UChicago confirmed stats shared by Dean of Admissions at admitted student reception:
ED1 and EA – 9 %
RD – 2 %
Admitted from deferred pool – 0.5 %
Total admit rate – 8 %
Interesting fact given – 10% of Yale Law School entering class in the fall of 2017 is from UChicago.
Some reports that total app were down by a couple thousand this year. If true this will increase yield especially with ED1 and ED2 .
2% RD is ridiculous.
^ Indeed. At those admit rates, why would anyone bother spending the time, effort, and money?
I am sure it’s even worse at HYPS for RD
I’m afraid not - see post #533. @spayurpets has the receipts…
Not enough data to tell, but, based on @Chrchill’s information, I’m guessing more than 2/3 of UChicago admits were ED1/2. I’ll bet they accepted just a few hundred out of >20k RD applicants. This would mean that if you’re not prepared to commit to enroll, it’s significantly harder to get into UChicago than HYPS.
From several sources now Including fellow poster
From fellow poster
@Chrchill …your numbers completely sync with those from our local Admitted Student rendezvous yesterday, and yes, application number was slightly down from last year (28k from 30k).
UChicago total apps 28k down from 30K last year.
If those numbers are actually accurate, I believe that UChicago has gone overboard with ED1 and ED2. This wil not be good for future apllicant numbers.
Probably EA os on its way out. Yield will,be up as well as entrance class selectively by test scores. Already last time the highest with Cal Tech. I don’t think this slight decline is a big deal.
UChicago applications dropped just because de essays are extremely difficult and challenging, and only the kids that REALLY want to go to UC take the time and effort needed to work on them and that application. At the end, the number of applicants drops, but the yield rises. Anyway, this is an amazing school and the most beautiful campus ever…in the best city of US.
@PurpleTitan …Because it is absolutely amazing!!!..
Those essays have been difficult for many years, @Cariño. If the number of applicants dropped this year, I would guess it’s because either UChicago dialed down their usual mass marketing mailings to high schoolers somewhat or because some applicants realized that if they weren’t willing to apply ED, it would be harder for them to get into UChicago than HYPS, and therefore they didn’t bother applying RD.
U of Chicago is just taking the yield game to the next level
HYP all admit half their freshman class EA to boost yield. Their EA admit rates are 4-5X higher than RD. This has the added affect of encouraging mores students to apply early because its frankly easier to get in EA than RD.
while HYP will deny its easier to get in EA… the stats say otherwise and their explanations don’t pass the sniff test. They are obviously admitting such a large proportion of their class EA to boost their yield stats.
Game Theory at work… and what U of Chicago is doing with admissions is frankly very predictable and a version of prisoner’s dilemma. very interesting. let the games begin.
Correct. Harvard for example takes 14-15 percent EA.
@sbballer I think you are exactly right about the yield game…and then there are the schools like Georgetown that haven’t lightened up at all on their application requirements and therefore don’t seem as concerned with playing the numbers game. I think schools like Penn and Chicago that changed things up a bit this year (Penn adding score choice, Chicago adding ED and also not requiring you to submit official score reports until after admitted) is all part of the numbers game.
Knock out the athletes and various other hooked candidates from the SCEA pools at HYPS and the advantage of applying early drops substantially. Add in that the early applicant pool is overall higher quality (they’re better-prepared, have a superior understanding of the process and produce better applications) and the advantage drops further. There’s an edge - I estimate an unhooked candidate’s odds are 2-3x as good applying SCEA to HYPS relative to RD - but it’s not a game-changer by any means.
Contrast that to UChicago, which, tellingly, won’t reveal the individual statistics for its ED1, ED2 and EA pools. If they did, I’m willing to bet you’d see an early admit rate for the ED pools in the teens to twenties (in line with the top-tier schools that have ED), compared to their orally-disclosed RD rate of 2%, which is a lottery ticket compared to the 3.5-5% at HYPS. So I estimate the headline advantage for applying ED to UChicago is around 10x - and there’s much less adjustment required to get to the actual advantage, because UChicago has fewer athletic recruits and other hooked applicants applying early than the SCEA schools do. As of this year, UChicago is basically telling candidates to apply ED or forget about it.
Regarding the reported pick-up in average scores, I would suggest that UChicago can make those averages whatever they like, because, like every comparable school, they could fill their classes many times over with top-stats candidates. Having ED1 and ED2 enables them to lock in as many of those kids as they want, limited only by how many of them apply early. If HYPS accepts a top-stats kid early, there’s nothing preventing the applicant from going somewhere else.
As noted above, I also believe (and I wish UChicago would release the numbers so we could see if it’s true) that UChicago is now filling close to two-thirds of the class early, as opposed to maybe half at the SCEA schools.
I have great respect for UChicago - I entirely agree that it’s academically top-tier - but, having seen firsthand the aggressive marketing and sustained efforts to goose selectivity and yield, of which the introduction and unparalleled use of ED1 and ED2 is the latest example, I have to agree with @JHS that it feels overdone.
Disagree. The results speak for themselves. And in this game, that’s all that matters. That’s what drives recruiting and donations as well.
You may disagree, @Chrchill, but I can assure you that if HYPS decided to play the game the way UChicago plays it, there would be no doubt at all who was getting better “results”. If HYPS cranked up the mass mailings, introduced ED1 and ED2 and managed the process (including the waitlist) aggressively, they could have 50,000 applicants each, admit the vast majority of their classes early, have sub-5% overall admit rates, ~1% RD admit rates and >90% yields. It would be terrible for the applicants (particularly the non-full-payers) and worse for the schools (because they’d be substantially reducing the number of top-tier candidates that they’d have a shot at getting RD), but the numbers would look fabulous, and a lot better than UChicago’s. I pray they never do it.
I personally find SCEA the worst abuser of all the admit options.
It gives the appearance of choice, but largely benefits the schools that offer it. It forces you to choose between four schools and forgo all other important options when it really matters. Knowing that the chances of making it in regular decision is miniscule and knowing that only three other schools can really compete financially for the aid packages given institutional financial strength it practically removes those very schools from contention and thus any real threat of competition. At least ED let’s you apply to other EA schools and hedge your bets while actually boosting your admit chances. You get something for something you give up. SCEA is like an insidious mirage. It tricks you into thinking you have a chance but really doesn’t give you a large enough boost in probability of admission (once you factor in hooks) for the risk the student takes in applying for SCEA
In this respect, hats off to MIT and Caltech. Their process is the most applicant friendly.
@DeepBlue86 I think HYPS play the game that benefits them given their strengths. UChicago, Penn, Columbia and others play the game that helps them given their strengths. HYPS is not any more applicant friendly than the ED schools. If they really wanted to make it easy for students they would go EA or eliminate early admission altogether, given their strengths and financial resources. They don’t because they are also playing games.
Everybody is playing games here and the only winners are the schools. I don’t for one minute believe that HYPS are more benevolent than the other schools.