<p>I have one friend who is a Silver medalist at an International Science competition got deferred by UofC, but he got into MIT. I think "overqualification" for UofC indeed exists, just wondering if anyone else has the similar story?</p>
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<p>I disagree with you.</p>
<p>No such thing as over-qualification for elite schools like Chicago.</p>
<p>Absolutely with phuriku. No such thing.</p>
<p>I think the problem is that you’re equating “silver medalist at an international competition” with “a good fit for UChicago.”</p>
<p>Chicago wants to protect its yield rate thus it is not admitting those over-qualified people. Imagine if Chicago already knows someone who is so outstanding that he or she will get into all the other schools, will Chicago still take the risk of lowering its yield rate?</p>
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<p>And you know this how?</p>
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<p>Chicago is such an excellent and selective school that, indeed, it would take that “risk.”</p>
<p>A few years ago, there was a student here with a 2400 SAT with UChicago as their first choice who got denied. They said that they made it very clear in their application that UChicago was their very first choice and would attend if accepted. Yet they were denied. And this was back when the acceptance rate was around 25%. It happens.</p>
<p>Also, as for the yield argument… if Chicago were really that concerned about artificially raising its numbers by protecting yield, don’t you think it would establish an ED policy? That’s how Duke and Northwestern keep their admit rate down, despite having pretty low yields for RD. MIT has an acceptance rate of about 10%. Chicago this year will have an acceptance rate of about 15%. The selectivity of the two schools really aren’t that different. It’s approximately the equivalent of being denied by Caltech and accepted by MIT, which happens all the time. (And let’s not forget that both Chicago and Caltech have higher average SATs than MIT.) Let’s face it. Admissions are very arbitrary at the most elite schools.</p>
<p>Well, these are just my guesses. Let’s wait some deferred yet over-qualified people to post on this thread.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago, institutionally, believes that it offers a better undergraduate education than anyone else, and it has never remotely been accused of denying top students in order to protect its yield. The faculty would flay the admissions office if they thought that was happening. That’s the ideology, anyway.</p>
<p>Realistically, there are a few schools that Chicago probably can’t compete for applicants with (although, in fact, it wins a few head-to-heads with all of them). But because those schools actually admit very few students, and not all of their applicants also apply to Chicago, there aren’t THAT many cross-admits with those schools. Even if you could identify all of them in advance, it wouldn’t move the yield needle much at all. And you could never identify them in advance accurately. Which is why Chicago isn’t going to do this.</p>
<p>I see. Maybe the match between HYPSM and an applicant has nothing to do with the match between Chicago and the applicant.</p>
<p>In surveys that I have seen the most important variable affecting Chicago’s yield is financial aid. They lose more for that reason than any other.</p>
<p>I would definitely say I’m qualified. Yet I was still deferred.</p>
<p>Just some quick statistics:</p>
<p>SAT I: 1590/1600
SAT II: 800 on Math II, 760 on USH
GPA (UW): 3.82/4.00
Course Rigor: Definitely most rigorous. Twelve AP courses and two fully-accredited university courses.
ECs: Varsity Captain, Officer of three clubs, Numerous honor societies.
Jobs/Businesses: Competitive, paid internship at government economics institute; research mentorship at abovementioned institute with senior economist; started a reseller business with around $5K in annual profit stemming from $100 in self-initial-investment.</p>
<p>yeah, from U of C’s essays it seemed like the school is very quirky lol (not a bad thing at all though). My friend last year had a 2400, got deferred + waitlisted, but was awarded the triple crown (HYP). This year, one of my friends ranked in top 1 percent with some very impressive accomplishments also got deferred. o wellzzzzz lol</p>
<p>Btw, my friend that got deferred from Chicago had Silver medal at an internaitonal olympiad competition, 2300+ SAT, went to one of the most selective summer program, USAXO*2, Siemens Semi-Finalist, published many poems, two varsity sports qualified for states. He also got into both Caltech and MIT.</p>
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<p>Chicago is far too selective to warrant any reasonable conclusions of yield protection from a single case.</p>
<p>^ lol dude your friend sounds unhuman…freaking legit haha</p>
<p>^collegeftw
That’s exactly why his deferral makes me think that Chicago is trying to protect its yield!!!</p>
<p>Hmm… maybe you should give fit a little more credit. I’m sure your friend will do fantastically overall in admissions, however.</p>
<p>Applying Occam’s Razor to this topic, the simplest answer might be that your “overqualified” friend wasn’t all that enthusiastic about attending UChicago and this came out in his essays.</p>
<p>Maybe, but this guy treats things so seriously that I doubt he would pretend to be not enthusiastic about attending UofC.</p>