Sure they will. Where else can they get tens of thousands of apps, so they can proceed to reject 97% of them?
@Cue7 The number of first years enrolled for the Class of 2020 was above 1550. At Orientation, the number welcomed to campus was, I believe, about 1615, but that included a handful of transfer students. I checked on UChicago’s profile page, and they list the first year enrollment at 1591.
@SincererLove My DD is a current first year. Our reception for admitted students was an ice cram party at an alumnus’ home. Then again, our state doesn’t have that large of a footprint at UChicago. Still, the party was fun for the parents and the kids. I highly recommend the committed student weekend in Chicago in March if your DD chooses UChicago. If you have any questions about the fist year, I’d be glad to answer what I can.
I think a problem UoC may encounter is that it will be difficult to choose applicants to admit in the RD round because all the people who are really keen to go there will have applied early already. I would guess they’ll focus on those that they deferred. Or they’ll waitlist 1,000 applicants and then call them up individually and tell them they’ll get offers if they can give an answer by the end of the week.
I predict this is going to work out well for UoC - for a year or so, after which all the top non-SCEA schools will move to the same kind of strategy. As a result, everyone but the cream of the national applicant pool will conclude that they need to apply ED somewhere or risk being shut out. Forget about comparing financial aid offers, too. Ugh.
What then will total acceptance rate and yield be for class of 2021?
I think they sort of dialed class size back to 1450 for a couple of years after they planned to close Pierce and they didn’t have North yet. The entering first-year class this past autumn was 1,589. It was 1,537 last year, and 1,442 the year before that.
I went back and looked at the statistical report booklets. In the past 10 years, there has only been one year – 2012-2013 (Class of 2016) – in which the college enrolled fewer first-year students than the year before. They did in fact enroll about 110 fewer first-year students in 2012 than they had in 2011. But by last year they had returned to the 2011 level, and they exceeded it this year. For perspective, the entering first-year class 15 years ago was 1,063.
Meanwhile, even though they cut back entering first-year enrollment modestly in 2012 and largely kept it low in 2013, total undergraduate enrollment has increased steadily year-to-year for the past 15 years. There were just shy of 6,000 undergraduates enrolled this past autumn quarter.
I’m not convinced that it would be a bad thing for more people interested in the most elite schools to apply ED to their first choice (assuming they could be released if financial aid were not adequate). Having the school know who really wants to be there over all other places might work a lot better than the current “apply to them all” frenzy.
The problem, though, is that all the top schools are fighting hard to look virtually indistinguishable from each other. They all have great graduation rates, great incoming students, wonderful professors, small class sizes (courtesy of US News emphasis on small class size), fancy dormitories, lots of opportunities for social engagement (and social life), etc. etc.
Put another way, there has never been a time where Northwestern, UChicago, U. of Penn, Columbia, Hopkins, etc. have looked so similar. Sure, some schools have different strengths, but it’s like choosing a different flavor of ice cream - rather than choosing between very different things.
For instance, in the past, I’d be very comfortable counseling applicants re going to Chicago or Penn - they were SO different. Now, there are lots of students who would be happy at either.
Doesn’t today’s homogeneous marketplace make it HARDER (not easier) to decide which college is your “favorite” and apply early?
From my perspective, it’s never been harder for an 18 yo to distinguish between top colleges, and it’s never been MORE important to select just one early in the process.
Just a little research and prospective students will be able to differentiate UChicago by not having TAs / Grad Assistants teaching classes and having more research available research needs than students.
I accompanied D on all her college visits. Both of us felt that UChicago felt strikingly different from other schools she visited. Chicago is as different from Penn as Harvard is from Yale, or Princeton is from Brown.
DD has a grad student teaching her calculus class. She loves her though.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of applicants do not/cannot visit all the schools they are applying to. However, I would say that the myriad mailings, both before and after her admission, is what swayed DD to first apply, then seriously consider attending.
One thing attracted D to apply is the EA. They explained it as… “you can still date other people” when we visited in her EC trip to Chicago. Without EA, D wouldn’t have applied. She cast a wide net, and applied multiple schools EA (all nonrestrictive) and doesn’t want to go steady with anybody until April 30th.
Of course, we don’t have a college counselor…each GC in our public school is responsible for 250 kids.
I predict that in 3 to 5 years, UChicago will go SCEA.
The EA strategy is becoming risky. Vast numbers of top students at elite NY priate schools were deferred this year
. EA To Chicago is no longer a top hedge strategy.
One thing Chicago has over HYP is merit aid. I’m not sure how much they dole out but they can use it to target the (upper)middle-class superstars that might have to pay much more to attend HYP. This can help them get better pickings in the RD round.
There will be very few seats left for RD.
I believe the EDII is a very smart way to strengthen the pool. Applicants that were not successful with SCEA or ED at other top Tier undoubtedly strengthen the EDII pool where previously they would have been in the RD round.
It’s purely a numbers game for the SCEA at the HYPSMIT with only so many slots available. The EDII will surely generate a substantially elite pool where students will hedge bets with the deferrals.
Sobering statistics indeed and UChicago will surely benefit from them.
Totally agree. I did a rudimentary game theory analysis with D about EA/ED1/ED2 when she applied. My expectation was that ED2 would be a highly competitive pool for exactly the reason described above.
Can you elucidate your game theor ?
Y