That may be true, for the most part, but HYP’s RD yield isn’t 83% either. In fact, Harvard’s overall yield of 83% probably represents nearly 100% from the REA round and maybe 66-67% from the regular round. In other words, they look a lot like UChicago’s own yields from ED vs non-binding. BTW, a couple of nits: UChicago’s yield, after summer melt, was actually closer to 81%, and it apparently holds its own against Cal-Tech (though the difference is not statistically significant at the 95% confidence level).
ED fundamentally distorts yield and acceptance rates, as the 2001 Atlantic article revealed in great detail, making a college look more competitive than it actually is. So comparing Harvard and Chicago yield is literally apples and oranges. Chicago’s yield has typically been in the 30s, and it was 40 as recently as 2011. So a sudden shift to 83 is suspicious with a doubt. I won’t link the article as it’s been posted a few times already on this site, but here’s the main point:
“From a college’s point of view, the most important fact about early decision is that it provides a way to improve a college’s selectivity and yield simultaneously, and therefore to move the school up on national-ranking charts.”
UChicago’s yield in 2016, its last year of only having EA and RD, was somewhere between 60%-70%. This was near Princeton’s yield for that year if I remember correctly, but UChicago had unrestricted EA, and Princeton had SCEA.
I suspect that if UChicago still had only EA and RD, its yield would be in the low 70% range now.
So it seems UChicago is very serious about yield…
Also, I was recently invited by the Chicago Harvard club for a party/event, but I’m not sure if that’s normal or would mean anything?
They did say that it’s not an indication or anything so I was wondering if it really was just a “get to know us” kind of thing.
That is just a big schmooze party. Don’t read anything into it.
^@HKimPOSSIBLE at #683 - it is. And for good reason. A high yield ensures that you have admitted the applicants who have a top preference for the institution. It tends to be associated with all sorts of positive outcomes such as high retention rates, high 4 year grad rates, and high giving rates among the alumnae.
High yields are also associated with high selectivity, because the school can be a lot more choosy about whom to admit. Between 2011 and 2013, UChicago’s application volume increased by 50% - from about 20k to 30k, which is astounding. Many reasons for that, but it is what it is so can’t really be attributed to “suspicious” activity. As I mentioned upthread, UChicago’s yield for the 2015-16 app. cycle - the last before implementing ED - was 63%. The following year, the first year of ED, it “leaped” 9 points. However, in the two years following that, it leaped another 9. So, yeah, ED helped but something else has also been going on and that’s called ‘application volume.’ In fact, removing that initial 9-point jump lands UChicago at 72% - pretty much where @hebegebe has placed it.
- Not really. It turns out that UChicago's admit rate for ED1 might be somewhere in the 10-12% range (based on last year). That's a fairly selective admission round for a "binding admission" process. It's notably lower than other ED rounds at other Ivy+ schools, and is even lower than Harvard's very-selective REA round which was 13.4% last year. Both schools admit perhaps 1/2 via a special "restricted" round (single-choice for H, ED1/ED2 for UChicago) and the other half via unrestricted. The particular restrictions seem to be less of an issue than the popularity and selectivity of the admission round.
Go to the schmooze party. Might as well get free food out of this ??. Does anyone know of they take attendance or sign in for this? @JBStillFlying
^ I’m sure they do, or you sign up in advance and they figure out who or who hasn’t taken their nametag 
. Best guess is that everything @HKimPOSSIBLE needed to do has been baked into the cake already. They don’t tip their hand in such an obvious way. But it never hurts to attend because you might learn something new. Just be careful not to read anything into it.
“Both schools admit perhaps 1/2 via a special “restricted” round (single-choice for H, ED1/ED2 for UChicago) and the other half via unrestricted.”
Do you have a source that Chicago accepts half its class ED? I’ve not seen anything public from them since they went with ED1/2. Many people think 80% of the class is ED, making a 83% yield pretty easy to obtain.
- No official source other than the Class Profile that they publish every year. https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/class-2023-profile But, it's not difficult to put some numbers together based on what we do know from various admitted events.
Last year, like other years, UChicago admitted 1/2 of the class “early” (EA/ED1) and the other half “non early” (ED2/RD). For early, in prior years they have admitted about 2/3’rds ED1 and 1/3 EA, although this ratio might go up or down in any given year depending on strength of the individual pools. We also know that the RD admit rate was about 4% (it’s been 2% in the past, but they apparently have been deferring fewer and rejecting more than they used to) and that the deferred accepted rate is very very small, less than 1%. They didn’t even disclose it last year so it may well have been negligible. When you run the numbers, it works out to about 1/2 being binding and the other half being non.
UChicago stopped publicizing early admission results well before ED1/2, but during that time they have also shared the early admit rate with families. Nothing’s changed there. As they have never provided data concerning applicant interest levels they are not likely to begin doing so. It’s safe to conclude that ED is viewed more favorably than EA; however, last year the early admit rate was 7% overall so both admission paths were probably pretty selective.
That is likely to be incorrect. When you go to admitted events you find out that the two most common groups are ED1 and RD. That’s just anecdotal, of course, but it definitely suggests that both groups are more numerous than the other two at that stage of the admission cycle. However, things naturally shift a bit by May 1st and even by Mid-Sept. when the new class shows up for Move-In. Since the non-binding half will have about a 67% yield, the overall proportion will skew to ED and the resulting entering class will be about 60% ED and 40% non-ED. That proportion, btw, checks out with what other parents have heard from admissions in the past.
hello! thanks for the insightful thread and I’m sorry about your frustration but talking about your experience def helped a lot of us! May I ask what your SAT 1 & SAT subject scores were? As well as how many sem or yr B’s you got total? Thanks a lot!! 
@theloniusmonk
I asked the AO what percent of students were admitted ED at an information session that we attended in early fall 2018. I was told roughly 50%. My daughter and husband took a campus tour and attended an information session a few months later. They were told the same.
^ @PepperJo thanks for posting that information. More evidence that admissions is happy to answer the question if actually asked.
Holy crap! I got an Interview Invite for the UIC GPPA Medicine Program
Hmm, I’m wondering how selective the interviews are or if there’s a second set of interviews.
Go. It is where it is. You should ask if you’re curious (there’s one round as far as I know but do ask).
I’d pick UIUC though. There’s a world of difference between being one of 30 high achieving students on a mostly commuter campus in your backyard, and being part of a high-achieving cohort of thousands on a residential campus in a different environment.
Just one set of interviews. Around half of the people that get an interview get selected from what I’ve read.
Ah I see, so it seems I have an actual shot at GPPA! I’ve been in contact with the financial aid office at UIC and also contacted the GPPA offices and said there are quite a bit of 4 year renewable scholarships that go to GPPA students - so hopefully it will be affordable and an option I can consider.