10)
Saxophone lessons–Alto/tenor sax (9-10)
Parish volunteer–Eucharistic minister/misc. volunteer (9-12)
Assistant teacher–Surprisingly selective program for a summer job (only 40 applicants were picked out of a pool of around 150, 11-12)
French Club–Member (9-10)
Italian Club–Council member (12); member (11)</p>

<p>Awards:
National Merit Semi-Finalist (223 PSAT)
National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar
Tri-M Music Honors Society
Northwestern Midwest Academic Talent Search Award Winner (36 ACT R/E, presented freshman year)
Honor roll member every semester</p>

<p>I’ve talked to the baseball coach a bit, but I’m not being officially recruited as I am at a few other D3 schools. I’m trying to get back in contact with him–quickly.</p>

<p>I also had a very close cousin, class of '09, who ended up with various prestigious scholarships, just finished at Oxford with two MPhils, and may write me a letter of rec; would that even be helpful?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>“GPA–3.02 unweighted”</p>

<p>Why?</p>

<p>“Jeopardy!–Finalist, invited to and completed audition in Kansas City. I’ll hopefully be on the show in December”</p>

<p>This is neither an example of leadership nor an extracurricular activity.</p>

<p>Most of the other entries, however, are quite impressive if not a bit disparate. Make your academic passions clear and make sure they’re displayed by the EC’s you choose to emphasize.</p>

<p>“I also had a very close cousin, class of '09, who ended up with various prestigious scholarships, just finished at Oxford with two MPhils, and may write me a letter of rec; would that even be helpful?”</p>

<p>Letters of rec from family members are basically useless.</p>

<p>As for a “chance”: it really depends on how well of a fit in the University you make yourself seem, because (as long as you can explain the GPA) you’ll probably be fine academically.</p>

3

<p>Note this: “LD/ADHD–Yes, not diagnosed/treated until end of junior year.”</p>

<p>Not to be toot my own horn or anything, but my scores are evidence that I’m more than capable of handling a difficult workload–it’d just been really, really, REALLY hard for me to complete most tasks on time until I began treatment this summer; I think that my having ADHD is a more than reasonable explanation for my low cumulative GPA and upward trend. I mean, come on, who gets a 36 on ACT M and couples that with multiple C’s in what were, quite honestly, pretty easy courses? I also have an unrelated LD that really does affect me on a daily basis, but, for the sake of keeping anonymous, I’d rather not discuss it.</p>

4

<p>“I mean, come on, who gets a 36 on ACT M and couples that with multiple C’s in what were, quite honestly, pretty easy courses?”</p>

<p>Lazy people do that. Just make your situation clear, 'kay? At the same time, you’re not going to be taking standardized tests in college; these’ll be actual classes as hard as and harder than you’ve ever taken, so if you don’t prove yourself able to handle the workload, you won’t look very good in front of the admissions committee.</p>

5

<p>You should definitely apply. I think ADHD is enough to explain your unweighted GPA. I think it would be an absolute privilege to have you at the school. My advice is to cut down the number of extracurricular activities on your application. There are simply too many right now. I don’t think it’s necessary to take the SAT Reasoning given your ACT score.</p>

<p>And of course, spend a lot of time (and thought) on your essays. They are the most important part of the application.</p>