<p>tokenadult is a wise and thoughtful person. So wise and thoughtful that I tend to post the VERY few times when I disagree.
Re: the University of Chicago. All the Naviance charts I have seen show the U of C much MORE driven by SATs and GPA than its peers.
I always thought that this had to do with a lower percentage of the student body at the U of C being URMs, legacies, and recruited athletes than, say, at Brown. But now I’m not so sure. I think that they value SAT scores in particular more than peers.
The most direct evidence is Naviance charts. But common sense also says that with a comparatively low yield, they must be opting for very high SAT scorers to end up with the student body they get. I get the “self selected” argument, but in my experience schools that are labeled “self-selecting” are most distinguished as being self-selecting at the yield stage. Most people who applied and got in choose to go elsewhere. The U of C is typical here.
I am invested in the U of C having a long history of graduate study and I work at the University now. I also think that in many ways the undergraduate education isn’t surpassed by other schools. But I am also pretty amazed at peoples perceptions of undergraduate admissions here, which the U of C admissions office does everything it can to foster.</p>