you don’t release a .5% RD admit rate w/o being 100% sure that’s the admit rate.
The kids we are meeting who were accepted RD have been given merit aid. They are also looking at tippy-tops (translation: they got into a tippy top SCEA). If RD accepts are at all representative of this type of kid, AO is a little busy sweet-talking them and courting them and getting them to come to UChicago. That’s what they are focusing on at the moment. Springtime is for love and romance, leave the hard numbers for when school starts up in the fall. :x
What can anybody tell if they released 28k apps and 8% admit rate. Not a darn thing. You cannot figure out much from those numbers alone. That is all they have released the last couple of years. They are most likely not going to release ED/EA or RD admit rates. They have never done so for a long time.
So why not release those two numbers now and move on?
Because they want to make a big splash when they announce which they can’t do right now? Like an insane yield or very high stats for admitted kids or some celebrity who might commit later or a significant admission policy or personnel change. Something that will make people gloss over the 28k number. My guess is that future announcements will be later and include yield going forward.
I feel that they should have just said
“Hey at this time the numbers are coming together and when we announce we want to give a more complete picture than we can right now so we are going to wait instead of just announcing piece meal”
Instead they just gave a dumb half statement to the Maroon that was dumber to not ask any follow on questions
Good point re RD numbers out in time for applicant decisionmaking based on them, regardless of which of the two scenarios UChicago chooses. I’m used to a system where applicants make their long short lists in junior year, pare them down over the summer, write their essays in August, and rarely add super-selective schools to their list senior year. But that’s no doubt atypical (and/or my kid was unusually compliant, LOL!)
I agree with you. They should have explained delay. But we do know more than the 28K and 8 percent. We know they had 13000 ED1 and EA and 9 percent were admitted. We know that RD was 2 percent and deferred admit was an impossible 0.5%
What was reported upthread was that the RD rate was 2% and the EA deferred acceptance rate was 0.5%. I might be able to confirm what was said at the accepted student overnight once my kid gets home. 2% is already low. I can’t imagine total RD was 0.5%. No way.
Not revisions. People are hearing different things spoken in large venues in front of hundreds of people. Not sure that I could hear exactly what is being said in Rockefeller Chapel unless I was listening super carefully and near the front. I don’t think people normally listen closely enough to suit the readers of this thread. I believe the 2% RD number and 0.5% early deferred number at the moment. But I suspect that more RDs will be added off the wait list, or at least that is what the school hopes. Nondorf tells the kids about the low RD rate so as to make the RDs feel special while they are deciding to enroll, which the school wants them to do. I believe the numbers are being accurately related at these meetings, but without the numbers being final they won’t make an official, written disclosure of the numbers. These information sessions are for stakeholders, not for public consumption.
Actually, on further thought, there’s no reason to believe RD numbers will come out in the Fall. Class profile just lists total apps, admissions, matriculation. And even if CDS requires breakdowns by type of admission, UChicago doesn’t post its CDS filing.
The key is the “We”. Who is included in that and how is that information spread? How many read “CC” and do the analysis? The University will never release that officially. We may all “know” things, but unless it is officially announced, there is always “plausible deniability”
Only official communications matter. “What somebody told somebody else at a meeting, is just hearsay and does not go into the official record”. That is the beauty of just throwing numbers out there at a reception. Let it spread without any real consequences.
So if a student asks her regional counselor during an information session “Hey, I heard that RD rate was dismal at 2%, should I even bother applying during the RD round”, the counselor can with a straight face say, “I don’t know where you heard that. As you know we evaluate applications holistically and good students are noticed and considered seriously in any round”. In fact we got some of our best students during our RD round and if you are looking to compare financial aid packages, I encourage you to apply RD. If you have any questions, here is my contact. Feel free to get in touch with me and oh don’t believe everything you hear form your friends and their parents. Most of the information is misleading".
Now the student who really likes Chicago leaves the session thinking “Hmm, that was nice, I heard that if I am good, I can get in during the RD round”, but if they had a press release saying “RD was 2%”, the counselor could not say that.
Now if the student presses the counselor and asks “But was the admit rate for RD 2%?” the counselor will just brush it off with “I don’t think we break down our admits by category like that, because we believe it is misleading”, What I can tell you is that our admit rates are in line with our peers at around 8% and good students always get in and they have many opportunities when they come here like our wonderful Study abroad program which… "
Now some kid will say “Which countries can a student choose for their study aboard”? and the counselor will say “that is an excellent question…”
I’m just surprised he would mention the deferred EA admit rate at all. That’s actually a lot of info. there! Note to the class of 2018 considering early application to UChicago: apply ED or, if you are deferred from EA, apply EDII.
Yeah, these are preliminary numbers and in the fall they will likely just release the overall numbers (now confirmed once everyone enrolls) w/o going into more detail. This is all we are going to get. But it doesn’t change the strategy for anyone.
Presumably, the deferred EA admissions rate is so low because they allowed/expected deferred EAs to switch to ED2 and counted the ones who did so as ED2 admits. Whether they’ll allow the same switch next year remains to be seen.
“So if a student asks her regional counselor during an information session “Hey, I heard that RD rate was dismal at 2%, should I even bother applying during the RD round”, the counselor can with a straight face say, “I don’t know where you heard that. As you know we evaluate applications holistically and good students are noticed and considered seriously in any round”. In fact we got some of our best students during our RD round and if you are looking to compare financial aid packages, I encourage you to apply RD. If you have any questions, here is my contact. Feel free to get in touch with me and oh don’t believe everything you hear form your friends and their parents. Most of the information is misleading”.
First of all, no one’s going to tell a UChicago admissions counselor that he/she is considering not applying to the school. Why would anyone say that to the person who might be considering your application? They may say they are worried about not getting in so what could they do to help their chances etc. Admissions will be very helpful there w/o telling them anything they couldn’t get from the website.
Second, admissions will NOT deny these percentages. They are proud of them and they do want folks to remember these numbers and to spread them around (that’s why they released them at all). Are they real? No - they are preliminary numbers and will be revised as the hardcore decisions are made over the next month or so. So admissions will not say “yeah, those are the numbers” or “no, don’t believe what you hear”. What they will do is . . . well, see below . . .
Third, They will simply encourage any student discussing admit rates to choose that application plan that meets their needs. That is, after all, why UChicago came up with so many options - to meet your needs. Yes, they will admit that they found ED/EDII has a “slightly higher” admit rate. Because QUALITY. And ENTHUSIASM.
Actually I heard a parent ask this at one of the “Ivy presentations”. They asked “Your Regular admission rate is really low. IF we cannot apply Early Decision, should we even bother with the regular round?”
Somebody from the back shouted “No!” and everybody laughed. Then the counselor did a nice song and dance and everybody moved on
@exacademic at #153 - why wouldn’t they allow the switch to EDII next year? They seem to be signaling that’s a viable way for an EA-deferred to be accepted to UChicago, whether that EA be deferred from HYPS, MIT or Chicago itself. In fact, guessing the Chicago EA deferred have the edge because they DIDN’T apply SCEA elsewhere. They are signaling that UChicago really is up there pretty high (if not #1 by the time they are rebuffed . . .).
Because they want to phase out EA. This is a transitional period and how long it will last remains to be seen. Am I misremembering or didn’t they revise the rules midstream this year to allow the switch?
Yes, they will admit that they found ED/EDII has a “slightly higher” admit rate. Because QUALITY. And ENTHUSIASM.
