<p>I just read that there have been 1600 acceptances, and there are only 600 spots left? Is this true? If so, doesn't that mean that the process will be more competitive as there are thousands applying RD and only 600 spots? Please someone tell me that there aren't only 600 spots left. I'm having a heart attack overhere!</p>
<p>Beatfreaks - so the unofficial word so far is Chicago sent out around 1600 (1676 or so) EA acceptances. Now yield can vary significantly from year to year, but traditionally, around 40% of the EA admits ultimately decide to attend Chicago. If this holds true, this year, at least about 50% of the class (650-680 students) should come from the early pool. </p>
<p>This means that, yes, unfortunately, all of the RD applicants are vying for about the 650 remaining seats this year. Even if the EA yield drops considerably this year, I think it’d be difficult for the RD accept rate to be much higher than 13-15% this year. </p>
<p>I know it’s a tough situation, but, like anything else, don’t worry about odds as much - just focus on making your app as good as it can possibly be. Good luck!</p>
<p>uhh not everyone who got accepted is going to go…</p>
<p>I believe Cue7 has already taken that into account. Assuming a yield of ~40% Chicago will accept around 1700 students in the RD round, resulting in an acceptance rate of around 13-14%. And that’s not taking into account EA deferrals.</p>
<p>I too find this very disconcerting. How could they do this!? Sure I want to go to UChicago but so do thousands of other people that are applying RD. And within that sample of individuals there are bound to be 2 or 3 kids almost identical to me with similarily good essays. Urg…this just really sucks. I should’ve applied EA.</p>
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<p>Cue7 already took into account of those who are not going to go. That’s what “yield” is there for.</p>
<p>I’m really starting to feel bad for the students who decided to apply EA (my good friend being one of them).</p>
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<p>I wholeheartedly agree with you. However, there is really nothing we can do. Admissions offices in every university have complete control over the directions they are going to take. I agree with Cue7 that prospective students should just ignore the odds for now and focus on perfecting their application essays.</p>
<p>well at least chicago didn’t screw you and decide not to even look at your application at ALL even though you DID get all your materials in by Nov. 1…oh, but they have assured me they are looking forward to reading my application RD.</p>
<p>sorry, i’m still bitter.</p>
<p>Even though RD acceptance rate will be lower, it’s still higher than most peer colleges, so it’s not too much of an unfortunate situation.</p>
<p>Phuriku - will Chicago’s RD accept rate really be that much higher than most of its peer colleges? Certainly, HYPS will have around a 7% RD accept rate, but I’d expect that Brown, Duke, Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia etc. will all have RD accept rates of around 10-15%. Aside from HYPS, what schools will have a significantly lower RD accept rate than Chicago?</p>
<p>I think the general consensus is that Chicago altered it’s policy with EA admits this year, and this is going to lead to a huge drop in the RD rate.</p>
<p>Yeah, Chicago’s RD accept rate should be around 12-15%, depending on expected yield. This is still higher than most of our peers (including Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, whose RD accept rates should be at or lower than 10%, and Cornell and Duke, whose RD accept rate both should be at or less than 15%).</p>
<p>So yes, it will be very difficult to get into Chicago RD, perhaps significantly moreso than EA. But it’s still probably somewhat easier to get into Chicago RD than to our peer colleges. I’m not saying that the policy with such an EA-RD disparity is fair… however, I don’t think it’s as desperate a situation as an RD applicant may think. It is still very feasible to get in, even with an imperfect application.</p>
<p>Ehh phuriku I disagree on this point. Dartmouth, Brown etc. will most likely have an RD accept rate of about 10%, Chicago will probably be about 13-14%, and Duke and Cornell should probably be around 14-16%. All these percentages are pretty tightly clustered together. All these schools are pretty much at the same level of selectivity, and I wouldn’t even say that this year, it’s “somewhat easier” to get into, say, Chicago than Dartmouth. The student bodies will be pretty much identical, and the accept rate will be roughly the same.</p>
<p>Finally, keep in mind that EA apps went up 50%, and we don’t know how much RD apps went up. If Chicago apps went up, say, 30% for the RD round, and we count the EA apps deferred to the RD round as part of the pool (as many ivies do), it’s not inconceivable to think that Chicago would be considering a total of 16,000 applications in search of 1700 admits (which works out to about a 10% accept rate). </p>
<p>I think the above is a somewhat extreme scenario, but roughly, given the unexpected decision to admit so many in the EA round, Chicago’s RD selectivity is now basically the same as all of its peers save HYPS. It might be a couple percentage points higher than the RD rate at Brown or Columbia, but this isn’t really statistically significant, and doesn’t lead to an easier RD process at Chicago - all these schools are now basically on the same page.</p>
<p>(Please note, for a school to be “easier” in its admissions process, I’d want to see at least a 7-9% difference in accept rate. So last year, Dartmouth, say, had about a 15% overall accept rate, and Chicago had about a 26% overall accept rate. Last year, then, I’d agree that Chicago was less punishing in its admissions process. This year, if Dartmouth is poised to have about a 14% accept rate, and Chicago has an 18% accept rate, I don’t see that much difference between the two schools - they’re now on the same band of selectivity.)</p>
<p>(Contrast the above further with the case of Chicago just a few years back. In 2005 or 2006, Chicago still sported a 35-40% accept rate, while Dartmouth or Brown sported a 15-20% accept rate. At that time, I’d definitely agree - it’s somewhat easier to get into Chicago than Dartmouth or Brown. The difference between 14% accept rate and 18% accept rate at two schools, however, isn’t great enough to make the same assertion.)</p>
<p>i’m a bit confused. so for the Class of 2013 Chicago received ~13,500 applications, but is this number just the ED applications, or is this number the combined EA/ED? It would make more since that this number includes EA as well, which would make the number of ED apps last year roughly 10,000. it seems like a 60% increase in RD apps is unlikely… i guess i’m just skeptical that the RD acceptance rate will plummet to 10%, maybe 15%</p>
<p>Baldor, I’m not quite clear about what your confusion on the matter is. Last year, Chicago received about 10000 RD applications, and about 3500 EA applications, for a total of 13500 apps. In calculating the RD accept rate, you have to take into account how many people are applying fresh for RD, AND how many were deferred in the EA round and reconsidered in the RD round. So last year, Chicago accepted around 1000 of the 3500 EA apps, and deferred probably another 1000 or so of the EA pool to the RD round. Then, for the RD round, Chicago accepted 2600 of the (roughly) 11000 total RD apps (10000 applying fresh + the 1000 deferred). So last year, Chicago’s RD accept rate was probably around 20-25%. </p>
<p>This year, there are a TON more EA apps, which also means a TON more EA deferrals AND it meant more EA accepts. Out of the 5885 EA apps at Chicago, probably around 2500 of those applicants were deferred. So, lets say in the RD round, there’s a 15% increase in fresh RD applicants. This would mean about 11500 apps, and then you have to add on the 2500 apps that were deferred to the regular pool. This means about 14000 apps in the regular pool are considered total.</p>
<p>Since Chicago accepted more EA, it’ll need to fill fewer seats in the RD round. This means, say, Chicago will only accept around 1900 of the, say, 14000 studens considered in the RD round. 1900/14000 = 13.5% accept rate. </p>
<p>This is just a projection, but it seems likely that Chicago’s RD accept rate will be around 12-15%. The overall accept rate this year should be around 18-20%.</p>