<p>I've noticed that in recent years UChicago has made a jump from not as well known as ivies to on par with ivies, especially now that it is near the top of the US News ranking. Whereas there was an acceptance rate in the 20s before, there is now an ivy-league level acceptance rate. With this rise in popularity and lowering in admissions rate, has UChicago's standards for prospective students risen, or is the lower admit rate simply due to higher volume of applications due to a rise in popularity?</p>
<p>The latter.</p>
<p>I’m sure it’s a mix of both but the increase in applications is the half that is definitely true. We can logically say that with more applicants, the school can better pick and choose which students to admit which could translate into affording to be more selective in terms of numbers. Yet, the freshman class size number has continued to creep upwards…</p>
<p>It’s really the second. I’m a first year here (best school in the world btw) and my advisor mentioned that far more people applied than ever before. Chicago is one of the most premier schools in the world, the primer in subjects such as mathematics, linguistics, and economics, and what’s been happening recently is that the school has begun to gain more recognition amoungst high schoolers. I’d say most of my classmates didn’t know about the UChi (in fact, several asked me why I turned down MIT and UVA to go to an out-of-state state school). That’s been changing and as a result more and more people are applying.</p>
<p>Switching to the Common Ap a few years ago ='ed more applications.</p>
<p>UC also appears to be marketing itself more.</p>