Just a little perplexed

<p>Several people from my school applied and as far as I know, only two were admitted, and one is some sort of crazy kid who’s full PSEO. I was deferred, which was very disappointing, but I’ve still got my fingers crossed for RD. Yeah, it’s only about 10%, but the way I see it, the competition won’t be as fierce since the very top already got accepted, so the odds are probably about the same as they were. hopefully anyway. Most people from my school got deferred from loads of different schools, even though we’re a very good public school. We had I think 18 National Merit Semifinalists, while most of the other area schools were lucky to have 2 or 3… Hopefully RD will be kind to all.</p>

<p>I think possibly even more than the first essay about “Why UC?”, the second essay was more important. My first essay was definetly genuine and heartfelt. But really when it came down to it I felt as if any enthusisastic kid could have written it.</p>

<p>It was really the second essay where you had a chance to stand out and be more personal (I didn’t do the optional essay). You were free to imagine and be creative on the second essay, and I feel as if after weeding out people on the first essay (the people who really weren’t that interested), they really narrowed down people on the second essay.</p>

<p>Also even though your friend was not interested in UC, I am still betting his essays were phenomenal in order to be accepted into UC, MIT and Caltech.</p>

<p>EA total for the class of 2015: 6960, admitted 22.66%=1577.
RD number 14814 (Total 21774-EA 6960), admitted (3446-1577)=1869, admit rate should be 1869/14814 = 12.62%,if deferred number is not included in the calculation.If you add 3000-3500 deferred number into the RD number, the admit rate will be around 10%.</p>

<p>The admitted number in EA in 2015 was 1400. Total 3443. Not sure where you got 22.66%.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.applicationbootcamp.com/ivy-league-admission-statistics-for-class-of-2015/[/url]”>http://www.applicationbootcamp.com/ivy-league-admission-statistics-for-class-of-2015/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>22.66% EA admit rate is from The Choice, New York times.</p>

<p>[Early</a> Line on Early Admissions - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/2012-early-admission/]Early”>Early Line on Early Admissions - The New York Times)</p>

<p>I think they have the wrong number and don’t provide the raw data. I have seen several references to the actual admit number being 1400. I had to update my own tracker from last year which listed it at 1600 (that is closer to 23%). I did come across at least three references which list 1400 for last year.</p>

<p>Irrespective of that, we would not be arguing this issue if UChicago was transparent and actually made some kind of announcements like their peers so we are not sitting around guessing who is correct. They seem to want to boast about application increases but not the actual admits, deferrals etc.</p>

<p>I think Chicago is playing it safe and trying not to over-admit from the EA pool, but doesn’t want to reject qualified people outright. Their admissions are really volatile right now. The applications have more than doubled in 5 years, and EA applications were way up again this year, from what I understand. That means two things: 1. More applications in general, including more coming up in the regular pool, 2. Far more qualified candidates who are not an auto-reject. So, outside of a few applicants, they are holding off to see what the general pool looks like. I’m sure it’s frustrating, but they would probably </p>

<p>Keep in mind that less than 10 years ago, the admissions rate at UChicago was over 40%. They really don’t have a lot of clear precedent to project a yield / application / etc. (They missed their yield projections and over-admitted three years in a row awhile back when their national profile started getting popularized, one time to the extent that they did not admit anyone from the waitlist).</p>

<p>“doesn’t want to reject qualified people outright.”</p>

<p>I have heard from some of my friends that there were some not-so-qualified people who were also deferred. In fact, I don’t think UChicago rejected many people at all, which means that there is quite possibly a huge range of qualification for the deferred pool. For example, a 3.7 weighted GPA to a 4.5 or a 27 ACT to a 33. To me, that doesn’t make much sense.</p>

<p>Grace confirmed the admitted number published by NYTIMES as the official number provided by UC but she was not at liberty to provide statistics related to deferred and rejected. Not sure why these numbers can’t be released since it includes 7000 applicants together.</p>

<p>Does the 10% figure for EA applicants likely to be admitted during the RD round include all applicants deferred during EA? If so, it includes a number of applicants who are likely no longer interested in Chicago, those admitted ED to Penn, Brown, etc. So, I wonder what percentage of those deferred are still interested in Chicago and will bother sending in the email, etc. If it is only half, then the acceptance rate, for those who continue to show an interest, may be closer to 20%. If, as some have indicated, there were a number of “less qualified” applicants who were also deferred, then perhaps the acceptance rate for “more qualified” applicants may be even higher.</p>

<p>cmc - do you think Chicago is waiting for a bunch of students already admitted ED or EA to other schools to tell them they no longer want to be considered? Is there any reason to believe most of these fall under deferred vs admitted?</p>

<p>Texas, I’m not sure they’re waiting–I think the big “read” happens in Feb or so–but I would hope that GC across the land are leaning on ED admits to pull their apps, particularly from Chicago and other EA schools. I do think the deferred pool would shrink a bit with that.</p>