Hi! I was recently deferred in UChicago EA and I am wondering if anyone knows the acceptance rate for EA students who move to ED II. Also, what percent of applicants are deferred? Answers to these questions would really help me! Thanks
The most current information available is from last admission cycle. There, 13,000 + applicants in the early round and only about 1,100 accepts. Most were likely ED1. That leaves a huge number who were deferred or denied, and a very large number were likely deferred rather than denied outright.
No one really knows the EDII accept rate from those EA’s who are deferred. (Note that ED1’s who are deferred are not allowed to re-apply as EDII so they are out of the picture - it’s only EA’s who have the option to switch). It really depends on the candidate. Most will very likely be rejected. Accept rates don’t quite translate into personal chances anyway, but you likely do have a higher chance in the EDII round than in the RD round, all else equal, just because in regular they really only have taken a handful from the deferred pile. The catch is that you are committing to the school if accepted and withdrawing all your other apps. So only do this if UChicago really is your first choice.
Ok thank you this was a great help!
The best estimate I’ve seen of last year’s admit rate was posted by @FStratford in this thread:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21522809/#Comment_21522809
I imagine the numbers will be a bit higher this year vs last due to the test optional policy. But from last year, from 16K early applicants (ED1/EA/ED2), approx 1660 acceptances were offered. But we don’t know how many of the EA deferred went into the ED2 round. The ED1 and ED2 accept rate is about 17%.
In this video posted on the Maroon, the EA > RD accept rate was: 0.5%
https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/5/3/university-chicagos-acceptance-rate-plummets-7-2-c/
As pointed out above, your individual odds of acceptance are not the same as the historical rate. However it is clear that by going to ED2, your chances are much higher than if staying RD.
The main calculation shouldn’t be assessing your chances of EDII vs. RD. It should be ED at Chicago vs. EDII or RD somewhere else. If you are admitted ED, you will need to pull all remaining apps, even those which might have given you merit along with the acceptance. In fact, you likely will never find out whether you were going to get in. That lack of information shouldn’t bother you in the least if UChicago is the clear first choice at this point and you are determined to attend. If you want to stick around and still try your luck with those other schools, EDII is NOT the path for you. You will might reduce your theoretical odds of getting into UChicago but, depending on your backups, the story might still have a very happy ending.
I have said it many times on this forum: U of Chicago is an acquired taste. Do not ED1/ED2 to U of Chicago unless you are really sure this is the school you want to spend 4 years of intense effort for your degree.
This is not an easy school. It doesn’t have the reputation of HYPSM to your neighbors or your grandma. Chicago winter can be long and brutal. Hyde Park at times can be boring and urban crime does exist. The Core may find the weakness in your intellectual skill and put your through some major hardship. You may not be the smartest kid in your class any more and worse you may even get your first B or C in the subject you think you know more than your teachers in high school.
I am not badmouthing U of Chicago. Far from it. I am one of her biggest fans on this forum. But I want to caution every applicant who just wants to get into a T20 school without really thinking through what they are doing when they pick the admission plan. Nothing is worse than getting into your “dream” school that turns out to be a nightmare.
I’m a current first year at UChicago. One of my parents attended the College in the 1980s. I can tell you emphatically that the current College at UChicago is vastly different than it was in years past.
The College is making a strong effort to be more ‘Ivy-league’ like: more diverse student mix, more internships, less theoretical classwork, stronger career prep. This is all being done without sacrificing academic rigor. For example when my father attended the College, about half of the total classes he took were Core requirements. Now the core is reduced to only 15 classes + language. Most of the dorms during my dad’s time are now torn down. In its place, the College has built 3 new dorms in the last few years. A new mega-dorm is going to be opening in 2 years near the Law School. This makes house life much more satisfying than it was in years past. Hyde Park is now bustling with activity. Plenty of nice shops, restaurants, and things to do. Back in the 1980s, this was not such a safe area. As an example of being more career-friendly: a new Business Econ major was introduced. Unlike the other Econ tracks, the Business Econ track does not require calculus and allows students to take 3 classes at Booth. Prior to this, the Econ program was noted for being very math heavy. Those Econ students who wanted to go into Finance found that learning the higher level math was unnecessary, and just created more misery.
After completing 1 quarter at UChicago, I can honestly say that it was easier than my workload in high school. Granted that I went to a very rigorous HS, I was expecting a whole lot worse. Also I’ve only been here one quarter, so things are bound to get tougher. The classes I took were by no means easy, but with hard work, I managed to get all As. My dad and I went through my syllabus and papers for HUM. He was surprised by how fair the grading has become. It’s not all gloom and doom here anymore. Professors are not required to force a curve for grade distributions. Instead, profs encourage students to learn the material in depth. I really enjoyed my classes and can’t wait for the Winter quarter to start!
So please come with an open mind. This is not the UChicago of years past. Things are changing for the better.
@f77a9b82 did you take three or four courses this past quarter? Also, some profs will curve depending on the subject; seem to recall that my D’s calc. sequence last year was curved.
Also - ditto on some of post #7. While it’s not clear how many will find UChicago to be “easier” than high school (a lot depends on the level and number of courses taken, as well as how quickly one can adjust to the quarter system), it’s probably true that the grading during the Core might be more representative of ability. This can be for two reasons: 1) guidance and pressure from the College and/or 2) better quality students overall now compared to a few decades ago (notwithstanding f77’s dad who adds valuable first-hand knowledge and experience). I should add 3: Better college prep. My daughter believes that her ability to double load on writing intensive courses is a direct result of her amazingly tough AP Lit/Comp instructor and her excellent history teachers. While she doesn’t find her work any easier than in high school (far from it!) she believes that her high school preparation in these particular subjects was superlative. She took a standard college prep curriculum including loading up on the AP’s - pretty much the same as many if not most of her classmates - so she has to be far from alone in this insight.
My freshman son had an intense academic experience in his first quarter. He took 4 courses, one of them honors (began with 70 kids, only 35 remained for the finals). He too went to a very rigorous high school, but was routinely staying up till 2-3 am the last 4 weeks ( I don’t recall him staying up beyond 11 pm ever in high school). The academic intensity really depends on the specific courses taken, I think. He enjoyed Hum, but was was able to do so because (a) his high school is well known for teaching their kids how to write (b) the material juxtaposed nicely with his Latin coursework content in HS.
As it turns out, he values academic intensity highly, so he came out of Q1 invigorated.
I know of at least one other freshman kid from his high school who also definitely didn’t think her Q1 was easier than HS…
@f77a9b82 I am assuming you were not in 161?
I can also add my son’s first quarter experience. He is on the Track and XC teams and a pretty intense EC, so he only did 3 classes his first quarter but is planning on four here on out. He took Hum, Soc, and Calc III. On Calc III he actually placed into Calc II but after a week of class he went to his adviser and asked if he could start in Calc III because he reviewed the sylabus and felt it was all review from AP Calc BC which he scored a 5 on the test. The adviser said he was borderline II/III on the placement test and allowed him to make the switch. He ended up A, A, A- in Hum and was happy with the results.
His take was it was much harder than hs from a amount of work and background reading he had to do. Between Hum and Soc he read something like 8 books written in English, but not the 20th century English that we all read and write with. He has always been a great writer and had a couple great HS Lit and Lang teachers that really pushed him in HS, so maybe that helped.
His typical day is: Wake-up,Eat-Breakfast, workout with team, class, study Lunch, study, practice, dinner, study in library until bedtime, 3 nights a week work on the intense EC. Except weekends where you take out the classes, and add a couple hours of free time. So that’s about it for him. A couple hours of free time on the weekends and maybe 45 minutes on weekday nights, sacrificing sleep.
But he absolutely loves it. He loves reading the original texts, he loves the discussions with his classmates in the classroom and out of the classroom. His biggest complaint about HS was all the people doing just enough, and now he is in a school full of people like him, trying to learn as much as he can about subjects that he finds interesting.
I will also add that my son agrees with @JBStillFlying in that his most valuable courses to date from his High School where in order:
AP Euro
AP Lit
AP Lang
AP Calc BC (and probably AB, as a pre-req to BC)
AP US
AP World
AP Comp Gov
He really enjoyed reading the actual works that were talked about in AP Euro. His Lit and Lang professors did a great job of teaching how to write well and put an argument together on paper. He does find it interesting that his most helpful AP was the only one he took as a Sophomore in HS.
YMMV in terms of writing intensity as it might depend on the specific sequence of Hum and/or Sosc. Our D’s Hum was Greek/Roman Texts/Traditions and Sosc. was Classics of Social/Poltical Thought. Both might be holdovers from the era of “Where Fun Comes to Die,” usually followed by maniacal laughter. Anyway, I kept track of the amount of writing she had to do (I know, I know . . . ) so here it is: first quarter of both was six papers total amounting to around 9,000+ words total. Second quarter was five papers with 10,000 words (one was a very long paper).
For fall sports they recommend you take three courses, as BB’s son did. Some also take three because they are loading up on honors. Others want to phase in the transition to the faster, more intense pace or have the time to develop regular study habits (something that many high-achieving kids simply may not have needed in HS ). In her first quarter, D signed up for four thinking she could drop physci if it got too overwhelming. Of course, you don’t REALLY know that till 7th week so she ended up riding it out. All her final exams and papers were front-loaded, too. She was done with everything by Monday of Finals week but 10th was the week from hell. She hasn’t had it that bad since, thankfully. And I do believe that her physci assigned another paper for the final so that’s seven papers total for Fall quarter, three of them due sometime during the latter part of 10th week.
Not surprised about the stellar grades from a lot of kids. UChicago’s average GPA has been creeping up over time. Dean’s List is still 3.2 (?) and above for the year and older posts from several years ago mention how a sizable number of the class was included - so it’s been a pretty low bar for awhile now. This is not to say that lower than a 3.2 is a bad GPA because you might be getting B-'s to B+'s in an uber hard major and taking lots of honors. Once upon a time a 3.2 was considered a major accomplishment at “U of C” and even now at the “new and improved” UChicago there must be some kids and majors where that’s still the case.
@JBStillFlying A quick note to let you know that it is not the case that a deferred EDI cannot move into the EDII pool - I know from my DD who was just deferred EDI in this cycle. She was given the choice to flip to EDII, RD, or withdraw her app.
^ That’s a definite switch from prior years! @capenor, what did she decide to do?
In the end she went EDII to Middlebury, alongside RD apps to 6 other LACs/smaller private universities. She stayed in RD at Chicago but even though nothing is guaranteed, her chances at Midd are very strong. She intends to major in languages and is rather (though not recruited-ly) sporty and artistic, and likes their commons system, Jan term, and the serious/intense student vibe she gleaned from our visit. Obviously I think Chicago missed a good one here, but I’m confident she’ll land in a great place when it’s all over.
@capenor - you know, I’m wondering if the ED1 pool was so strong that they offered a special opportunity to some who were deferred. But it’s strange because they could have accepted them ED1 - they’ve already committed so how is it a good idea to delay them to EDII? I guess to let the applicant know they were still high on the list? UChicago always does something unconventional. I’d have read that as a good sign unless they offered it to all the ED1’s who didn’t get in LOL - you never know. It’s most important to be at the right fit. Both are superb schools. Good luck to your D!
Interesting. I can say with some degree of certainty that if there had been any indication that the EDII option was not just the default for all defers, but was instead a real message to keep hope alive, it might have changed her strategy. But as it was, I believe she felt she had done all she could do to demonstrate her love for Chicago and didn’t want to be let down again and also toss a strategic advantage elsewhere in the same roll of the dice. She’s a pretty quirky and self-reliant kid so I think she knows she can get a fantastic education at any number of different schools, which helps explain the disparity between these two as top choices.