<p>3.83 is not at all low. i got in with a 3.5</p>
<p>I don’t think you can tell if they are holisitic or not. People aren’t posting essays here, and everyone’s going to say their own essays are good. The question is whether or not they showed a certain type of personality Chicago wanted. We can’t judge if they are holistic, until we see the things they would show whether or not they were holistic. Sure we can see EC’s, but often times people will associate with a million different ECs and not be extremely passionate about any, and that passion is a part of what UChicago is looking for. I’m sorry to those who didn’t get in, but criticizing the admissions process isn’t going to help anyone. No one here knows what went on around the table. No one can say what they used to reject/defer people. To blame it on the color of your skin, or the color of a URM’s skin, is both preemptive and immature.</p>
<p>Furthermore, they deferred quite a few excellent candidates this year. If you think they’re choosing you because of your low SAT score or GPA (low for Chicago candidates anyways), if you look a little more on this thread you’ll see plenty of people with high SAT scores were deferred, or even rejected. I saw someone with a 2320 who was deferred. A couple people with ACT scores of 28 were accepted. Someone who didn’t take either was accepted. A lot of factors go into making the decision, insinuating it’s based only on your GPA or SAT is ridiculous. </p>
<p>I know I may get flamed for this, but I would rather see people trying to improve their own application or finding another school they’d be happier at instead of blaming it on “the system”.</p>
<p>Greentrombone - </p>
<p>Can I PM my essays to you?</p>
<p>As a UChicago ‘12er, I’d like to give my CONGRATULATIONS to those accepted and yes, those deferred. (Although deferral can be infuriating, there’s still hope! Plus, you still have other options.) To those rejected: I certainly know how it feels, but you just have to move on, hard as it may be. In a years’ time you’re very likely to be satisfied where you end up.</p>
<p>ab- Sure, I’d be happy to take a look at them for you :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No “flaming” here. I agree with you!</p>
<p>GPA has to be taken in context, too. A 3.7 at one school may represent a TOTALLY different academic universe than a 3.9 elsewhere. The question is – Have you tested your intellectual limits? What are the opportunities available to you?</p>
<p>If you are deferred and are still interested in Chicago, NOW is the time to shake the dust off your essays and look at them anew. Chances are you may cringe. Take what you’ve learned from this process and write something different. Find another recommendation – not someone renowned, but someone who KNOWS YOU. Keep up your grades. If you didn’t include a number of your awards/activities because there wasn’t room on the form, send a separate resume and use that space to describe what you did <em>and</em> what you got from the experience. Don’t try to mold yourself to fit into what you think Chicago wants. Be yourself, put it all out there, take risks and be fearless.</p>
<p>Greentrombone, you are spot-on.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading this thread with interest trying to see what might predict admissions and it certainly is hard. For my daughter, I think being a recruited athlete put her over the top. She had high credentials (2290 SATs and top 1 % of her high school class with lots of AP and IB courses) but was also a recruited athlete. Two boys at her high school were deferred with comparable academic credentials but they had more ordinary activities. </p>
<p>A lot of people have discussed the importance of the essays. My daughter’s essays were very straightforward (although quite personal and even passionate). They were written from her heart. I don’t think essays need to be quirky or wildly creative. Her English teacher read one of her essays and hated it, but she used it anyway. So, even English teachers don’t necessarily know what kind of essay works for college admissions.</p>
<p>I’m still very interested in having my undergrad at Chicago. The problem is I have tested my intellectual limits. I’m interested in econ/math or chem. Outside of APs, I have taken math competitions (AMCs, etc), and even after 2 years after taking AP Chem, I’m still in touch with my chem teacher regularly to talk about chem concepts and prepping for US Chem Olympiad. I do my best to challenge myself, and I really do try to seize every academic opportunity that my school offers. </p>
<p>The essay I wrote, I’ve been told is personal b/c it reveals my personal opinions. They are very quirky, but I’m also known to be quirky at school.</p>
<p>With my recommendations, I had my Chem teacher and English teacher (from last year), and I also had a rec from a Brown U prof.</p>
<p>What I didn’t do was to describe my activities on my Common App form. I will be doing that when I send a letter to them telling them that I’m still very interested in going to their school and why etc. </p>
<p>I haven’t done an alumni interview yet. The last one I did was for MIT, and it didn’t go very well b/c I suck at interviewing. Should I still interview?</p>
<p>@ab: YES do an alumni interview. If you love Chicago, then the interview will be an experience within itself. At least from my experience, my Chicago interview made me love the school even more not because of what the interviewer told me about his experiences (he went there awhile back, give or take 15 years so it’s changed a lot), but because my interviewer gave me a taste of what being at UChicago would be like simply through our conversation. Not only was a great interview application/rec wise, but I had a lot of fun. So yes, I recommend that you do an interview. It could not only help but also show you if you really truly are a fit for Chicago (if you haven’t visited yet)</p>
<p>I have visited already, and I just signed up for an interview. Now waiting for them to contact. </p>
<p>Though I just had my Chicago essay read by a fellow CCer, and she/he said that it was very creative and outside the box, yet had some personal voice to it. I’m still puzzled at what Chicago didn’t like in my app…</p>
<p>ab2013… I think that all we can do is hope for the best, you know?</p>
<p>MOMH20,
S1’s English teacher also hated his long Chicago essay – that’s how he knew he was on the right track! That was the last time anyone saw his essays until they were pretty much done. Said teacher used to work in a university admissions office, too – she wanted to see the generic “how my HS experience has prepared me…” essay.
Congrats to your D!</p>
<p>My English teacher hated my Why Chicago essay… he wouldn’t even correct the grammar mistakes in it, which he did for my other essays. I think he thought it wasn’t traditional enough.</p>
<p>I wrote my extended essay on the particle accelerator. My friend in creative writing at Oberlin didn’t like it, not exactly sure why. I think he thought it was too weird and not quite enough showing the reader what I meant. I showed it to a tops Physics professor, he didn’t like it because it wasn’t realistic enough. </p>
<p>With college essays you need to trust yourself first, and others later. If a number of people are overwhelmingly telling you the same thing there may definitely be some merit to it, but you need to trust your own instincts.</p>
<p>Counting Down:
My daughter didn’t want to show her essay to anyone but the English teacher required them to work on an essay as a class assignment. The teacher kept giving her stupid feedback, like put it in the present tense and answer the prompt, and paid no attention to her content. I was happy my D showed enough self-confidence to write in her own voice and ignore the teacher’s suggestions. From this thread, it certainly seems like English teachers have not helped with the essay process. My daughter resented having a teacher read her personal narrative.</p>
<p>Yes, it was a required assignment in S’s English class, too. He made the changes the teacher wanted on one version just to placate her, then kept working in his own voice on the Official Version.</p>
<p>I had a different experience in regard to my English teacher. She is amazing, she is not a very structured type of person and read my essays through the mind of a UChicago admissions rep not as a regular admissions rep. But one thing I noticed was that she did not change any ideas in my paper but rather just did the normal grammar, spelling etc. And that was on all of my papers, which shows that your own ideas are usually the best for you.</p>
<p>Hi there. Sorry I’m late, but I want to help out next year’s applicants. I know I spent many hours staring at stats also trying to discern a pattern 
Good luck all 2014ers and RDers.</p>
<p>Accepted</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<pre><code>* SAT: 2330 770 M 760 V 800 W
- SAT II: 800 IIC 800 Physics 760 US History 750 Chem
- ACT: Nah
- GPA: 4.00, 103.3 weighted 96.0 unweighted?
- Rank: 1 out of 713 (Huge private school)
- Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5 French, 5 US History, 4 Microeconomics, 4 Macroeconomics, and 3 Physics B (Had a really horrible day…800 in Physics SAT II pretty much nullifies this.)
</code></pre>
<p>[ b]Subjective**</p>
<pre><code>* Essays: I thought they were horrible, but I guess they were okay.
- Teacher Recs: Good/Generic
- Counselor Rec: Good/Generic (Huge school)
- Supplementary Material: Two research abstracts, two recommendations, and a resume. Summer of Junior Year did a research internship in MIT’s nuclear engineering department and worked on evaluating a quantum algorithm – did simulations with MATLAB code and a NMR spectrometer. Got a glowing recommendation from my professor - brilliant guy that discovered pseudopure states. Summer of Senior Year did a research internship in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Science – worked on a microfluidics project evaluating how variations in orifice dimension and nozzle geometry would affect the monodispersity of drops through a PDMS device. Developed software in LabView for image processing and particle analysis. The post-doc I worked for and the professor that ran the group collectively wrote a recommendation that they sent in.
- Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): None
</code></pre>
<p>Personal</p>
<pre><code>* Location: New Hampshire
- High School Type: Private
- Ethnicity: White
- Gender: XY
</code></pre>
<p>Other</p>
<pre><code>* Extracurriculars: See stats profile – bunch of leadership positions on school academically competitive teams, loads of political involvement, and community service. 2 summer research internships.
- Awards: National Merit Semifinalist, AP Scholar with Distinction, one state award, few other generic awards.
- Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: UChicago is a really neat place. I’m honored to have been accepted early.
</code></pre>
<p>So I’m a junior now and I can honestly say that after reading this thread, I’m terrified. Good job to those who were accepted, good luck to those who were deferred!</p>
<p>Decision: ACCEPTED</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (by section): M 630, CR 640 W 620
[</em>] SAT IIs: Math2 700, Bio E. 630, US Hist 670
[<em>] ACT: not taken
[</em>] APs: none taken
[<em>] IBs: none taken
[</em>] GPA: 3.86 (3.65 at time of decision)
[<em>] Rank: 45 out of 330
[</em>] Other stats:
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] ECs listed on app: Global Citizens Corps member (mercy corps stuff), member in a bunch of clubs, volunteer in hospital and library
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: never had a job (am 15 turning 16)
[<em>] Essays (subject and responses): thought long response was awesome, and short response kind of weird, and steryotypical (immigrant), but I guess it was true and the adcom saw it.
[</em>] Teacher Recs: I know one was amazing, but the other, i think it was so so.
[<em>] Counselor Rec: i think great.
[</em>] Applied on: applied in early november (applied w/ questbridge, but wasn’t matched. 
[<em>] Hook (if any): Born in Nigeria, went to an amazingly competitive school in nigeria (200 out of 10000 accepted each yr), have a great history in math in nigeria, but i didn’t do much in the states (i’ve only been here about 2 yrs now)
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Arizona
[<em>] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Average public, w/ few motivated students.
[</em>] Ethnicity: african.
[li] Gender: female[/li][/ul]General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:
It felt amazing just to get into a university, and a good one at that. I guess all the studying for school in nigeria (14 classes a year, very painful) paid off, becos they saw my nigerian school transcript (the british educational system in nigeria is brutal). I hope that others who want it as much as I do get in.</p>