How I got into UChicago with a B- average

People were asking, how did I get into UChicago with a B- average? And some people, especially on Twitter, had some opinions...

So, here's how I did it. And I'm talking about this to make a point that seems to have gone over some peoples' heads.

The point is that even being able to build this profile as a college applicant depended on incredibly privileged opportunities. I'll talk more about that at the end of the video too.

So first off I went to Exeter, a private boarding school, on a full ride for high school. Going to Exeter gave me a huge boost right out the gate because a UChicago recruiter literally flies out to our school to interview everybody who applies. That's insane.

Ok, but a B- average still put me in like the bottom 10% of my class in terms of GPA. So how did I get into UChicago? Well, I didn't do well in all of my subjects, but I did get As in advanced Latin and Ancient Greek and won a couple national awards from something called National Junior Classical League, which is basically nerd camp for people who want to study dead languages. I also started a club for National History Day and went to nationals for an environmental history essay I wrote about Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring.

I got Cs in math. Like genuinely Cs. But it was in multivariable calculus as a sophomore, so I think my overall GPA was offset by taking just hard classes across the board. I was pretty bad at English because I was terrible at narrative writing, BUT I was good at journalism style writing because I wrote and edited for our school newspaper, where I did profiles of other students.

But what actually got me in was probably my standardized tests. I got a 36 on the ACT, a 2370 on the SAT, and wrote an essay about squash and Greek concepts of time.

The UChicago recruiter later told me that my essay played a big role in getting in, and part of that was that it combined two things that kids don't usually talk about. Why don't they talk about them? Because most kids don't have access to squash, because each court can cost $100,000 to build. Most kids also don't have access to Ancient Greek classes, at least not as far as I know.

In talking about all of this and talking about privilege and inequity, I also hope it's clear that I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunities I was given. Exeter changed the trajectory of my life, but when I see the positive impact it had on me, I can't help but feel like so many other kids should have these opportunities as well. But while it was life-changing for me individually, the systemic problems that put kids like me in a tough position to begin with still remain.

And at the same time, we see problems of compounding privilege and this disconnect among people with the power to change things from the everyday reality for the average American. I offer all of this not as a doomer narrative, but instead to advocate for these kinds of resources to be available more broadly, more widely, more universally.

Because how is it that we live in what is objectively one of the most abundant times EVER in human civilization, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and 20% of schoolchildren in the US face problems of hunger? Like is that not laughable?

I don't think it should be that controversial to say that it would be a larger net positive to have one less yacht for a billionaire so that we could feed 1 million more kids in America. And yet, look at my comments sections. Hell, look at the comments section for this video after the conversation gets going. Somehow, this is where we've found ourselves.