<p>Now that UChicago's UG acceptance rate is going down, how long is it until UChicago can rid itself of its reputation as a "safety school"?</p>
<p>I don’t know if UChicago ever was known to be a “safety school”, but it certainly isn’t now.</p>
<p>It was in 2006.</p>
<p>I mean, when I got accepted by UChicago, I still got some derogatory comments by people who didn’t like me.</p>
<p>I would say about another year or two. 
I think people will be surprised when they see where things stand when the dust settles from this year’s admissions cycle.
But I still believe that what UChicago has done over the past 5 years is nothing compared with what it will do in the next 5 years. Now it’s going to get interesting.</p>
<p>@shootastar cheers! indeed!!</p>
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<p>Haha - and what will that be?</p>
<p>I do know that UChicago’s PSD division is aggressively expanding right now. It has the serious potential of beating out HYPSMC. :)</p>
<p>UChicago isn’t considered a safety school. Nor has it ever been. Even back in 2007 when its admit rate was 35%, it still had higher SATs than Stanford and a higher PhD production rate than Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. At the moment, its SATs are the 5th highest in the US, behind only Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Caltech.</p>
<p>As of last year’s admit cycle, it was winning 30% of its cross-admits with MIT and 40% of its cross-admits with Caltech. This is despite Chicago still lagging in terms of financial aid behind those schools. I’d say that’s a pretty strong performance, wouldn’t you? I don’t think students would be picking their safety schools over MIT/Caltech.</p>
<p>“I still got some derogatory comments by people who didn’t like me.”</p>
<p>Well, maybe that says more about their feelings toward you than their feelings toward the school.</p>
<p>Chicago’s seen as the most prestigious school in the Midwest by far, but West/East Coast people, especially the snooty rich types who you’re probably talking to, tend to be extremely derogatory toward the Midwest for some reason. Frankly, these types of people are annoying enough that they should be avoided in general, at least IMHO.</p>
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<p>Wow - those are very interesting statistics! I wonder about Harvard/Yale/Princeton, though?</p>
<p>Though for my grad school apps, Chicago was my safety school and my top school at the same time (that’s where fit comes in). My profile was sufficiently unusual enough such that I wasn’t even safe at TTT state schools.</p>
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<p>heh - good points.</p>
<p>“Wow - those are very interesting statistics! I wonder about Harvard/Yale/Princeton, though?”</p>
<p>Well, everyone loses to HYP pretty badly. Even mid-level Ivies like Columbia. And Chicago is no exception - I think it wins something like 10-20% of cross-admits. (EDIT: After checking parchment.com, Chicago wins 10% against Yale, 15% against Harvard, and 22% against Princeton.)</p>
<p>The reason it wins more against MIT and Caltech is because cross-admits with those schools tend to be the more intellectual types who care about learning for learning’s sake. And within academia, Chicago has a reputation on par with MIT and Caltech.</p>
<p>A lot of people applying to HYP care a lot about lay prestige, fraternity life, etc., and so Chicago may not appeal to them as much. As such, Chicago loses a great amount of cross-admits to the upper Ivy Leagues. (The good news: Most of the students it DOES win from HYP tend to be extremely passionate for academics.) It’s also notable that HYP has amazing financial aid, often unmatched by even MIT/Caltech. I’ve known people who got into both Chicago and Yale and who wanted to go to Chicago, but had to “settle” for Yale since it was $40k/year cheaper.</p>
<p>I’ve argued for this on other threads, but I think if Chicago got its financial aid up to the level of MIT/Caltech, Chicago would be splitting its cross-admits 50/50 with those two schools, and perhaps losing to HYP 30/70.</p>
<p>don’t even try-Raven is obviously a very needy person who needs to be constantly told how brilliant and wonderful she is. Just check out all the threads she has started. WEIRD.</p>
<p>Agreed. Raven is a lunatic. Also, it’s a he, not a she. Although it’s curious why you would be led to that conclusion.</p>
<p>Stanford came out of nowhere and challenged the Ivies and UChicago will do the same (in admissions.) In the beginning, God didn’t create HYP. Ancient Greece, Rome, and the British Empire all did just fine without HYP. In fact, Oxford and Cambridge set the standard for centuries. The supposed infatuation with the Ivy League is just more proof of how out of touch with higher education the average American is, since those schools would never be ranked the Top 8 schools in the world in any ranking I’ve ever seen. They have PLENTY of competition.</p>
<p>“Safety” to What? Maybe 20 years ago, when the admit rate is over X%, but in recent years, UofC has been competitive in the top tier schools. To the very tipytop students, they might still view its a “safety”, but that is only .1% of all the entering freshmen. To all others, its a reach no matter what.</p>
<p>I think that for the OP, Chicago was a low match/“safety” school in 2006 in the eyes of his College counselor, [ as it was for my DS] because they were both the type of student [ tippy top GPA, SAT’s/ unusual intellectual interests ] that U of C admitted and targeted itself to prior to 2007. A 40% acceptance rate, which is what the acceptance rate was in 2005, the year before both applied, does imply that U of C was a “safety” for certain students.
I dont think he meant to offend anyone. Nor do I.</p>
<p>"I’ve argued for this on other threads, but I think if Chicago got its financial aid up to the level of MIT/Caltech, Chicago would be splitting its cross-admits 50/50 with those two schools, and perhaps losing to HYP 30/70. "</p>
<p>I totally agree. The lousy FA offered by Chicago to DS- 1K vrs 18-25K from other more selective colleges, was the reason it was dropped like a hot potato.</p>
<p>NBA’s rising star Jeremy Lin’s dream schools are Stanford and UCLA. But he ended up at his backup school— Harvard [Jeremy</a> Lin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Lin]Jeremy”>Jeremy Lin - Wikipedia). My friend’s D was accepted by MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard and Yale, she only attended one of them, not HYP, but Stanford. Who cares that much.</p>
<p>If I could get into UChicago, I would die of happiness.</p>
<p>“A few dumb high schoolers said mean things to Raven” does not equal “U Chicago has a reputation as a safety school.” U Chicago has no such reputation, at all.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter the tiniest bit to me whether UChicago is or was considered a “safety school”. It is so great in itself irrespective of what people call it!</p>
<p>haha I don’t know why, but I assumed Raven is a woman-I am a woman and I guess I thought he/she sounded like one. How do you know Raven is a man?</p>