So, the top 3 kids in my son’s class all applied to UChicago and while their scores were not better, their class rank certainly was and while we don’t know all the details of their applications, from where we sat, they looked so much stronger on paper. In fact when my son learned that they were applying, he became very disheartened because he was sure the University would not offer admissions to so many from his school. All three were turned down or wait listed. When we learned about this, I was a little surprised. These are solid kids. All of them made it into one or the other Ivy. I know of at least two who really want to go to UChicago. Even applied EA. They are still hoping to get off the wait list. My son told me that one of his friends overheard one of these kids complaining about the fact that lower ranked kids were getting into schools that they were turned down from.
Any of you hear this kind of thing happening? Makes me even more confused about the whole admissions process.
This happens every year. Here is the deal: no one knows what goes into another student’s application. A student may have external ECs and accomplishments that their friends don’t even know about (my kids did). A kid may not have the test scores others think they have (some students don’t tell, there may be subject tests others don’t know about, and some may even lie to others). GPA and rank doesn’t tell all there is to know about academics – for example, my kids had some Bs – but almost all were in foreign language, which seem to be less of an issue for top schools. No one knows what goes into the teacher recommendations. And every kid’s essays are different (and kids are often terrible judges of their own essays).
One of my kids was taking flak from a slightly higher ranked student who was deferred (and ultimately rejected) from UChicago, while my kid got in EA. This student was openly and repeatedly dismissive of my kid’s acceptance (probably didn’t know that my kid had 2380 SATs, and subject tests of 800 Math II & Lit). My kid got so annoyed that she started using her UC coffee mug in her class with that student every day. Not the most mature response… but she was mad, and the other student was bringing it up repeatedly.
This can happen with any college. But UChicago still tries to get “their” kind of kid if they can pick 'em out of the mass of applicants. Life of the mind, intellectuals, “eggheads” (as my dad affectionately says about my kid and UC). Essays and recommendations play a big role in that fit analysis. They like high test scores, too. Congrats to your kid, and tell him not to let their comments bug him – he earned that admission.
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Class rank doesn’t really matter at the margins. Colleges want to be able to say that XX% of freshmen were in the top 10% of their HS class, and test scores that’ll raise the school’s midrange (or at least keep it stable) are better than the alternative. The difference between a valedictorian and #7 in a class of 200 will matter less to Chicago than the students’ respective essays.
It’s natural for a kid to feel hurt when a first-choice college says no. But class rank is not the measure of a (wo)man’s worth, and your son’s classmates would do well to remember that.
To answer your question: no. I’m starting a tradition as the first student to attend UChicago since my school opened, and applicants have been few and far between.
In my experience, U Chigago seems to put more weight on test scores than gpa. Most schools seem to do the opposite. That could explain it.
Yes, but this happens at other schools, too. There are factors at play like gender, legacy status, how the applicant’s “story” plays (is there a consistent picture of academics, ECs, recommendations, and essays?). Rank isn’t the most important thing. The idea of "holistic’ admissions is hard for some people to grasp, but it is a real thing.
Chicago makes a big deal about their essay prompts. I would bet money that those kids wrote meh essays. There is a very interesting thread in the admissions hindsight section by a dad with a “non-hooked white full-pay boy” who was shocked at the poor results of his son’s extremely high stat friends – then he read their essays. He didn’t go into detail about why he thought they were so bad, but mentioned they were filled with a lot of unnecessary fifty-dollar words and did nothing to convey the terrific-ness of each kid. Bad holistic results now more understandable.
It’s called holistic admissions. That’s why it’s not clear to any outsider and only those on the review committee know why a specific student was accepted over another one.
I am the second worst applicant (of those accepted) academically of those who have been accepted to UChicago from my high school in the last 6 years. My stats were around average for UChicago though, but plenty of people from my school applied this year with higher grades and close to perfect test scores, and they were rejected outright, so I’m guessing they care a lot more about the person and the essays than the grades.
I suspect that part of this is the mysteries of holistic admissions, and part is students (and parents) who describe their/their kids’ accomplishments in the most flattering light possible. As is natural.
I see this pretty clearly in sports, where a good percentage of parents tend to believe their kids are stars, but of course by definition only a few really are, except in Lake Wobegon.
Not as easy to observe from the outside in other realms but probably the same thing applies. As noted above, including in essays.
My son and one other were both accepted after about 8 years of no UChicago acceptances. He was also accepted to a number of other lottery type schools where no one else from our school applied but was denied at MIT where he was higher in every aspect (scores, grades, better rec according to the teacher who wrote for all of them, leadership) than the other applicants from our school except he was not a NM scholar and the other 2 were. The whole process is pretty strange sometimes. Luckily he did not get attached to any one school so though he didn’t enjoy his rejections the process gave him time to really ponder each school and ultimately I think he ended up in the place that was the best fit for him.
Letters of rec are the other often unknown factor. It really helps when a teacher or two thinks the applicant isn’t just an excellent student but one of the best they’ve ever taught. And, of course, you not only have to have a teacher think that – you have to figure out which of your teachers thinks that and choose that teacher as a recommendation writer.