<p>Hey, I’m gonna be a high school senior so I’m applying via the Common app in 2 weeks. I’m going to apply to both of these schools…I’m not planning on getting accepted to Chicago, but if I was, I was just wondering of I’d fit in there. I am by no means a genius: My GPA is high only because I study my butt off. However, I scored VERY low on the ACT. (Superscore of 24). A lot of people say that the students who go to Chicago and Kalamazoo are weird/strange. In what ways? How exactly are they weird? I think I might fit in; I suck at sports, I study 24/7, and people would describe me as being an overachiever who tries and worries to too much. Also, do you think I’d have a shot at UChicago? I’m enrolled in 4 APs for senior year…but I have not taken any APs yet.</p>
<p>Dude… the University of Chicago is one of the nation’s top schools. Its 25th-75th percentile ACT scores are 32-34. I don’t even think a 24 would be salvageable by the best college admissions essays ever written by anyone, anywhere.</p>
<p>First of all, I didn’t ask whether or not I’d GET in…I asked whether I’d FIT in. Second of all, they have accepted people with scores as low as 23. That’s on their website. I’m not saying it’s PROBABLE, I’m saying it’s POSSIBLE. Third of all, a test score does NOT determine your academic worth. Sometimes, people who score in the 30s have GPAs BELOW a 3.0. UChicago wants people who are hard-working and curious, not some breed of genius-slackers.</p>
<p>I don’t think the average UChicago kid studies because they’re grade grubbers (not to say that you are) or paranoid GPA watchers, but because they love knowlege. They’d say that they love, say, computer science or medieval history and that’s why they get A’s and A pluses in that class, not because they lust after a 4.0. Otherwise, they’re definitely a quirky group of kids (if you’ve ever seen the essay topics or the annual Scav Hunt, you’d agree). The “a lot of people” who say they’re “weird” likely aren’t interested in academic pursuits and write off those who are as freak-a-leeks. </p>
<p>I don’t know your personality, so I can’t say for certain whether or not you’d fit in. But if you’ve got no passion in you, then there’s little chance you’d fit in, nevermind actually getting in.</p>
<p>Yeah, sorry to break it to you but UChicago is not the place for grade-grubbers or overachievers. If you’re the kind of person who ‘studies their butt off’ and identifies themselves with their grades as much as you come off as in your post, then you might find the hit to your GPA or the extra level of work demanded here to be overwhelming. To survive and prosper, you really need to LOVE what you’re studying; the people who do well are the ones that feel like they’re playing 24/7 not working 24/7.</p>
<p>But of course, forum posts are notoriously unreliable means of communication, and we might be misunderstanding you. Any concept of campus culture should at least be experienced first hand if possible. But at least from my experience, the ‘fit’ at UChicago more closely approximates the kid who was too smart for school than the kid who worked hard for that 4.0 .</p>
<p>I’m sort of the definition of a grade grubber. I had to look that one up. I never argue with teachers over my grades, but if I get points off, I do get upset. ESPECIALLY math because it’s my weakest subject. My teachers do aknowledge that I am intellectually curious in conferences. I do love learning; I’m doing APUSH summer hmwk and I LOVE it. Not the hmwk part but the information is interesting.</p>
Sorry I offended you, bro, but you couldn’t expect the entire internet to come to this thread and say only the things you wanted to hear. Keep in mind that it’s not necessarily certain but certainly possible that the kid with the 23 was a legacy or had parents who threw a bunch of money at the University; that makes a lot more sense (and is quite a bit more likely) than his just being completely amazing in all other respects, right?</p>
<p>If you’re struggling in general level classes (which I assume is the case since you’re taking your first AP’s this year), then I don’t know how you’d react given Chicago’s rigorous curriculum where, in many courses, your ability to comprehend and discuss complex ideas in text matters more than whatever you might get out of constant studying; you’ll be asked to do a lot and WILL NOT get a 4.0. In short, you will have to adjust your own definition of success if you apply and are accepted.</p>
<p>The reason you haven’t exactly gotten a positive response from the people in this thread is that the picture you’ve painted of yourself - unnecessarily stressed about your grades, ONLY because you care about your grades - is NOT the picture of the young academic that UChicago wants. That academic is the one who genuinely loves learning and wants to spend four years doing just that, ONLY because he loves it. Some advice: In your essays, DO NOT go about describing yourself in the way you have here. DO NOT say “My grades are high because I study all the time, and therefore I would fit in here”. DO mention your specific academic interests which you want to take time exploring, and say that your academic spirit is what will make you fit in at UChicago.</p>
<p>rbouwens, I wouldn’t listen too much to people on this forum, no one really has any idea whether or not you have a chance. The 24 ACT won’t help, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I have two friends at UChicago that got in with a 24 and a 27. The 24 is a URM which probably helps, but the 27 was just a regular candidate who was able to express their passion through their essays. </p>
<p>And yes there are some weird/quirky kids at UChicago, by which I mean people who are largely antisocial and would rather spend a Saturday night playing Warcraft in their rooms than hang out with real people. And yes, there are also people that study too much and complain loudly when the library closes at 10pm on a Fri/Sat. However there are also lots of great people that are far more stereotypical. Whether you want to go out and dance on tables at a frat, sit around discussing about philosophy over wine and cheese or simply watch a movie you will always find people to do it with. </p>
<p>I don’t think you need to have a specific love for a particular subject. What you do need is to appreciate and maybe even enjoy hard work. While in the 2nd half of every quarter I often find myself spending more time in the reg than I would like to, at the end of the day I love the pressure and the feeling you get after finishing a difficult assignment or exam. And for the record, it is (at least in 1st year) quite possible to a grade grubber and maintain pretty close to a 4.0, while enjoying the academic experience along the way.</p>
<p>More info for this pitiful thread (it’s not pitiful due to the responses… it’s the question itself)</p>
<p>I have quite a few extracurriculars
My essay is strong but I don’t know if it’s unique enough
3.91 GPA
24 ACT superscore (yeah, yeah, I know!!!) Highest scores of: English: 27 Math: 23 Science: 22 Reading: 24</p>
<p>4 APs senior year (I’m gonna be a senior) All the rest are standard-level courses (school does does not offer honors or IB)</p>
<p>Gonna apply EA</p>
<p>Class Rank: approx. top 7%</p>
<p>By graduation: 4.5 years English, 4 math, 3.5 science, 4.5 foreign language, 4.5 Social science</p>
<p>I’ve very confused by the ACT score; were you sick during the test or otherwise incapacitated? Or do you tend to be a poor test-taker or failed to prepare (these two seem less likely given your personality)? There’s always the SAT to consider, and/or tutoring.</p>
<p>I’m taking the SAT in October for the 1st time. I struggle with time. I only had time to skim 3/4 passages for reading on both tests, English I finished on both tests but I didn’t have time to ckeck answers on second test, science is just rediculous for me, and math is just too much of a time constraint anyway, since I almost never finish math tests in school before the bell. I’m just slow.</p>
<p>And I can’t do math problems in 1 minute; I just can’t. And, you can’t say I haven’t tried. I bought a book last December, went through all of it and took practice tests and did problems, and I still failed.</p>
<p>In school, I’m always one of the last kids to finish tests, regardless of subject. I’m really anal and VERY paranoid, so I have to go slow.</p>
<p>Have you considered a private tutor? I know it’s pricey, but it might help. And listen, it seems like you might be a little freaked out by some of the people on this forum. Here’s what I’ll say about UChicago: it’s a place for people who love to learn for the sake of learning. Nothing you’ve written here suggests otherwise to me. Of course we all care about our grades as well. Let’s not romanticize things too much.
I know a lot of people who are used to always being good at everything before coming to the school where they suffer a rude awakening (I’m one of them). You work hard? Great. It’s a good habit.
As for the culture and whether or not you’d fit in…you probably would. There are a lot of people who had a rough time in high school and didn’t quite fit in who are really happy there (I’m one of them). I’ve found the students to be friendly, curious, interesting, and sometimes very intense. Sometimes excruciatingly socially awkward. It’s great.</p>
<p>Just one thing to keep in mind is that if you need to study 24/7 for a high school workload, the UChicago workload might be even more stressful for you than it already is for everybody else. Regarding the “weird” stigma… I’m not sure why “weird” has been given such a negative connotation. I’d rather be somewhat weird and quirky than normal. Normal is so boring. The stereotype does mostly come from those looking from the outside in, who see students spend hours upon hours in the library and actually enjoy it. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about SAT/ACT scores. If you belong here, you’ll get in.</p>
<p>Yeah, why do people connotate “weird” with negative comments? I don’t think it’s bad at all - I think it’s neat that people are brave enough to stand out in a crowd and not blend in. You really think I shouldn’t worry? I think that’s the best advice I’ve received. I’m going to Chicago, reluctantly, for an interview this weekend. I don’t even know why I’m taking the time - probably because I’ll regret it if I don’t. I guess whatever’s meant to be will happen, which means Chicago prob won’t want me haha.</p>
<p>And regarding stress, either I have so much that it doesn’t phase me much anymore or I don’t have any, which is unlikely. APUSH, for example; I’ve never had so much work/study time, and now it requires much of my time. My grade isn’t even good though. We have quizzes every other class and I study, but the questions that are asked are ones that didn’t come up in my study sessions. I dunno why. AP Stats is challenging, and my grade shows it. In AP Lit, we were supposed to write about the country as in “landscape” for “The Scarlet Letter,” and I wrote about the country as in North America. I wrote it well but I got a 3/9 on that one. Other than that assignment I really like that class. Analyzing literature and writings is so much more interesting than summerizing, which gets you nowhere.Well, Spanish is and will always be my favorite. :)</p>
<p>I’m gonna try something:
“Now I am alone. Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, but in a fiction, in a dream of passion, could force his soul so to his own conceit. Her working from all his visage wanned, tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, a broken voice, his whole <em>function suiting</em> but to his own conceit, and all for nothing - For Hecuba!” That’s all I got.</p>
<p>Chicago is much less different than you seem to imagine from any of the other colleges to which it would normally be compared. Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Tufts, Hopkins, Northwestern, WashU, Duke . . . . You could take a random group of students from those colleges and plop them down at Chicago, and replace them with randomly selected Chicago students, and 90% of the switched students would do just as well (or poorly) at the new college as they were doing at the old, socially, academically, whatever. It’s only 10% of the students, at most, who create the shadings that seem to give such a distinctive character to each school. They all DO have a distinctive character, but by and large it’s mostly the same distinctive character. It’s only distinctive compared to the large parts of the world that aren’t affluent, intellectual, elitist American private research universities.</p>
<p>What are your opinions of liberal (arts) schools in comparison to rearch unis? I read an interesting article in Readers’ Digest that strongly favored LACs over research unis for undergrads. I ask because I’m also considering Beloit.</p>
I’m going to Chicago, reluctantly, for an interview this weekend. I don’t even know why I’m taking the time - probably because I’ll regret it if I don’t. 
In AP Lit, we were supposed to write about the country as in “landscape” for “The Scarlet Letter,” and I wrote about the country as in North America. I wrote it well but I got a 3/9 on that one. Other than that assignment I really like that class. Analyzing literature and writings is so much more interesting than summerizing, which gets you nowhere.Well, Spanish is and will always be my favorite. :)</p>