University of Chicago

JHS
Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:03:08 +0000

Of course they will matter. The question is how much will they matter, and whether that would be enough to keep you from being admitted. The answers are Who Knows? and It Depends.

No one really knows how important SATs are, maybe not even the admissions staff. Chicago says they are considered but not very important; the score distributions for their classes would not be achievable if they weren’t considered more strongly than the official statements imply. But, at the same time, the class would look very different if SATs were the most important factor, and other factors didn’t often outweigh them.

It depends on those other factors, including your essays and your recommendations. The better those are, the less your SATs matter.

You are not going to get a more precise answer from anyone, unless they are making things up.

Let me suggest a strategy.

My sense – and probably yours, too, or else you wouldn’t be asking this question – is that your SATs are nowhere near low enough to exclude you on that basis alone, but that they are low enough to constitute a negative factor. If you apply EA, and retake the SATs, the risk you run is that your SATs improve a lot (more than 60-70 points on M/CR), but you get rejected EA before anyone considers the new scores. I don’t think that will happen – far more EA applicants get deferred than get rejected, and if you are deferred your new scores will be considered in the spring. But there’s some risk.

So apply EA, retake the SATs, and if your score really jumps meaningfully, withdraw the EA application and ask that it be converted to RD. You should know your new scores in time to do that. There isn’t enough advantage in EA vs. RD at Chicago to risk being rejected when you could add something really positive to your RD application. (Take into account the grades you think you will get first semester, too. If they are not going to be so great, that cuts the other way – don’t change your application.)