<p>mantori.suzuki,
I was just accepted at the U of C and I have very similar stats to your son, so I would definitely encourage him to apply. At the time of my application, I had about a 3.56 gpa and 2320 on the SAT (I didn’t take the ACT), so, as you can see, my strength also lies in the standardized testing. It was the essay that really made the difference for me…I must have gone through about 4 drafts of it and I had everyone I know read it…
They put a LOT of weight on their essays and they especially look for creative responses, so if that is a strength of your son, he should definitely be competitive for admissions.
I was waitlisted at first, but I was taken off the waitlist the first day because Chicago was clearly my first choice and my grades for senior year showed an upward trend. It is more the trend of the grades that matter, and as long as your son improves them in senior year, the low gpa won’t matter that much.</p>