One of the most confusing applications of the coveted top-tier schools is the University of Chicago. If you tackled their application, you’ve experienced this already. They expect a combination of academic excellence and quirky creativity that can feel intimidating to many applicants, and simply confounding to others.
The University of Chicago offers admission through four routes: Early Decision I, Early Action, Early Decision II, and Regular Decision. UChicago is an Ivy-caliber school, with an acceptance rate to match. The first-year acceptance rate right now is so you can be an exceptional student and still not get in — even if you apply Early Decision. In this post, we’re going to break down what may have gone wrong with your application, and give you clear steps to move towards a top-tier acceptance in the Regular Decision round.
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Bouncing back from an ED rejection from UChicago requires taking four clear steps that set you up for success and, even, a dream acceptance.
Step One: Take a Break
The first step is to have fun — seriously. An Early Decision rejection can knock you off your feet, and so it’s important to regain your footing before you face Regular Decision deadlines. So, give yourself a bit of a break. Take a hike, have a fun movie or game night with friends, unplug for a weekend, or spend time with a sibling. Whatever refills your cup, do it. You’ll do your best work after this rest and reset.
Step Two: Strategize
We can’t be sure why you weren’t accepted by the University of Chicago without getting to review your application, but there are two strong possibilities.
The first is quantitative. If you don’t have for a school like UChicago, that’s a hard fact that no amount of massaging can smooth over. To be a strong candidate, you needed to have an SAT over 1550, an ACT of 35 or 36, and a nearly perfect GPA. Anything less than that, and your application started on the chopping block.
The second possibility is that your writing didn’t resonate with readers. The University of Chicago application is quirky, to say the least. They filter hard for students who exemplify the same level of creative thinking that the application questions show. If you don’t shine in the essays, they don’t let you in. It’s really that simple.
Whether the reason for your rejection was one of these things or both, there are some clear actions you need to take for your best college strategy from here forward. The college list, for one, needs a fresh look. If your grades and scores were the problem, UChicago was too far of a reach. If it’s the essays at fault, you may be able to get into another school with an acceptance rate under 10%, but only after a serious overhaul.
Before you start writing a fresh essay, make sure that you have three reaches that are, truly, a possibility (not a moonshot), three or four genuine target schools, and three or four safety options. Do not go for quantity of applications submitted over quality. Doing great work is what will get you into a great school, and that takes time. You should also seriously consider an EDII options. You can’t apply EDII to the University of Chicago, of course, but there are many other exceptional institutions with an EDII option that offers applicants like you a boosted chance at admission.
Once you have your list, it’s time to get to writing.
Step Three: Essays
You have already done a lot of writing, having bravely faced the University of Chicago supplement. And you have a main college essay, of course. It is understandable if you are frustrated by what we’ll say next, then: start over.
Yes, you heard that right. We recommend that student who were rejected from UChicago ED start fresh. This is true whether your grades and scores were right in the Universities sweet spot, or if you were throwing a hail mary by applying ED.
Starting from scratch is intimidating, but it is also worth it. Something about the approach you took in your earlier application didn’t work. Instead of trying to figure out what that was, without any guidance from the application readers, starting over gives you the opportunity to slough off the rejection and truly enter the Regular Decision round (and EDII!) in a strong stance.
Impressive college writing is, ultimately, all about connecting with the reader. College essays should not be narrative resumes. Instead, each essay and supplement should revolve around a specific experience, bringing the reader into your life and making them feel connected to you as more than just an applicant.
Another really important aspect of your writing is that you should never be repeating yourself. If you write about debate in one place, do not spotlight it in another. If you focus on a volunteer experience in a supplement, that’s the only place it should show up. Each piece of writing is an opportunity to show a piece of yourself, and doubling down on a single detail tends to actually detract from the breadth of your experiences. So, even if you absolutely love a particular thing, do not fall into the trap of becoming repetitive.
Step Four: Ask For Help
The final step of our four-part regime is to admit what you don’t know and ask for help. You are absolutely the expert on yourself, but you aren’t an expert on college admissions. That’s okay. You don’t need to be. Having an expert provide a guiding hand can, though, become a gamechanger. We regularly support students in attaining Ivy-caliber admission in the Regular Decision round, and often it’s matter of finessing the details in ways that are entirely unexpected by the student and their family. The expertise that guides us comes from experience. A trusted teacher or mentor may, too, be able to provide important insight.
Receiving a rejection from UChicago in the Early Decision round is upsetting, but it isn’t the end of the world. You can still get into an exceptional school. The trick is to start now.
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