Hello Everybody
I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on how beneficial applying early decision is compared to regular or early action. I’ve not been able to find any official data or anything on the UChicago website. Thank you for any help!
From what I have read, it is significantly more beneficial to apply ED at UChicago than EA or RD.
UChicago is not releasing their Class of 2021 acceptance rates until later this fall (https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2017/4/6/uchicago-release-class-2021-acceptance-rate-spring/).
I think you meant “beneficial” in terms of which program has the highest admission rates. I’d recommend turning your question around and think about what you gain with each and which is the best fit for you:
Good luck!
A guess but the admit numbers seem to be :
Overall admit rate: 8%
RD 2%
ED ~ 30%
EA~ 5%. EA is the biggest guess of all as they didn’t separate EA and ED
There are several threads on these numbers if you look around for them and take these as guesses except for RD and overall, which the admissions office has said in various venues to be accurate.
CU123, would you mind sharing the various venues/sources that the admissions office has posted these statistics. Also, are ED 1 and ED2 relatively similar in their acceptance rates? Thanks
None of these stats are posted or are officially released, supposedly that will happen in October, and when it does happen don’t expect more than the RD admit rate, the EA/ED1/ED2 combined admit rate, and the overall admit rate. UChicago doesn’t like to share a ton on info like, say. MIT does. Speculation says that ED1 and ED2 were comparable but we really don’t know for sure. Admitted student day they said low teens for EA/ED1/ED2, RD was announced also at around 2%, and so was the overall acceptance rate. All of these were word of mouth from the admissions office personnel.
CU123, to be correct, did you get into the University of Chicago ED 2? If so could you post your stats such as SAT, GPA, extracurriculars, APs, etc. so I can get an idea of my actual chances compared to an admitted student. Thank you!
Applying ED to UChicago is highly beneficial. I can say this for certain as I am an incoming first year who was deferred EA and then admitted ED2. Here is the reasoning:
Top schools like UChi put lots of time and consideration into each admitted student’s application to determine that they are a good fit for the school. They want to have a higher yield rate, meaning more students that they admit commit to attending. Applying ED at UChicago tells the admissions committee that it’s your top choice–something they hold especially important because of the obsession that many kids have with the Ivy League. Chicago is a quirky school and if you know you want to go there and you are in either an affluent financial position or one that guarantees full aid, you should 100% apply to UChicago ED. If you’re not so sure, you should apply EA instead of RD, but keep in mind that Chicago knows they aren’t your first priority (barring financial limitations, but I’m afraid the world isn’t that generous as of yet) and thus they’ll be more inclined to take ED admits unless you can really stand out among the EA group, who I can almost guarantee are applying to many other top 20 schools. Good luck with the app process.
Thanks chrizzlec, if you wouldn’t mind, would you post your stats like I asked CU123 or tell me where I could find them, thanks
@ak9800 I think you are looking for these threads…
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1964119-uchicago-class-of-2021-ed-ii-results-p2.html
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1944862-university-of-chicago-ea-ed-results-only-p5.html
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1972968-uchicago-rd-2021-results-thread.html
@CU123 if they post anything about early rates of admission I’d be shocked. They always shared the early action stats in the past with admitted families but the #'s wouldn’t make it to the website.
@ak9800 your stats and EC’s are baked into the cake and it’s all about how committed you are to UChicago at this point. The overall stats for class of 2021 aren’t going to change that much, if at all, from class of 2020 so the current stats are fine for your purposes. Work on your essays and figure out which admission plan works best for you. There’s no guarantee that last year’s outcome will be repeated this upcoming year.
@ak9800 I posted my DD stats on the ED 2021 accepted thread, and I agree that UChicago may keep there stats close hold so it’s a lot of speculation.
@CU123 ED total in the high teens. Certainly not 30%. But the conclusion is the same. If you want Uchicago. ED Is the only way to go.
@Chrchill Yep just pulling wildly speculative numbers out to illustrate that the ED option is the only option for those who truly want to go to UChicago.
Regardless of whether the inaugural year was a bit off in terms of disparate admit rates (as I tend to think it was), going forward you are probably going to see something along the lines of mid-teens for ED/EDII and very low ( <= 4%) for EA/RD. That’s in keeping with UChicago’s preference for an up-front commitment.
@ak9800 you can find my stats here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/fordham-university/1935477-chance-at-presidential-scholar.html#latest
My advice to you is to make your uncommon essay truly uncommon. UChicago is the hardest school to predict in terms of admissions and if you can demonstrate your interest and write an incredible uncommon essay, you are maximizing your chances at admission.
Precise test scores and GPA are irrelevant here. Knowing the stats of a particular student admitted ED tells you nothing, because there were likely 5-6 other applicants with the same states who were rejected. There’s little question that Chicago likes high stats, but once a kid is in the high stats bucket the difference between any two kids in that bucket is probably meaningless. At that point, the quality of essays, the quality of recommendations, and other indications of “fit” are vastly more important.
Yes the essays are the key, I couldn’t follow the lines of my DD essay until the very end where the disparate and sometimes frivolous discourse wound back together and the message became crystal clear.