<p>While I think the Chicago-supporters can get a bit rabid, let’s try to keep this discussion civil (looking at you, happyman2).</p>
<p>Parchment.com data shows absolutely nothing. It’s completely self-selected data, and official data from different schools has shown how wrong it is.</p>
<p>I agree that Chicago’s yield would probably be upwards of 60% if it had ED like most of the Ivies/Duke. The fact that UChicago has a yield comparable to Duke, despite having only EA (and not SCEA) while Duke has ED, is a testament to how strong the draw of UChicago is.</p>
<p>At the same time, it’s unlikely that Chicago draws 43-57 with MIT or 44-56 with Stanford. The latter had official stats that showed no more than 2% of its non-matriculating admits went elsewhere outside of HYPM, so I really doubt that Chicago won that many cross-admits with Stanford - or MIT, or its peers. Given the attitude shown on this thread, I think it’s probable that Chicago admits who turned down competitors would be more likely to report their results on parchment.com than HYPSM admits would. In short, parchment.com should never be taken seriously - it’s just a self-selecting survey.</p>
<p>What exactly are you trying to accomplish happyman2? You’ve said before something along the lines of “bringing sanity” to this board for the sake of prospective students, but as a prospective student of the Class of 2016 my opinion of U Chicago has not lessened in the least because of your comments. Do I believe that Chicago is academically miles ahead of HYPSM? No, of course not. I think it’s probable that the academic quality is equal if not very close to those, based on what I’ve heard from people in real life and what I’ve read in numerous CC posts from THROUGHOUT the years. Also, based on the kids that I talked to in the admitted students weekend, at least quite a few picked Chicago not necessarily because they believe that it would impart on them the answers to great secrets of the universe that nobody else would be able to, but because they knew it was still a top notch education and preferred the overall environment to that of other schools. This is just unscientific, total anecdotal evidence, but I can also say that one of the girls was turning down Yale and rather happily at that. Not representative of the total cross admit pool? Of course not, it is just ONE person, but considering the little amount of fellow prospies I talked to I think it’s slightly worth mentioning. And yes, I too don’t quite believe the numbers in Parchment.com, but they honestly can’t be very far off from the real statistics. Why<em>does it matter so much anyway? Is the point of this excercise to make ourselves feel better because of the perception of high school seniors with no real experience in ANY of these colleges (and yes, I include myself in this group of non-experienced seniors). Both Duke and Chicago are amazing universities whose worth is not measured by cross admit battles because, again, at the end of the day, these decisions are made by people who are yet to experience the schools first hand. Also, I understand that many, if not the majority of students in HYPSM choose those schools primarily because of reasons OTHER than prestige, but my guess is that the contingent is bigger than other schools and I frankly would probably not want to be around people like that.</em></p>
<p>Maybe I’m wrong, maybe HYSPM really are so academically superior to other amazing schools (including Duke) that those lucky enough to be admitted through their golden gates will in fact be imparted with secrets of the universe that no other institution has knowledge of. I still will not regret Chicago because the academic philosophy and overall intellectual vibe of the student body are environments where I’m pretty confident that I (bold face) can thrive in and develop the most. More than in HYSPM? You know what, I’ll prob never know (grad school plans are Hopkins at the moment), but Chicago IS a world renowned university and my bet is that a student that does his/her best to utilize all her resources at his/her disposal will do just as well, at least, as the average HYSPM student.</p>
<p><em>I’m going to stick around CC throughout my college years for the sake of future applicants who might be scared awat by people that, for some reason, have an ax to grind with Chicago, as well as to offer opinions from the perspective of an actual stufent.</em>It’s not necessarily you’re opinion that Chicago is inferior to HYPSM, you’re def not the fist person to post something along those lines, it’s the quite frankly rude manner in which you are confronting other people on this board. You’ve made your point, others (whose opinions are more valid) are trying to dispute it, the least you can do is respect them. If you feel like you’re not getting the message across then leave and go enjoy your life at Duke. Seriously, why would a Duke student, who probably has tons of things to do (I checked your academic calendar and classes ended quite some time after you first started posting) at such an outstanding institution waste his time fighting others in a U Chicago board?*</p>
<p>I don’t particularly want to get involved, but I must say that according to reports from several friends in high school, Chicago’s yield is increasing for the simple reason that they are admitting weaker students who are more likely to attend over stronger ones. Of course, I know you guys won’t take my word for it, so I suggest that you take a look at the SAT scores of the incoming class. If they have decreased even marginally, you know that I could be right. Of course, scores are increasing across the board so it would be a remote possibility, but it is possible. Again, I have no agenda, I am merely saying that this is the impression I am getting from high schoolers. I could be completely wrong and I hope I am because I like Chicago, but it seems like they are going the WashU way to improve yield. I notice several posters making similar comments and saying things like “Chicago used to attract really smart kids, now it is just a back up for the ivies”. I don’t know how true this is, but could there be this much smoke without a fire? I know that my high school had 6 kids accepted last year, and none of them attended. This year Chicago chose to reject kids who made it to Harvard, Princeton and Cornell. Seems fishy to me. But who really knows what Nondorf has up his sleeve.</p>
<p>"“Chicago used to attract really smart kids, now it is just a back up for the ivies”. I don’t know how true this is, but could there be this much smoke without a fire?"</p>
<p>Good lord, the answer is YES. I don’t know how many times I have to say this - information from one high school or two high schools or ten high schools means NOTHING. Unless we have a comprehensive view of what UChicago is doing, we can’t make any claims.</p>
<p>For the mega-prestigious high schools, maybe UChicago is accepting “weaker” kids in the hopes that these students will spread the good word about UChicago, and then entice more applicants from the mega-prestigious schools years down the line. UChicago could then be taking the really intellectual kids from traditional feeder high schools.</p>
<p>Again, just because Exeter, Andover, whatever has seen X happen does not mean ANYTHING.</p>
<p>Since not all kids are posting their data, I don’t really think you could say this. My son was accepted & going to UChicago. He has never posted his stats. He has a 5.0 wgpa, one-time sitting for SAT’s was CR 780, Math 800, Writing 690. He got all 5’s on AP’s he took last year Stats (self-study), US History, Calc AB & Eng Lang /Comp. Multiple after-school activities & other outside commitments.</p>
<p>I know a colleague’s kid, who is very talented and very motivated, and is a senior in a local public HS of our home town in Maryland. This kid applied for all ivies, plus WUSTL, Rice, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern. This kid was accepted by Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Chicago, Dartmouth, Duke, Cornell, and Rice, wait listed by Columbia, Wustl, and Northwestern, and rejected by Yale, Brown, and UPenn. In this case, we could see clear yield protection at some schools including Wustl, Northwestern and UPenn, but not Chicago.</p>
<p>As a class of ‘16 admit, I can tell you that other students in this class are some of the most intellectually curious and interesting people I’ve ever spoken to - I can’t say the same about friends of mine who have been admitted to Duke, UPenn, Harvard, Brown, etc (though that probably says more about the type of people I choose to talk to and the area I come from than about the dynamics of the colleges’ classes).</p>
<p>Re collegechica’s comment, reiterating what apptmom had to say, my son, UChicago Class of 2016, has never posted his statistics, but he had a perfect ACT score (and other credentials to match). Same with one of the other two people admitted from his school.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, the current topics dominating the U Chicago Class of 2016 Facebook page are favorite books, Greece and a student’s paper on atheism.</p>