Does anyone know the deferral rate for EA applicants at Uchicago?
I’ve just been wondering does the school defer lot of applicants for EA or are they seriously considering the deferred students but just waiting for commitment?
UChicago doesn’t publish the deferral rate but a very large number of EA’s seem to be deferred every year, and as of a few years ago only about 0.5% of those admitted RD were deferred from EA. The most effective way to signal commitment would be to switch to ED2.
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I don’t know what the deferral rate is but at the admitted students information session yesterday Nondorf said they had 14,600 applications in the early round and offered admission to just 8%. I believe that includes both ED and EA.
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My son is a second year at UChicago. He was admitted when the admit rate dropped to 5.9% He was deferred from EA and Nondorff told him he was one of very few that got in after being deferred to RD (.5% as stated above). I almost passed out when he got the acceptance. Given that the incoming class is about 1700, and they have admitted about 1200 so far, there is not too much room left. If you have been deferred, just be sure to follow-up with a letter of continued interest and an update of substantive achievements since you applied. ED2 can help, although my son did not take that route.
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An alternative explanation for the larger-sized early class is that they are planning to admit 2,400 for Class of '25. They typically admit half early (ED1 and EA) and the other half Regular (ED2 and RD). They ultimately admitted 2,511 last spring/summer by the time they got finished with the wait list.
I continue to be stunned by the large early applicant numbers. It has to be the largest of any of the top elites and it’s been consistently inching up.
Yes, last year they did admit more and did not expect as high a yield as they received. They ended up being short on housing, but with the pandemic many second years moved off campus since they suspended the requirements of having to live on campus for two years. Woodlawn also opened and they were able to accommodate them. Not sure what will happen next year. They have not yet informed students if they will still have singles.
I’m guessing it will be lower for a few reasons. In 2023, the University got down to 2,065 people admitted.
Overall Applications Accepted / Overall Applications Received / Overall Admissions Acceptance Rate
2023/ 2,065 / 34,900 / 5.92%
The only thing that changed last year was Coronavirus. The University had to throw out its recent admissions models, not really knowing how many people would accept, commit, show up, take gap year, etc. So UChicago went crazy and admitted way too many first-years and transfers. Yield was a bit lower than normal.
With the vaccine, it’s unlikely things will be anywhere near as bad this year. And even last year, UChicago stayed open.
So I’m guessing they will be more conservative with admissions, considering how oversubscribed they were last year.
If not–although we have often asked this in recent years–what will UChicago do with all the students? Dean Boyer said the target size of the College is 7,000. It reached 7,000 this fall. If they have another class of 1,949, soon you’ll be at 7,300 or 7,500 students. And even the new dorm won’t help. What about libraries, gym, etc.? (although a new rec center is posted.)
We’ll see. But if they go HUGE again this year, then something has really changed about the target size of the college.
What may have prompted at least a temporary increase in target size is the $185 million deficit the university experienced in FYE 6/2020 and whatever drag on the finances Covid is presenting in the new academic year. If they are planning to be conservative, admitting 100+ additional over what they did for the class of '23 in the early round . . . is an odd way of showing it.
Harper, I think the “official” number admitted to the class of '23 turned out to be 2,137 out of a total 34,648 applications (from the Class profile posted every year). They pulled a few off the waitlist even then. So admit rate was a little over 6%. Impressive any way you look at it.