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I want UChicago to fall, it's my #1 choice school.
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<p>Sorry, but this won't be happening any time soon. Chicago's got a plan under way to make sure it goes up in the rankings. Now that Chicago is #8 and switching to the Common App, we'll draw many more applicants so that our admissions rate will go down, thus enhancing selectivity, thus making us go further up in the rankings. It's kind of a sad reality, but it's true, and I can't exactly pinpoint Chicago's true intentions in this matter.</p>
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Sorry, but this won't be happening any time soon. Chicago's got a plan under way to make sure it goes up in the rankings. Now that Chicago is #8 and switching to the Common App, we'll draw many more applicants so that our admissions rate will go down, thus enhancing selectivity, thus making us go further up in the rankings.</p>
<p>Lately, I've been wondering why it's so mandatory to go up in the rankings. Is it really because we're looking for better students, or is it just prestige?
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<p>I've been wondering this as well. Does going up in the rankings really attract better students, enough to justify attracting so many more applicants just to reject them?</p>
<p>When you say switching to the Common App, do you mean that the "Uncommon App" questions will be phased out? Because I was looking forward to answer them next year.</p>
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When you say switching to the Common App, do you mean that the "Uncommon App" questions will be phased out? Because I was looking forward to answer them next year.
<p>The common application will lure them in. The supplemental questions will make them feel like Adam on Mother's Day. komargo, the competition will stay the same.</p>
<p>I think the competition will be about the same, probably a bit tougher. Remember that for the essay prompts, you can always submit your own essay.</p>
<p>Something I didn't realize, until recently, is that the undergraduate College at the University of Chicago came very close to dying 50 years ago (i.e., within the memory of some of the faculty, or close to it) because of the small numbers of applications they were receiving, and it really didn't stabilize fully until the 1990s (or perhaps later). Dean Boyer and President Zimmer have seen the undergraduate program become much more popular over the course of their careers, but (unlike at HYP) they don't take it for granted, I'm sure. I think they want to make certain that the University is permanently on solid footing, and one of the ways to do that is to make certain that it is attracting good students.</p>
<p>"The supplemental questions will make them feel like Adam on Mother's Day."</p>
<p>lmao</p>
<p>I don't see anything wrong with switching to the Common Application; Chicago's essay questions will still attract the right types, and more of them, if it's easier for them to apply. Admissions won't change their standards. The incoming classes can only get stronger if more students apply.</p>
<p>I definitely don't agree with tactics that some schools are using to better their standings in USNWR rankings (like accepting very few students and waitlisting nearly the rest for a safe yield), but I think that Chicago is making sure that people know about the school in a way that doesn't compromise the special qualities of its future incoming classes.</p>
<p>There's nothing wrong with trying to gain in the rankings, to a point; if Chicago tries to do so in a way that destroys its unique appeal, though, they will have gone too far.</p>
<p>It's actually harder to apply to the U of C now than it was my year, because of the addition of the common app. Remember that applicants are submitting both their "common" essay and their "Chicago" essay. In past years, the "topic of your choice" prompt might have been a good way to squeeze in a common app essay, but applicants can't do that anymore.</p>
<p>And if you ask around on these boards, I think Chicago still has a very strong reputation. Whether actual student experience lives up to the reputation, I really can't say. The students who come in want to be here, and I think that because Chicago is a "top 10" school, students who want to come here have physical evidence to convince their parents that it's "just as good" as some other schools out there.</p>
<p>There are also two other effects to consider. First, the population of college age kids is peaking in the US as we get very close to the replacement birth rate (2.2 kids or so per adult couple – some people die). Presuming there is a relatively fixed fraction of the population whose IQ’s will lead to the kind of performance (GPA, SAT) that merits admission to Chicago, competition is not really likely to go up that much in the next decade. The explosive growth in applicants from the 1980’s to 2000 was primarily driven by the rising market value of a college degree and the number of pupils that could begin to afford college, not sheer numbers. Both these drivers seem like they will be exhausted soon. </p>
<p>The second half of this is that despite the population stabilizing, you have many more kids applying to college broadly, with evidence suggesting that we already have more students at colleges than are qualified for tertiary education in general. So what you are really going to get is many more Hail Mary resumes if the number of applicants to a particular school is still growing well above average. I bet if Chicago published the distribution of the students that apply – not those that are admitted or matriculated – you would see plenty of kids who are at best qualified to attend their local state school, if that, while the number of kids who were afforded serious consideration is not rising anywhere near as drastically. </p>
<p>It just does not mean much as practical matter, other than for the importance that surrounds USNews selectivity, that students who end up at Boston College or George Washington for non-financial reasons spent the time to send in paperwork.</p>
<p>QED post #8. I think the "core constituency" for UChicago will not change by much and that's what ADCOM is banking on to lower the admission rate without changing the character of the school.</p>
<p>Agreed. S1 doesn't know anyone who "threw an app to see if it would stick" at Chicago. Those who applied knew what they were getting into and at least considered it as a real possibility for them.</p>
<p>S2 is considering Chicago, but will require lots of research and thought on his own part before he decides if it's a good fit for him, test scrores notwithstanding.</p>
<p>It depends on what kind of high school you son or daughter is coming from, and how much of an informed college prep environment there is. In contrast, I have interviewed students who are clueless about the school - no idea what majors are offered, no understanding of what the core involves or that it even will have an impact on their studies, think the campus is in downtown Chicago, etc. </p>
<p>Given the hype that surrounds college admissions, there are always going to be plenty of strivers (and pushy parents) who simply mass mail top schools with the knowledge that there are plenty of backups. Chicago in this vein operates prime property by virtue of being in the top ten.</p>