2016-2017 University of Chicago (Pritzker) Application Thread

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flip15 said:
Congrats on your first II! And +1 on working full-time. I get home, work on essays until bed time, pass out, & repeat the next day. I've managed to get most secondaries turned around in about a week but I'm envious of the people who are able to submit secondaries within 72 hours or less!
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A one-week turn-around is still really impressive! I think the only secondary I have turned in less than 72 hours is Rochester (Bless Rochester and their beautiful secondary)
 
soundslikefire said:
Secondary complete 7/9. Just received my first II today (7/19) from Pritzker. It's still early everyone, keep your spirits up!!!

On a different note anyone else working full-time while doing secondaries? I've been cutting it near the 2 week stamp with nearly each one.
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From what I have heard as long you get it in within a month your fine. The 2 week rule is largely a myth. quality is better than speed, and you do not want to burnout either!
 
Does anyone know if Chicago review the LORs first before sending out IIs?
 
belvita said:
Congrats! And same, secondary writing is less than appealing after working in a lab all day. There's technically some downtime between steps in each protocol, but stop-and-go writing is not productive. It's still pretty early in the cycle though so I don't think anybody should be stressing out yet!
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Same! I work in a lab so I've been trying to write secondaries in my down time but I often am too lazy. I've managed to keep the two week deadline though for all schools except 1


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Sigh. Still no status change. I've been complete since June so I'm still convinced that my application is just sitting in a forgotten pile 🙁

Not really. Just impatient, lol.
 
Anyone still waiting on their LORs to be received? The box is still grey in my portal. I sent the letters nearly three weeks ago.
 
StagGod said:
Anyone still waiting on their LORs to be received? The box is still grey in my portal. I sent the letters nearly three weeks ago.
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it took a whole week for me to go from grey to blue
 
Somehow I completely forgot about Pritzker even though it was the second secondary I received. Secondary received 6/27. Should I still bother submitting. I'm definitely still interested in the school but I just finished the essays and forgot to submit.
 
centyrone said:
Somehow I completely forgot about Pritzker even though it was the second secondary I received. Secondary received 6/27. Should I still bother submitting. I'm definitely still interested in the school but I just finished the essays and forgot to submit.
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Submit! You'll have absolutely no chance if you don't apply. I don't think it's too too late.


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centyrone said:
Somehow I completely forgot about Pritzker even though it was the second secondary I received. Secondary received 6/27. Should I still bother submitting. I'm definitely still interested in the school but I just finished the essays and forgot to submit.
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Submit! If you have a quality application, I think they'll forgive you for being a little late (and still months earlier than the hard deadline, by the way). No app = no chance!


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Is your application considered complete when the 4 boxes are colored in? (MD, supp, payment and recs) Or do you receive an email stating it's complete?
 
Yorick said:
Is your application considered complete when the 4 boxes are colored in? (MD, supp, payment and recs) Or do you receive an email stating it's complete?
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You don't receive an email notifying you of completion. You are complete when your status box looks like this, and you'll receive an email notifying you of an interview invitation or a rejection, but so far, not if your application is placed on "hold", which you'll have to check your portal for.
 

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kringle said:
What does hold look like?
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According to an applicant on this thread, whose application is currently on "hold" , your status box will read:

"Application Held for Later Review
Your application has been placed on hold for further review later in the application process. In the meantime we encourage you to keep us informed by email of new academic and extracurricular accomplishments."

Good luck, guys! We're close.
 
Committee letter has been in since the 20th but my rec box is still marked is grey. I really need to work on being patient


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yourboysaf said:
Ouch. Rejection email today. Was completed on 7/08.
3.96/520.
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I have to ask -- what do you think led to the rejection? Those stats are stellar. Chin up, though, plenty of other schools still pending!
 
Squid0612 said:
With your stats? Well I'm scared!
Sorry about the rejection



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Yeah it sucks :\ But it's all good fam, you gotta let it go and move on, cuz its just one school out of many. Pritzker just wasn't in my fate lol 😛

liquidsodium said:
I have to ask -- what do you think led to the rejection? Those stats are stellar. Chin up, though, plenty of other schools still pending!
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I feel like compared to most applicants there ... I may be traditional af. 20 years old, still at University ... whole nine yards. Or maybe my essays sucked so much which led to the rejection. But then Case Western sent an II with almost the same essays, so I guess it may be a mixture of a lot of factors.
 
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Wow at people already getting II! Congrats to everyone! I was completed 7/11, but haven't heard back yet.. Going to be madly refreshing my email now lol.
 
First rejection of the cycle (2nd). Submitted 7/7. LizzyM 80. Sucks 🙁
 
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Placed on hold here, LizzyM 78.

For current students: what do they look for with update letters? To be completely, 100% honest, this is not one of my very top choice schools; but I would still of course love for a chance at interview and acceptance.

Anyways, for all of us getting rejected/placed on hold; I'd like to say I think it's really to early to worry about this stuff. Keep on keeping on: you've come this far, and most if not all of us have probably put in years of hard work to get to the point where we can consider ourselves even semi-competitive for schools like Pritzker. Who really knows, aside from the adcoms themselves, why they deny some with high stats, accept some with low stats, and make all sorts of decisions in between. This is just one, very, very small piece of the puzzle; and a rejection or hold pre-interview has no bearing on you.

In my opinion, it is simply impossible to know someone without meeting them, talking, and having that intimate, sustained contact. Even if you get an interview and a rejection, one several hour interview is nothing. As most of you probably know, to truly, deeply get to know someone - it takes years. The adcoms have to do their very best with, what is in the end, very limited information. We are all human and no one is perfect.

Goodluck to all of y'all as we continue - I'll be keeping everyone updated for sure! Complete at 8 schools so far, but working full-time, research, and competing in sports definitely gets in the way of me finishing the other 10 secondaries I've been working on. For all of you that are very busy during this application cycle - you're not alone my friends!

MrRed
 
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MrRed said:
Placed on hold here, LizzyM 78. Complete 7/14.

I had, admittedly, quite a few typos in my primary application - definitely rushed to submit it. Worked on it for a month and then had to scramble to finish it before my boxing tournament! This may have factored into it.

For current students: what do they look for with update letters? To be completely, 100% honest, this is not one of my very top choice schools; but I would still of course love for a chance at interview and acceptance.

Anyways, for all of us getting rejected/placed on hold; I'd like to say I think it's really to early to worry about this stuff. Keep on keeping on: you've come this far, and most if not all of us have probably put in years of hard work to get to the point where we can consider ourselves even semi-competitive for schools like Pritzker. Who really knows, aside from the adcoms themselves, why they deny some with high stats, accept some with low stats, and make all sorts of decisions in between. This is just one, very, very small piece of the puzzle; and a rejection or hold pre-interview has no bearing on you.

In my opinion, it is simply impossible to know someone without meeting them, talking, and having that intimate, sustained contact. Even if you get an interview and a rejection, one several hour interview is nothing. As most of you probably know, to truly, deeply get to know someone - it takes years. The adcoms have to do their very best with, what is in the end, very limited information. We are all human and no one is perfect.

Goodluck to all of y'all as we continue - I'll be keeping everyone updated for sure! Complete at 8 schools so far, but working full-time, research, and competing in sports definitely gets in the way of me finishing the other 10 secondaries I've been working on. For all of you that are very busy during this application cycle - you're not alone my friends!

MrRed
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MrRed after reading through virtually all of the Prtizker Podcast transcripts (your fault) it seems like addressing your weaknesses would help. Multiple times they stressed that they are looking for someone who will "fit in" well at Pritzker and if one area is lacking or gives them pause it is enough for a rejection or hold. They stress that they value a commitment to service and ability to thrive in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. I saw a few times where they mentioned rejecting an applicant who seemed too competitive since it seemed they wouldn't fit in well in an environment that prizes teamwork. So in your case I would suggest hitting arms more than once a month so you can fill out a shmedium polo.
 
Has anyone not received a secondary from UChicago yet? Submitted primary last week (verified, was just waiting on MCAT scores to designate more schools) and have received secondaries from all of the other schools so far. Should I be concerned?
 
I know they update everything manually, but waiting for them to update my recs so I'm complete is miserable
Sent them in 7/20 and still nothing.
 
rhlehgusl said:
Do you know where I could find one of these for how many people got interviews among the secondaries? And also for how many of the interviewed people get acceptances?
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Last year we began giving out more interviews than in previous years due to the departure of an (THE) admissions staff member who had been around for ~20+ years. Whether that elevated number of interviews will remain elevated or if the admissions crew thinks they've got a tighter hold on things this year - I do not know.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: don't put too much weight on those kinds of stats this year, but prior to 2015-2016 it was ~550 interviews, last year I want to say it was closer to 800, but don't quote me on that.
 
Question: If I end up getting put on Hold, what exactly does that mean? Like, if I don't get any sort of new academic or extracurricular accomplishment, should I still try and get into contact with them? I am in a gap year, so academic accomplishment is out. I anticipate a first author pub from my research this year, but not till the very end of the year. This is a top choice for me so just wondering.
 
Iwannaknow said:
Question: If I end up getting put on Hold, what exactly does that mean? Like, if I don't get any sort of new academic or extracurricular accomplishment, should I still try and get into contact with them? I am in a gap year, so academic accomplishment is out. I anticipate a first author pub from my research this year, but not till the very end of the year. This is a top choice for me so just wondering.
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I was put on hold and then got an II a week later. I am MSTP though so that may be it.
 
Iwannaknow said:
Question: If I end up getting put on Hold, what exactly does that mean? Like, if I don't get any sort of new academic or extracurricular accomplishment, should I still try and get into contact with them? I am in a gap year, so academic accomplishment is out. I anticipate a first author pub from my research this year, but not till the very end of the year. This is a top choice for me so just wondering.
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Take this with a grain of salt, but I've done some research on what being on hold means (because I got put on it!) in my down time and a summary of SDN wisdom, medical school admissions websites, and some other places has lead me to this:

If you are put on hold, someone has reviewed your application at least to some extent, and thinks that you are a strong applicant in many ways, but might not be a good fit for THAT school. They will wait for some amount of time, up to a few months, to review your application again when they can compare it to a larger applicant pool. That said, it seems that if you are put on hold at a school that is your top choice, a genuine letter of intent and update letter can probably help significantly in getting you from pre-interview hold to the interview list.

Alternatively, at least one admissions staff I called said something along the lines of: you may be put on hold if they have reviewed your application and feel the need to do a more in depth review before extending an interview invite.

It seems to differ by school, in that some schools pull many more applicants from the hold list than others.

With that said, being on hold is definitely much better than straight rejection in most cases, with what seems like a fair percent chance to get pulled off the hold list and given an interview if you really show how passionate you are about the given school.

That's all I got for now - so hope it helps! Being on hold is probably some combination of the above with maybe an added bit of "well, we might not really want you as much as some other applicants". Hopefully you'll just get the interview right off the bat though - goodluck friend!
 
MrRed said:
Take this with a grain of salt ..d
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Thank you for this. Pritzker is one of my top choices, if not my very top choice. I am on hold but think it may be too soon to send them an update/letter of intent. When is the time frame for this, would you say?
 
Random, but did the people who were placed on hold get an email that you were on hold? Or did you just check your status on the portal?
 
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