If this is what it takes to get into Chicago U., I'm committed, but please critique!

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
1

<p>I am a incoming Sophomore in High school, I go to private jewish school with subjects in religion and secular studies. Contrary to public opinion my school 'Yeshivah of Flatbush" leaves much to desire and I need something more to push forward my college app. Despite my hectic schedule from 7:05 AM to 5:30 PM, plus the homework and studying, I have devised a plan below for this year alone,for my extra academic stimulations,</p>

<p>Most people tell me I’m crazy, but if this is what it takes to get into Chicago U., I am willing to do it. I would describe myself of high intelligence, primarily in mathematics, and politics, however I am also a history buff and avid reader of good literature. But at same time you won’t faint out of shock when you meet me. I am deaf and thus a year behind in speech learning, which is pretty amazing considering I have won 6 awards in debate and model congress last year, see below my plans and attack/criticize/praise/encourage me, after all you’ve read through this much just for my sake, so pat yourself on the back, </p>

<p>AP</p>

<p>World History
US History
European
US Government and Politics
Comparitive Government and Politics
Statistics
Psychology
Physics B
Macro-economics,
Micro-economics
Computer Science A
Chemistry
Art History
Calculus BC (and AB if I’m allowed)</p>

<p>SAT 2’s</p>

<p>Chemistry
Physics
Math 1
Math 2</p>

<p>US History
World History</p>

<p>Regents
Physics
Chemsitry</p>

<p>Contests,</p>

<p>AMC 10/12
USMAT
AIME
Olympiad (Doubt it)
Physic QuizBowl
F=ma exam
WestingHouse Competition</p>

<p>ExtraCurricular</p>

<p>Boy Scouts
Debate
Mock trial
Moot Court
Model Congress
Model UN
MSG Varsity
Math Team
CollegeBowl (The Challenge)</p>

<p>Personal Quests,</p>

<p>Solve Rubik’s Cube faster
Learn Programming - C++, Objective C, Cocoa programming,
Python and MySQL.</p>

2

<p>You’re crazy. :slight_smile: But ambitious. I like that, and I’m sure Chicago will too. I’m definitely impressed. Just don’t work yourself too hard; rest is good, and just as important! Good luck.</p>

3

<p>thanks I’m gonna need the luck!!</p>

4

<p>is this a joke?</p>

5

<p>…Chicago University.</p>

6

<p>No i am very serious, and why would i be joking? also what is comment #5 supposed to mean?</p>

7

<p>It’s University of Chicago, not Chicago University.</p>

<p>Also, I had similar ambitions when I was in high school. It is a bit much, though. You have to realize that no matter how much information you intake as a high schooler, it won’t be much use to you in the future as you become more intellectually mature and inevitably have to discard many of the mentalities given to you by your previous education.</p>

<p>We may dissect learning into two forms: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal learning means that you learn as much information as possible, whereas vertical learning occurs when you bring your mind to a higher level of consciousness. Although a proper amount of horizontal learning is necessary and indeed appropriate, the University of Chicago is looking primarily for students who are vertical learners. Your schedule looks like you’re doing a bunch of horizontal learning but not much vertical learning. Although strong horizontal learners in high school can make great vertical learners in college, it is not necessarily a prerequisite, and Chicago knows this. Therefore, an extremely jam-packed schedule won’t necessarily help you get into Chicago (although it may get you into other institutions). You should relax a little bit.</p>

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<p>Thanks, and indeed I am giving into pressure of society which values horizontal learners, for example the 14 AP’s are enroute to getting AP State Scholar, which means I’d need 20+ ap’s as a male New yorker, </p>

<p>and some course like psychology or art history are very very light reading, and I will forget it, other stuff like math, politics (history, economics, law, debate, and AP poly sci’s) will stay ingrained in me, same for computer science, pshyics and chem,</p>

9

<p>You don’t need to be an AP State Scholar to get into a T10 university.</p>

<p>And please tell me that’s not the only reason you’re taking a bazillion APs. And please don’t say that you’re doing it “to learn more”. I admire your ambition, but I think you’re approaching this in the wrong way. Admissions isn’t a simple input-output process where you put in 1,000 hours of work and you get an equivalent output out. If you have this much time on your hands, you should take 3-5 APs/year, keep your ECs (since they’re largely related), work hard on the competitions, and actually spend a lot of time on your interest in programming. Adcoms will be much more impressed if you write some moderately successful programs than you took 8 APs in a year.</p>

<p>Excuse the condescension, but I think you’re under the naive impression that of course more APs is better. This isn’t necessarily true; for example, you want to take both BC and AB Calculus. Are you aware that that’s completely redundant because BC includes everything that AB does? Taking both is an obvious sign that your “desire for knowledge” is superficial and you’re just taking APs to get into college.</p>

<p>Take it as a sign that the actual UofC students are recommending a different course.</p>

10

<p>Thank you guys, and I have to say when I posted this here and other forums I honestly learnt quite a bit and re-evaluated large parts of my plans, and am glad i asked for public input from ‘been there done that’ grads,</p>

<p>yes, I am going to trim it and there are many things I’ve done but not worth noting, for example my 30+ merit badges, or patrol leader at a nation scout function or my ‘horticulture’ membership,</p>

<p>of course colleges don’t know that, and you’re right, why take AP calc AB or Math SAT 2 1, if I’m taking harder courses, and yeah, I really am taking that into consideration, at same time showing you can do 20 AP’s AND do these impressive things will impress colleges more than the kids who only did either segment. </p>

<p>Math i have taken care of, but research and that such will have to wait until I know calculus as well as Physics B and Chem, from there in junior i could do harder AP’s like organic Chem and both Physics C’s</p>

<p>again THANK YOU SO MUCH for your time and effort,</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>No.</p>

<p>Drop half your APs. You will be much less stressed, and honestly, your chances will probably improve. Think about it. The vast majority of AP tests are easy. They don’t test your intelligence, your critical thinking ability, your creativity…they only test that you have a basic grasp of the material, and most of the time it’s not even very complex material. You can grind and cram your way to an absurd number of 5’s if you have the time and the willpower. And while that level of willpower is impressive in its way, it’s not the thing top colleges are looking for.</p>

<p>Your post here makes you come across as a grinder–and grinders almost never do that well in the college admissions game.</p>

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<p>Look, college admissions is not as straightforward as you seem to believe. I understand why you don’t get it; I knew next to nothing when I was a sophomore. But I guarantee that in a few years, you’ll look back at this and wonder how you were ever so foolish.</p>

13

<p>Something I learned from the whole college admissions process: the admissions officers know what they’re doing; they are quite aware that not all schools are created equal–different availabilities of AP classes, course rigor, etc. I went to a smallish private school. AP courses were limited, as were the extracurriculars and programs the school provided. I took what course I could and worked on excelling in those courses. If your school offers 10 AP courses, and you take 6 of them, congrats! You’ve completed the majority of the hardest courses at your school, and the admissions officers will recognize that.</p>

<p>And COLLEGE ADMISSIONS IS NOT ENTIRELY ABOUT ACADEMICS. Remember that. When you are stressing over a dozen AP classes, you’ll spend more time buried in a book than focused on appearing well-rounded. Join some clubs–ones that you actually enjoy. And stick with them. Colleges like to see commitment. (The valedictorian of my school with perfect test scores, higher GPA, and a few more AP courses was rejected at more than half of the schools she applied to. I, an academically strong but stronger in terms of balance and involvement, was accepted to many of those schools, UChicago included.)</p>

<p>You’ll have four years at UChicago to stress over academics. I’m not saying you’re not gonna have to work your butt off to get into UChicago, but attempt to find a balance. You don’t want to end up in the loony bin instead of the Reg.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>Wise words.</p>

15

<p>Seriously, I’d recommend dropping a lot of those APs. It’s unneccesary. College admissions don’t only care about APs - they care about your extracurriculars, your hobbies, your interests, etc. I went to a less-than-stellar public school that didn’t offer APs or BCs at all, but I took the most challenging classes the school offered and did well in them. On the surface, apart from high SAT scores, I had an unimpressive resume, but the time I didn’t spend on academics I spent learning guitar, eventually getting a job teaching guitar, working as a crew member for school theater productions, and I spent a lot of time writing, which is a big hobby of mine. Something must’ve clicked with UChicago admissions, 'cause I’m a rising second-year, and I’ve been doing well at school, so clearly admissions weren’t totally out of their mind when they let me in X)</p>

<p>But anyway, the point is that you don’t have to take a trillion APs to get into a top 10 school. College admissions is a funny thing, and is not as straight-forward as you’re making it out to be. They’ll be plenty of time for stress and sleep-deprivation at college, don’t burn yourself out in high school XD</p>

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<p>If I am as academically as I claim, it should be just as easy for me to see what the unanimous consensus of many current students in UofC (did I get that acronym right?), and I have no doubt you guys wish the best for me, and are possibly (I say ‘possibly’ with caution) right.</p>

<p>I have to be honest, in my heart I do not see why you guys are right, since it’s hard to logically think that a kid truly taking that extra step (or giant leap) and yet that student who goes to a boring mediocre school where no one went to MIT or Yale in a while, and those that do are in ‘bulks’ of 1 at a time. </p>

<p>I see why passion and quality beat quantity, but at same time, taking only those courses in your school and just necessary courses won’t prepare you academically for what the top colleges demand. I.E. Flatbush (my HS) does not prepare me at all for anything to expect in a school like MIT (I am looking at 10 colleges, and will apply to all of them and see which ones accept/reject further on) </p>

<p>so you guys quote practical advice from been there done that experience for acceptance, but how good will that affect your actual performance in these schools? and i want to get the most out of my educational investment, and not just ‘get’ by.</p>

<p>But really, nothing here went without serious thought, and for now none of it all matters until i get closer to actually attempting these goals, for now i can always quit it, and I have what you guys said in mind consciencely and subconsciencely (spell?).</p>

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<p>shushugah:</p>

<p>You are DRASTICALLY over-estimating the difficulty of the top colleges. Students and many misled teachers think that schools like MIT, Chicago, or Yale are truly difficult schools. They are wrong. More than 90% of students entering these schools graduate, and in the case of Yale, this figure is closer to 98%. Moreover, less than 1% of the students at each of these three top schools have a courseload that is at your courseload’s present difficulty or harder. To think that you really need this course load to succeed at the top schools is based more on naivety than anything else.</p>

<p>Think about it. Let us assume that on average, at each of the top 10 universities there are 1k students coming in each year. This is approximately correct. This means that there are 10k students coming into each of these universities every year. And moreover, at the very least, 9.5k of these 10k students graduate from the very colleges they entered within 6 years. How many people do you think have a courseload more demanding than yours nationally in your year? Do you really think it’s as many as 9500 people? Maybe 500, at the very best.</p>

<p>Also, schools nowadays are not about academics. Academics is somewhat ancillary at all but a handful of institutions (MIT, Caltech, Chicago come to mind), and even in these places, academics is not as stressed as it has been in the past. What’s more important is broadening your mental abilities (more vertically than horizontally) and making yourself into a socially active person who can additionally make connections very easily with your social skills. Your schedule doesn’t compensate for either of these aspects (and your ECs involve nothing but preparing yourself for tests). These aspects are the most important part of any application! Why else do you think schools care about your ECs?</p>

18

<p>Step 1: Take a deep breath.
Step 2: Stop being a tool. Let me give you a couple of seconds to throw away that GPA calculator.</p>

<p>U of C wants you to be a living, stinking human being—minor imperfections be damned. That means they’ll understand if you’d rather program some cool applications than study for your fiftieth AP exam. That means they’ll be okay with a less-than-perfect transcript so long as you demonstrate that you have something highly underrated called “a personality”.</p>

<p>Repeat after me:
I will be okay, I will be okay, I will be…</p>

19

<p>Okay, look. Almost half of your AP classes–Psych, CS, the Govs–are throwaway APs: they only test your ability to memorize material that is frankly, not very complex or difficult. Even if you study and cram and get nice shiny fives on all of them, what does that accomplish?</p>

<p>I’ll tell you what it doesn’t accomplish:

  • It doesn’t make you a better student.
  • It doesn’t show admissions officers that you have the qualities which are most vital to being a successful student at a top school. (I refer you to phuriku’s comments on horizontal v. vertical learning.)
  • It doesn’t make you more interesting or compelling.
  • It doesn’t make you sound more accomplished. (Accumulating high test scores is a very shallow form of accomplishment.)
  • It doesn’t give admissions officers a good idea of what you will do at school besides study–how will you contribute to campus life?
  • It doesn’t make you more likely to, or sound more likely to, become someone who will enhance the University by becoming rich or famous and/or doing Awesome Things.</p>

<p>In other words, it doesn’t help you become a better applicant, student, or person, not in any significant way. It just makes you look like someone who thinks AP exams are the apex of all human accomplishment. So why are you doing it?</p>

<p>Go outside. Build low-income housing, volunteer at soup kitchens, start a hacky sack club, design websites, write an article for the school paper, tutor neighborhood kids, work at McDonald’s, intern at a lab, put on a play, build a robot. Do something meaningful with your time and your life.</p>

20

<p>Obviously, you aren’t listening to anybody’s advice. Chances are you are just going to do what ever you want anyway. When you get rejected, you can come back to this thread, take this advice and then maybe have a shot at transferring. </p>

<p>Also, how can you possibly take that many AP’s in a year?</p>