The University of Chicago is a top-tier American university on par with the vaunted Ivy League and other exceptional schools, like Stanford. It is exceptionally hard to get into as an American, but especially hard to get into if you are an international applicant. Only 16% of undergraduates at the university are international students, which is a lot if you are not an international student but is a tiny slice if you’re one of the thousands of international applicants trying to get into the university. We routinely help international students pull off an acceptance by the University of Chicago. In this post, we’ll give you a peek into our playbook.
It is hard to get into the University of Chicago as an international student because the number of international students who want to attend UChicago is disproportionate to the percentage of seats in the first-year class that are available for international applicants. The acceptance overall first-year acceptance rate for the University of Chicago for the class of 2028 was 4.5%. They received 43,612 applications, and accepted just 1,955 students for the first-year class. However, these overarching numbers only share a piece of the story.
The University of Chicago is known for accepting a high percentage of their first-year class in the Early Decision round. They offer both Early Action and Early Decision, but it’s Early Decision I and II that results, historically, in the highest rate of acceptance. We advise our students that you have to apply ED if you want to get into the University of Chicago, whether or not you are an international student but especially if you are an international student.
At The Koppelman Group, we help students beat the odds and get into the University of Chicago from abroad. Below, we give you a peek at our playbook for international students. Contact us to get your full customized strategy.
Applying to a top-tier American university as an international student requires strategy. Contact us to get yours.
If a student is applying to the University of Chicago as an international student, there are three steps you absolutely must be taking immediately to improve your chances of getting in. We haven’t numbered these because they need to be addressed concurrently, or at the same time, rather than in a sequential order. And the time to start is yesterday, seriously.
Plan in Advance
When you are applying to college in the United States, it’s hard to start thinking about it too early. Beginning in the equivalent of your second year of American high school, it is crucial that a prospective applicant start mapping your path to college by excelling in the hardest coursework they have access to, and beginning to prep for tests including English proficiency testing and the SAT or ACT.
A strong score for UChicago is above 1550 on the SAT or a 35-36 on the ACT. For the vast majority of students, attaining those scores doesn’t happen on the first try — especially if English is not their first language. Plan for months of studying and practice tests, if not longer.
Next, we encourage international students to lean into being themselves. If a student is applying to UChicago as an international student, they shouldn’t try to be an American student. The undergraduate program is looking for international students who will “share their ideas and perspectives,” with the rest of the student body. So, the admissions team at UChicago is not drawn to international students who have tried to copy an American experience. They want to see the uniqueness in you, and your background.
This often means pursuing or deepening into aspects of a cultural identity that one is already passionate about, whether around food, community, faith, or the arts. Doing this in an authentic manner over an extended period of time is crucial to it truly strengthening any UChi application, which is another reason why planning ahead is important.
The other big reasons to plan ahead are targeting a prospective major and developing other extracurriculars and activities, both of which we’ll go into next.
Identify a Target Program
When you apply to the University of Chicago, you’ll be asked to specify a program that is your first choice for a major at the university. While one doesn’t need to select the prospective major until they actually complete the application, we highly advise students to having one in mind long before they even create a Common Application account.
The most popular — and so the largest — majors at the University of Chicago are Economics (by far), Computer Science, and Mathematics. Other top majors include Public Policy Studies, Psychology, and Political Sciences. These represent only a sliver of the more than 50 majors at the university, and are not the only majors one should consider, but applying to majors that have room for a lot of students can be a strong strategy for international students.
On the other side of things, applying to much more niche majors can be a good plan, too, if a student has the academic and extracurricular background to back up their interest in the subject.
For example, one definitely doesn’t want to apply to UChicago as an Art History major if there is nothing in their background that underlines an interest in Art History. But if one is passionate about art history, and have pursued related activities (like working as a docent at a local gallery or museum) even if courses aren’t available through your school, then targeting a niche major may be a strong plan.
Working with an expert can help you pinpoint what the right strategy is for a student given their interests, strengths, and areas of expertise. Having this guidance can be crucial in earning an acceptance to the University of Chicago, especially because one needs to build an applicant profile that augments and underlines a target program.
Pursue Verifiable Extracurriculars
The University of Chicago looks for students who are passionate and excited about sharing what they love with others. The essays for the college application underline this. They want unique. They want quirky. And they want long-term commitment.
At the same time, the biggest weakness we see in international applicants before our help is a lack of depth, focus, and passion in what students do outside of the classroom.
Sometimes this is because a student is still figuring out what they want to do, and hasn’t been sure where to point their attention. That’s normal and ok, but it’s time to zoom in and focus!
Other times, it’s because there are limited structured opportunities for activities through school, a community center, or a local government. The application readers for international applicants at the University of Chicago know that international students likely have fewer structured activities, like school clubs or student groups, to plug into than one would in the US. Schools in the US prioritize student activities, whereas many schools internationally put their entire focus on academics.
However, this is a reason that it may be hard to find activities — not an excuse for not pursuing them.
Once an international student has their target program, one needs to build a resume that highlights deep engagement in that subject or field. If one is able to do this through school, great. However, if international students don’t have opportunities through school, they need to make them. Start a school or community paper. Create a club or student organization. Pursue independent research. Get a job or internship at a local business relevant to what you may want to study. Do something, and preferably a few somethings, that go outside of what you’re doing at school in a way that is focused, that deepens into a passion, and that is, ideally, long-term. A single one-week internship isn’t enough, but it’s impactful if you pair it with starting a club at school and doing work independently.
Students at UChicago represent about 100 countries, and there are no ‘quotas’ for any given country. If you’re from outside the USA, you can get into the University of Chicago, but it requires strategy, and planning. It also benefits from an expert guide. That’s where we can help.
Getting into an American college from outside the US isn’t simple. Contact us for your custom plan.