<p>According to
Amadani (cc junior member) Emory site</p>
<p>Wash U jumps to top ten position again!</p>
<p>Now the US News ranking makes sense. Chicago and Cornell better than WashU.
In the graduate rankings WashU does not appear at any top program except in Medicine.</p>
<p>I think Cornell and Wash U are tied at #12...not that it really matters.
Also, I agree that U of Chicago is a great school, but when a school jumps ahead by 6 spots in one year---one has to wonder whether or not
US News ranking system is somehow flawed. I find it hard to believe that the U of Chicago's acceptance rate is 40%.</p>
<p>Usnews might have fixed their metodology. Chicago has 79 Nobels, 27 have won in Physics, 23 in Economic Sciences, 15 in Chemistry, 11 in Physiology or Medicine, and three in Literature. Enough reasons to be a top ten school.</p>
<p>I wonder why their admit rate is so high? I agree that the school is where it should be (top 10).....but why do students choose to go elsewhere?</p>
<p>The admit rate is so high because the applicant pool is self-selective; only the kids who would be a good fit for Chicago apply in the first place, so the adcoms don't have as many applicants to turn down. I don't have any particular insight into the low yield rate that I think missmolly is asking about.</p>
<p>"one has to wonder whether or not US News ranking system is somehow flawed"
Um... yes, yes it is, though not because of that. Chicago rose this year because they jointly determined with USNews that they were under-reporting financial resources and below-20 classes while their peer assessment rating fluctuated up by .1. I'd say that last year's ranking of Duke and Penn was better evidence of flaws than Chicago in the top ten.</p>
<p>"self-selective":
I've never figured out what this is supposed to mean. Most acceptees don't matriculate. I believe that the translation into reality-ese would be that Chicago's average applicants are of a very high quality due to the fact that John Q. Average-Scores has never heard about the school and has no dreams of someday being a great academic economist. Thus, the school can have high admit and low yield rates but still wind up with the 11th (?) best score range.</p>
<p>Chicago's acceptance rate: </p>
<p>The data is old, the acceptance rate is 36%.</p>
<p>First, Chicago's in the midwest. Midwest schools other than WUSTL have high acceptance rates in relation to quality (Chicago, Michigan, Grinnell, Northwestern).</p>
<p>The yield rate is low. Like all schools, Chicago admits enough people to filll the class. The low yield seems to be caused by several factors: </p>
<p>1- It's advertising is recieved by relatively few people and comes off as pretentious to many (well, everybody. some mind more than others).
2- The first things that one hears about the school upon inquiry are slogans such as "where fun comes to die," "where the squirrels are more attractive than the girls," and my personal favorite: "Where the squirrels are more agressive than the guys."
3- The school is known for being just a notch less difficult than Caltech and MIT. It's easy to talk oneself out of difficult schools when one has easier options.
4- There are no pre-professional programs or performance majors, which some seem to realize after applying.
5- Most people who can get into Chicago have an excellent shot at the Ivies, which tend to dominate cross-admit battles with virtually unknown schools like Chicago.
6- Lots of people hate Lake Michigan weather.
7- Students are ambivalent to the school, the polar opposite of the ubiquitous Duke kids who couldn't possibly love anything more about their school (note: this is not a knock on Duke). Part of Chicago's appeal to some is it's "academic boot-camp" nature. People are proud to have made it through but wouldn't necessarily want to do it again. This comes across in discussions between alumni and prospies.
8- Northeastern Ivy-hopefuls tend to use Chicago and JHU as safeties, thus decreasing yield at these schools.
9- No one has ever heard of the place, so you get no respect. I thought it was a public when I first heard about it. ('Why would the two smartest kids in the school go to some random public while the distant third is going to Yale?' was my first thought). I later found out that this happens all the time. We've got a facebook group called "no I don't go to f****ing UIC" (University of Illinois at Chicago).
10- Students have a rep for being fugly nerds.
11- We use EA, which is really nice for applicants but hurts the yield. I'm fully in favor of this, but it greatly contributes to the high acceptance rate.
12- We don't accept the common app, which reduces the number of applicants.</p>