<p>I understand UChicago is "difficult to get in to", if this is so, then why do they have almost a 28% acceptance rate? (relatively high, compared to other distinguished schools)</p>
<p>highly self selective applicant pool</p>
<p>No other schools has such unique essays and such a rigorous curriculum, thus only a certain type of student apply's to Chicago.</p>
<p>Basically, no one applies for fun with essays as intensive as theirs.</p>
<p>You don't write those essays for fun, meaning that the vast majority of Chicago applicants, I would say, are people who would seriously consider going there if they got in and are serious about applying. Most of the applicants are all at least moderately serious contenders for acceptance, so to be one of the ~30% accepted is as great a honor as to be one of the ~15% accepted to Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, etc, many of which have significantly less exhausting essays/supplements.</p>
<p>Those essays are part of their "Uncommon Application" and they are VERY uncommon.</p>
<p>hmm, is it odd that I WOULD do these essays for fun?</p>
<p>I could see people who would, but not when swamped with three gazillion college applications.</p>
<p>If your reaction to the Uncommon Essays is "ooh, I can't wait to write about this!" and that you found the Common App essays a terrible bore, it's safe to say Chicago might be an excellent place for you.</p>
<p>"The catch is this: If you write the optional essay the Admissions board feels that you aren't confident enough in your grades and other essays to get accepted and you feel the need to have to do something extra. This lack of confidence gets you an automatic rejection, but if you don't write the essay it shows that you aren't willing to go the extra mile to get into Chicago, and they won't accept you."</p>
<p>"That's quite a Catch."</p>
<p>"It's the best there is."</p>
<p>^ hahaha.. absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>Damn you catch-22! (Favorite book of all time) lol</p>
<p>Ha ha, beautiful.</p>
<p>Haha, rentastrawberry with the Catch-22.</p>
<p>Before anyone freaks out about that too much though.... This was the first year that essay was considered optional and it was made pretty explicit by the Admissions office (this is coming from an on campus info session and peoples correspondences which where then posted on CC) that you should do the optional essay.</p>
<p>Butternut, I'm in the same boat.</p>
<p>I ended up applying to UChicago because I found the essays FUN to write (and because it's a great school).</p>
<p>Oh and to answer the OP's question, check this thread from a few weeks ago out:</p>
<p>Also another interesting thing to look at is this blog post on the Chicago blog about EA v. ED, which also influences acceptance rates as well.</p>
<p>Blog:</p>
<p>I personally thing it makes sense why Chicago's acceptance rate is what it is. Regardless we all know U of C is flippin awesome!:)</p>
<p>Chicago's acceptance rate is only high in comparison to Ivies et. al. In the grand scheme of things, it's low.</p>
<p>To me, there are a constellation of reasons why Chicago has a relatively high acceptance rate:</p>
<p>1) As already pointed out, the application provides a mental obstacle for many.
2) Lack of big-time name recognition and lack of membership to a certain athletic conference.
3) We're not a big-time player in the holy trinity of football, beer, and girls. Turn-off for many prospective applicants.
4) Geographic location, which could play a factor for a few reasons, primarily a) Chicago's largest potential market is in the midwest, where students have a lot of excellent and prestigious public college options, b) there's more wealth and a higher population density on the East Coast, so there's inherently a bigger market of students who are highly interested in elite private schools.</p>
<p>The quality of the application pool is an unknown, but the SAT and ACT midranges suggest that Chicago is able to pull in students of exceptional quality.</p>
<p>So the "catch" is that you're not going to walk into a bar with your U of C sweatshirt on and have people cheer for you or spill beer on you. You won't have the emotional cachet of saying "I go to an Ivy"-- which is important for some. You will, however, work similarly hard.</p>
<p>I mean, I can go on and on about how great this school is and how much I love it. I just think it's also fair to say that there are a lot of people out there who want a different kind of college experience.</p>
<p>I'm with Butternut and lilygraces; I found the essays fun to write 8-B despite my five gajillion other essays (I'm applying to 13 schools, 11 of which are essay-intensive, like 3-5 essays ish). LoL.</p>