<p>Purely anecdotal here, but at both my kids’s public schools, everyone with a 2250+ got into Chicago according to Naviance data. Both schools offer insanely tough programs, which I’m sure Chicago appreciates, but from our perspective, the three criteria focused on at our house are: 1) essays, essays, essays; 2) test scores; 3) difficulty of course schedule. The kids who apply to Chicago from their high schools generally possess all three in spades, so it’s hard to say which criteria (if any one does) wags the dog’s tail.</p>
<p>As for grades – a heavy duty, above-and-beyond courseload can compensate for a less-than-stellar GPA. This was definitely the case for S1 at MIT and Chicago (got into both EA). On the other hand, there were a couple of other schools on his list that clearly placed GPA/rank as an absolute criteria, regardless of strength of schedule.</p>