As of now, my chances of getting into uChicago?

Question

Okay, right now I'm a sophomore, but I need to know what uChicago is looking for, and what I should add to my High School Life.

My GPA is 4.833. I'm ranked 1/536 people.

I'm in student council, scholastic bowl, and Pi Sigma Pi (a honor society)

I'm on my 3rd year of spanish.

I take AP Euro

I will be taking AP Language/Lit for the next two years.

At least 1 AP Science (either Bio and/or Chem)

AMA followed by AP Calc

Acc. Span 4 followed by AP Spanish.

Accounting 2 followed by internships or Engineering.

I take AP Euro, following up with AP U.S and Acc. Gov/Democracy (AP)

Last year's World Cultues accel. (who is my AP US teacher next year) loved me, and went to uChicago and Northwestern, and will write me an amazing letter. (Yes, I'm sure).

I will take the ACT over until I get a good score 29+. I'm predicting I'll get an average of probably a 3 on my AP classes. I live in suburban Chicago. Any opinions on how to increase my chances? (This school is my 1st choice, so I REALLY want to get in)

Answer 1

Your rank is great, Chicago will love it, but you need to aim higher on scores. It's well into the 30's that they want, a 29 doesn't do it for the typical candidate. And while a 3 is passing on the AP's, a typical Chicago successful candidate will have gotten 5's. Their admission rate dropped a lot for the class of 2012 and will probably drop again this year. Chicago looks easy to get into among top schools but the truth is they have long had a self selected pool of really high academic achievers.