@AvatarRoku were you ultimately accepted to UChicago?
@Willows Nope. Waitlisted, unfortunately.
So I just sent an in email to my regional officer updating them and etc, and I let them know about this research endeavor I recently got involved in with a friend. We don’t have anyone backing us yet and it’s super ambitious. It involved creating a program to analyze literary texts. I was inspired after seeing the work by some UChicago professors actually. Anyway, I haven’t told any teachers or my counselor or anything about it because it’s a personal project but I mean, what happens if UChicago calls my school wanting to verify since it’s definitely an ambitious thing and new to my application, and my GC is like “lol what are you talking about she doesn’t do that?”
I mean I should probably just let my teachers know what’s going on, easy solution, but what would happen, out of curiosity, should admissions call before I have a chance to fill everyone in on my project? I mean it’s not like I have a sponsor or I’m doing it for a company so I just feel weird not having a sure way of proving I’m working on it.
Just submitted my Letter of Interest last night.Here’s to hoping all of the accepted Native Americans decide to go elsewhere.
anyone know how they choose people to take off the waiting list? also, i’m not sure about anyone else, but i did get a response to my letter of continued interest. i’m thinking it depends on the regional counselor.
This has been posted elsewhere, but I’ll reiterate it here. Getting off the waitlist doesn’t depend on the regional counselor. It depends on the university’s needs after the May 1st enrollment deadline.
Every university that has a low acceptance rate, and thus many students to choose from, is building a class. That means they want to meet certain objectives. A (roughly) 50-50 gender split, a certain number of black, hispanic, native american, etc. students, an international student body somewhere between 5% and 20% (usually ~10%), students from as many states and countries as possible, and many non-demographic factors. The coaches need to fill a certain number of spots on various teams (though Chicago is a Div. III school, so a stellar athlete will probably need more than a 1700 on the SAT ), various bands/orchestras need a certain number of talented musicians, the university wants more than a few students who are politically active, some writers, a handful of artists, etc.
This is why the waitlist is extremely long - there are about 17 different theories out there, alleging all sorts of nefarious motives on the university’s part, but those are secondary (if they enter the equation at all). The waitlist has to include students who fall into all the above categories. If the 3 accepted students from Wyoming both go elsewhere, a student (or two) from Wyoming will come off the waitlist. If 8 of 14 football recruits choose another school, and 3 of the baseball coach’s 5 picks get drafted by the Yankees, maybe an all-state running back and a decent shortstop get offers. If 307 Hispanic students were accepted, but Donald Trump personally deports 119 of them, the college gives places to another 24, and if one of the Hispanic students is a talented shortstop from Wyoming, his chances are pretty good. In another year, if the baseball team needed a pitcher and the three students from Wyoming all enrolled, the same student’s prospects would be a lot less rosy.
So there you have it. The college is building a class, and once they know if an accepted student will attend, the waitlist helps them fill in the gaps. Your letter of continued interest will be noted - it means you’re slightly more likely to attend than a student who didn’t write one. Beyond that, if you’re a tuba player, hope that all the tuba players accepted by the college take a gap year (if you have a less joyful disposition, hope they all attend the same festival and get hit by a meteorite). If you’re a good quarterback, hope the school’s QB recruit quits football and takes up meditation instead. If you’re white, put on some blackface and let the university know you’re a URM, in case a lot of african-american students go elsewhere (Well, no. Don’t do this). Chicago doesn’t admit many students off the waitlist, so make plans to attend a college that’s accepted you already, and get ready to love college.
I really don’t think Chicago is counting tuba players.
There’s a large waitlist because yield is hard to predict from year to year and because admissions officers have to assume that, once May 1st passes, most of the kids on the waitlist will have made other plans and not all will be willing or able to put those plans aside if an offer from Chicago comes through.
If your HS routinely sends students to U of C, you should let your school’s college counselor know if/that you’d drop everything for Chicago. And if the counselor is a strong advocate for you, don’t hesitate to pass on this info even if no one from your high school has ever gone to U of C. But say it only if/when you mean it – e.g. after all your results are in – because, in effect, you’re asking someone to put their credibility on the line for you.
Chicago would need their yield rate to plummet ridiculously to make a dent in their Yuuuge wait list
Depends, to some extent, on what yield they assumed during the RD decisionmaking process. But, yeah, as previously discussed, there’s a soft rejection aspect to all this. My point is just that they didn’t build a haystack because they thought they might want a needle.
Still not accepting the waitlist, but I found out why I may have been.
As I was having fun reviewing essays I wrote months ago, I realized I mixed up my first choice major with my second choice while writing it. Somewhat changes the focus of the essay really.
Moral of the story is, essay probably counts! Especially for UChicago.
Best of luck to everyone here!
I don’t know about after May 1st. If you guys look at the thread last year, it seems like some kids get off the wait list as early as April.
Hey guys. Anyone waiting on Ivy decisions tomorrow? I’ll be hearing from Cornell, Penn and Princeton. I’m actually not nervous because I realized I most likely won’t get in. I literally do not care. But we’ll see. How about you guys?
so, who’s staying on the WL?
does anybody know the statistics or when they will come out?
@jpa0115 my son is; it is his first choice.
@jpa0115 I’m staying on the waitlist. Since I sent my regional admissions officer the email a few weeks ago, I guess all there’s left to do is hope!
After being deferred in EA, now I accepted my place on the waitlist. It’s very very sad and annoying to keep waiting.
As an international asking for huge aid, I don’t think I’ll ever get off the waitlist. Still, I can’t help but hope for a miracle.
@Armchair I have a very good friend whose sibling applied EA for the class of 2019. She was subsequently deferred and then waitlisted in March. However she eventually was accepted to UChicago and attends there now. Although she wasn’t an international student, she was a U.S. citizen living abroad. I can’t exactly understand what you’re going through since I wasn’t waitlisted till recently, but don’t lose hope! The universe has a funny way of having things work out in the long run, even if it’s not how you expected. I’m not going to lie and say that I’m not scared about the result too, but I think its important to hold on to the hope that the future is bright.
After doing a bit of research online, there doesn’t seem to be any huge way to distinguish yourself to the university. Would it honestly just be best to call the university indicating interest, and maybe submit supplemental writing? Or supplemental recommendations?
Where do we submit the letter of continued interest? Do we upload it as an update on our portal or do we email it to our regional admissions officer?