<p>“the fact that i was able to use my common application essay for northwestern and still get in shows that its prompts are similar to the ones suggested by the common app, and thus will not likely scare away applicants like some of the questions on the uchicago app do. chicago's app is very specific, and asks some strange questions that require a lot of work to form a coherent college essay.” </p>
<p>You don’t seem to understand that your perceived difficulty of a school’s application does not mean that the application is more difficult or intellectual. The amount of time YOU put into the application does not mean it is any more intellectual or uncommon.</p>
<p>"You dont seem to understand that your perceived difficulty of a schools application does not mean that the application is more difficult or intellectual. The amount of time YOU put into the application does not mean it is any more intellectual or uncommon."</p>
<p>Right, but his point is that the perceived difficulty of the application scares away throw-away applicants. I think that this is a fair statement.</p>
<p>And I think it's impossible to tell if this is true or false. The same could be said for ALL schools that require seperate essays, not just for Chicago. My point is, Chicago is not the only school to require seperate essays, and it's ridiculous to say that its essays are in any way more difficult than those of other schools.</p>
<p>"You don’t seem to understand that your perceived difficulty of a school’s application does not mean that the application is more difficult or intellectual. The amount of time YOU put into the application does not mean it is any more intellectual or uncommon."</p>
<p>However, it is a large reason that UChicago's acceptance rate is 38% and not the 28% Northwestern is because it may dissaude thousands of additional students from applying.</p>
<p>I agree. KK, I understand what you are saying. You argue that odyssy's experience is not necessarily reflective of every student and thus his opinion that Chicago's essay was more difficult than Northwestern has no weight in the discussion. I disagree. Unless some sort of schoolwide poll was taken, there is no way of knowing which application is more difficult and time consuming. It is all a matter of opinion, either way. In this case, your opinion differs from odyssy. Still, he makes an excellent point. The uncommon questions that appear in the Chicago application are enough for some people to be scared away, as they are unlike the prompts of other schools and may be considered too difficult/time-consuming. I have seen quite a few people say the same thing - not merely in respect to Chicago vs. Northwestern's prompts, but Chicago vs. any other school's prompts.</p>
<p>I think your argument is a bit baseless since odyssy was accepted to both schools and obviously knows what his own opinion of the process was. Odyssy's statements are not taken as fact here, but personal experience. Thus you will have a hard time arguing against him as you are not him.</p>
<p>"However, it is a large reason that UChicago's acceptance rate is 38% and not the 28%"</p>
<p>-Or it could NOT be the reason.... That has the same possibility of being true as saying the reason why is that people don't like the architecture of the school. There is no way to prove this; it is just speculation.</p>
<p>of course it's impossible to prove. im dealing with general perceptions here, and i think it's pretty difficult to prove which school is more selective than the other. there are stats going both ways; northwestern has the smaller acceptance rate, while chicago has the higher SAT scores. however, my subjective opinion is that chicago's application is perceived to be more difficult and intellectual than other schools', including northwestern's. do you have any indication that tells you otherwise? and, if you do believe that northwestern is more selective, what makes you think that?</p>
<p>The specific reasons behind Chicago's high acceptance rate may not be known, but compared to peer schools, Chicago receives far fewer applicants, forcing them to take a larger percentage. Last year, Chicago received just over 9,000 applications, compared to Northwestern's 16,000.</p>
<p>“my subjective opinion is that chicago's application is perceived to be more difficult and intellectual than other schools', including northwestern's. do you have any indication that tells you otherwise? and, if you do believe that northwestern is more selective, what makes you think that?” </p>
<p>It’s condescending to say that Chicago’s application is in ANY way more “intellectual” than any other school’s. Do I have any indication telling me otherwise? I could do as you have and said Northwestern’s essays were more difficult to me than Chicago’s, but who cares what I think? I have also never stated that Northwestern is more selective- all I have always held that the two schools are equal is most respects, including admissions.</p>
<p>"The specific reasons behind Chicago's high acceptance rate may not be known, but compared to peer schools, Chicago receives far fewer applicants"</p>
<p>-Maybe fewer students want to attend Chcago compared to peer schools...... Who knows.... All I'm saying is that there is no way to know why fewer students choose to apply to Chicago than to other, similar schools. The same question could be asked about LACS. Why don't 20,000 people apply to Swarthmore? Maybe they just DON'T WANT TO..... plain and simple.</p>
<p>"Last year, Chicago received just over 9,000 applications, compared to Northwestern's 16,000."</p>
<p>-Northwestern had 18000 applications last year. :)</p>
<p>you're right, there is no way of knowing for sure why uchicago receives fewer applications than northwestern. i feel as though the application and its reputation as being "where fun comes to die" are probably the most likely reasons for its lack of applicants. you gotta figure that some students where scared away after seeing prompts like "How does string theory relate to your life?" Plus, it really does have a very particular reputation as an academic powerhouse with little room for a social life (whether this is actually true or not is beside the point). Seeing as how there are no stats available for applying students, it is impossible to directly compare the applicant pools. however, we do know that the stats of chicago and northwestern students are comparable, with roughly the same amount of students in the top 10% of their class and similar SAT scores (with the advantage going to chicago here). we can reasonably assume that, though northwestern may have a slightly smaller acceptance rate, they do have similar selectivity, and thus it can be assumed that the chicago applicant pool is stronger. Notice I said ASSUMED, not PROVEN.</p>
<p>My point exactly. Just making people aware. For whatever reason Chicago does not receive as many applicants, and as a result, they must accept a larger percentage of students. On top of that, I believe the school has a pretty bad yield rate.</p>
<p>"Northwestern had 18000 applications last year."</p>
<p>You're probably right. I got that info from USNews Premium Edition, but I think that info may be from 2005. Chicago's size may have increased as well.</p>
<p>"northwestern is not more selective than uchicago. its acceptance rate is slightly lower (28 percent versus 38 percent), but the relative strength of uchicago's applicant pool compared to northwestern's makes it at least as difficult, if not more so, to get into than northwestern. its applicant pool is stronger because of its reputation for hard-core academics and its uncommon application, which stops a lot of throwaway applicants "</p>
<p>this is just so wrong, chicago has a lower yield than northwestern.</p>
<p>^^ actually northwestern is ranked maybe two schools behind chicago for undergrad economics and tends to get recruited much more heavily for actual jobs</p>
<p>Who cares about econ? The OP asked about philosophy.</p>
<p>The two are very close in terms of overall academic quality, so it's pointless to split hairs over prestige. I firmly agree with those who said that the two are very different. That can make choosing harder rather than easier, however, as I know quite well from personal experience. kk19131 said the only thing they shared was their location in Chicago. This isn't quite true- they're both on the quarter system. :rolleyes: The social scene and student outlook (pre-professional vs. "intellectual") vary quite a bit between the two schools. </p>
<p>If you take the time to search, you'll find plenty of Chicago vs. Northwestern threads.</p>