@merc81 I think that some of their rival institutions like Colby have gone test optional, eliminated the need for a supplementary essay and eliminated their application fee, where they received considerably more applications than normal, and lowered their acceptance rates. This could have provided enough points to move them out of the tie for 12th place they were all in last year.
@CaliDad2020 Ha. No oboe majors or life-drawing classes at Caltech, true. But we were told during the tour that the “houses” press their own olive oil using fruit from the campus trees; they then have an annual contest to see whose olive oil tastes best. That tradition is unquestionably “a bit more” and, if it were common knowledge, would surely send Caltech zooming up the USNWR ranking 
@anxiousenior1 “UChicago is just not on the radar of the typical average high school student yet…”"
Really?? Where do you live??? UChicago received 31.000 applications last year…
@anxiousenior1 I am pretty sure plenty of people are aware of the University of Chicago. Also, they can send the mass mails and emails to students who have a shot at getting in since they get their lists from the College Board where they know their SAT scores, but they choose to bombard way too many students who don’t have a shot just to get them to apply. Don’t get me wrong, I think Chicago is an phenomenal institution and belongs in the top ten. I just dislike this one practice of theirs.
Uchicago is doing everything to entice an application. Mass mailing, mass information sessions. Their mailing seems to be customized to convince students that they have a great shot. They also waive the application fee for any student that are applying for FA, basically every one.
A colleague of mine at a different school said that a committee was put together recently to try to pinpoint the most efficient things they could “improve” to go up in the rankings. Your tax dollars at work!
The math does not support that idea for Chicago.
Student selectivity is 12.5 percent of the USNWR formula. 65% of that is ACT/SAT scores. Students in the top 10% of HS graduating class is 25%. The third component is the acceptance rate or the ratio of students admitted to applicants (10 percent).
So admit rate is only 1.25% of the formula. Small beer.
The drug of choice for top schools that are not HYPSM is ED. Penn was the pioneer on this decades ago. Duke, Dartmouth, NW, Brown, JHU, Vandy, Emory also are heavy ED users. It improves your ranking numbers in so many ways (including admit rate).
Most importantly, ED helps you lock in better qualified/resourced students. That raises your test scores. And it also raises your frosh retention rates (99% at Chicago!) and your 6 year grad rates (94% at Chicago!), which are big components of the USNWR formula. Since high stat well resourced kids tend to stay and graduate in larger numbers than weaker enrollees.
Chicago first rolled out ED for the 2016-2017 cycle. I can’t find their numbers for that cycle, but I bet that is what is going on.
@Cariño They get that many applications because of their aggressive mailings and marketing…it’s peers don’t need to do that marketing because they are already household names.
The ranking is far from the realty. No. 5, Stanford? It is biggest competitors to Harvard. Many students choose Stanford over Harvard.
I also dislike that UChicago is gaming the system. Don’t know how many postcards and brochures from them that ended up in my trash bin but enough to be really annoying. However, I don’t find their #3 ranking to be far-fetched at all.
Chicago also now super-scores both the SAT and ACT. Which produces higher reportable test scores for the enrolled class. In the USNWR formula, test scores count 6.5X more than the admit rate.
It is all about the test scores at U Chicago. Last year Chicago’s SAT scores were second only to CalTech.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2018/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats
UChicago Number 9 (worldwide)
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2018
UChicago Number 9 (worldwide)
My daughter at Vandy says the reason that so her school rates so high for happy students is that about half are ED and they knew what they wanted in a college experience and were thrilled to be admitted. Vandy loves the kids who really want them, and attracts other top kids-like my daughter- with excellent FA. Maybe ED helps in the rankings, but it also makes for a good “vibe” for all the students.
If test scores have such significance, maybe that’s how UCB and UCLA tied - the test scores are pretty much the same.
It’s interesting that Wake Forest and UNC ended up where they did.
“That raises your test scores. And it also raises your frosh retention rates (99% at Chicago!) and your 6 year grad rates (94% at Chicago!), which are big components of the USNWR formula.”
Actually, Chicago’s 6 year grad rate last year was 92%. Which is low for that band of schools. But if Chicago is currently retaining 99% of its freshman, its six year grad rate (which is a lagging statistic) should be increasing over the next several years.
6-7 years ago Chicago probably was not enrolling the numbers of high stat kids that it is today. The more recent enrolled classes will undoubtedly have very high 6 year grad rates – but you have to wait six years for that data to come in.
The Cal UCLA development is interesting, both in Times and USNWR rankings. Perhaps Cal is finally paying the price for hugely overcrowded classes, inability to graduate in four years, impossible housing for undergrads, and an intimidating and despotic ultra left culture.
Lol. UChicago is like the uppity kid that crashes the party and walks away with the pretty girl much to the chagrin of all the jocks:-) Why can’t they just know their place and stick to being 15 or 20 in the rankings. They’re so bad. It is just not right that they get to be #3 in the USNews ranking. It is so unfair!!
the establishment is threatened …
“Perhaps Cal is finally paying the price for hugely overcrowded classes, inability to graduate in four years, impossible housing for undergrads, and an intimidating and despotic ultra left culture.”
Or maybe USC and UCLA have better weather, better football and cuter cheerleaders?
This is why ED, as toxic as it is, will never go away.