I have been reading a lot on this forum about how EA and RD at UChicago now have 1-2% acceptance rates and 80% of the class was accepted EDI/EDII. Is this true? If so, does it even make sense for a non-prodigy to do EA or RD?
I am in a position where UChicago is one of my top 7 choices but not in my top 4 so I definitely cannot do EDI or EDII. Would I be wasting my time with RD?
I have very strong grades and scores from an elite prep school on the east coast. I have strong ECs and internships, but i do not have national awards and I am not a prodigy for sure.
To be honest, no one (here) really knows. I think chances are pretty slim, but not zero. They are admitting people RD., after all. Might as well if you are willing to spend time on the app.
My daughter was accepted EA. UChicago was her first choice, but her numbers were so strong that the college counselor (school) did not recommended to apply ED. (She had all her RD applications (11) done by the time the response arrived on Dec 16th, and she decided to send them anyways; she was accepted in 8). She is extraordinary academically (top 2% of her class, 15 AP’s with 5"s and A+), ACT 34, strong EC’s, but I would not say that she is a prodigy. In her school, 4 out of 6 (all attending) were admitted EA/RD. You should apply RD. She is totally happy in UChicago from day one: the best housing system, new dorm (perfect bathrooms, nicely decorated study halls and lounges in the same building), very good food and dining halls, breathtaking campus. She goes to Chicago with her group on Saturdays for dinner… Honestly, it is a dream of college life; she loves it. But, (there is always a “but”)…she studies very hard (for the first time ever on Fridays!!); very tough classes (she took the hardest ones possible).
I imagine that your top 4 are probably all single digit admit rates, and since last year was UChicago’s first year with ED it will be tough to say whether or not the RD will remain around 2%. Most don’t think it will stay that low, but only time will tell.
There was the thought on these threads awhile back that EA or RD might favor students who had a hook or a special talent of some kind. Given that some of the athletes applied binding, not sure whether athletic hook would be included. It’s very hard to say but if you are a strong contender for many top schools, then applying ED doesn’t make sense. If UChicago is a clear first choice, then it does. You might want to get the GC’s point of view on this one, especially if you are at an elite prep that places many at top schools. They should be able to help you.
More intuitively, if UChicago isn’t even in the top 4, you probably wouldn’t be happy with an EDI-acceptance and would wonder what coulda been. However, your mind can change over the course of even a few weeks so don’t dismiss the possibiity of applying EDII, depending on what happens in Mid December for you.
Athletes get an initial “Green light” to apply EA, which they can then turn into ED when they get a more thorough nod from admissions. Even then, though, admission is not as sure of a thing as it might be for athletes at some other top D3 schools, MIT excepted.
Given that the RD acceptance rate was 2 percent last year, unless there is a drastic change this year, I do not see the point of applying anything but ED. One stands a drastically better chance of a non-ED acceptance at every other school in the country.
@CU123 Yes my top 4 (Stanford, Harvard, Penn, Columbia) have single digit admit rates, but not even Harvard or Stanford have 1-2% RD rates.
@JBStillFlying i am doing Stanford REA so most likely I will not have an acceptance come December…lol…but still I want to have the chance of applying to my other top choices RD instead of committing to EDII. I am positive these are my top 4 choices, I have visited and researched each thoroughly.
@Zinhead This is what I am thinking. I have plenty of reaches on my list as is, and I am applying to 13 schools in total (7 reaches, 3 matches, 3 safeties). Even though I like Chicago, a 1-2% acceptance rate makes it almost not worth it for me, since my list is already very reach-heavy. I am thinking of doing Dartmouth RD instead of Chicago for that reason.
Have they announced anything about making the split between ED/RD more balanced this year?
@ivyoxbridge1 - they have not said much of anything about the breakdown for this year - other than 800 EDI and 400 EA (and that was back in Jan.) - nor have they said much about future splits between binding and non (in addition to RD there is, of course, non-binding EA). A lot depends on how many RD’s actually apply. There was a real drop in RD applications this past cycle - had it been a few thou. higher, that 2% would have been even lower, all else equal (though it’s possible that the lower overall number of apps. forced them to go deep into the ED pools, it’s more likely they wanted to do that anyway because they liked what they saw, even if that mostly meant seeing a binding ED agreeement LOL).
Ivyoxbridge1, If Dartmouth is where you are applying ED, I am not sure UChicago is the school for you. Dartmouth
is a very different vibe, in the country etc. You have done your research so I guess you realize that! The stats you quote are not official. Many students were admitted EA and RD!
One of the favorite pastimes on this board discussing college admissions game theory. Maybe the some of these theorists can consider the case of someone who:
A - Did not apply anyplace ED or EA.
B - Did not get into their SCEA or ED choice
C - Got into a SCEA school but at still undecided
Given that UChicago’s RD admit rate was 2 percent, why would this person choose to apply to Hyde Park in the RD round when comparable schools like Columbia, Penn and Dartmouth offer a RD admission rate more than twice that of Chicago, more prestigious schools like Stanford and Harvard also have significantly higher RD admit rates, and close competitors like Vanderbilt or WashU have RD rates closer to 10 percent?
It would seem to me that if you were in the OP’s position of choosing you last few reach schools to apply to, you would eschew the school with the extremely low admit rate and apply to comparable schools that have a two to five times better chance of getting admitted to.
The assumption that RD admit rate is 2% is starting to look wrong… someone posted that it seems that its only 2% if the denominator is the whole application pool?
Nondorf might’ve had the denominator correct, but fudged the 2% statistic a bit. We really don’t know How he came up with that number. As mentioned on the other thread, it appears that University of Chicago may be looking to fill its future classes with a majority coming from Early decision.
Why all the love for early decision? Yes you can increase yield and bring in wealthier classes, but yield and class wealth was already strong before the intro of ED.
Following all the change, yield went up by a whopping 6%. Sure maybe there are more wealthy students, but was this all really worth it?
There is no arguing that. The facts speak for themselves, and since the college doesn’t even make the top 4 for the OP, they shouldn’t apply RD, chances are they will be rejected. The OP should focus most of their efforts on schools they want to attend (really the top 3). Dartmouth appears to be there “safety” school (and I use that term very loosely) and there RD rate will be much higher than UChicago’s. Of course there is a good chance they will end up at a school way down the list but that is the chance they have to take.