<p>Darn, I should have applied SCEA to Yale, lol.</p>
<p>I’m going to renunciate all material possessions and run of to the forest if Chicago rejects me.</p>
<p>thoreau style! or you could take a leaf from justin vernon and record some beautiful melancholy folky falsetto in the woods of wisconsin. and you can count me in 
seriously.</p>
<p>@alfassa,
I agree with you 100%. I feel like my why Chicago essay was passionate, but I don’t know if it truly was enough to make me stand out from all the other HYPSM dreamers out there. And even if it did make me stand out, who’s to say that UChicago’s #1 priority now is to accept kids who want to go there? I had great essays, solid ACT scores, good ECs, fantastic recommendations, but unfortunately my GPA is a little low (~3.65), so this big boost in applications sure doesn’t help my already slim chances. </p>
<p>I’ve been saying for a while that if a college accepts you then you deserve to be there, but if UChicago accepts some HYPSM wannabe, who has no interest in UChicago other than its high rank, over me or any other CC’er just because they have a higher GPA, it’ll rub me the wrong way. I can’t wait til April, because I know I’ll get deferred.</p>
<p>Yeah it’s best we start recruiting other willing hermits katydome. Chicago doesn’t look so bright anymore. </p>
<p>@neogop</p>
<p>Frankly, if chicago becomes another breeding ground for cold-blooded competitors and gpa fanatics, I’m not so sure I would want to go there as much as before (not to say I wouldn’t love an acceptance letter). Even if I am rejected, I hope Chicago maintains its unique position among colleges without giving in to ivy peer pressure.</p>
<p>alfassa, sounds like a plan!</p>
<p>oh also I was thinking i could become a street performer, like glen hansard in once…anybody musical want to join up? ahhhhhhhhhhhh</p>
<p>@neogop: Yeah this is definitely annoying… UGH I bet those people think of Chicago as their back-up or something grrr… In this entire college app process I haven’t even thought of UMich as my back-up (because it’s a great school) and it’s irritating if others think that such amazing schools can be thought of as such… Maybe it’s just a personal thing sigh</p>
<p>@katydone: I’m in on the street performer thing. It’s going down. XD</p>
<p>@zakuropanda: I know what you mean. Whatever, though, I guess all we can do is sit and wait.</p>
<p>I play guitar! And trumpet! But not at the same time… we could start a traveling band of troubadours!</p>
<p>I play flute and I can sing (to some extent). We need a percussionist… :P</p>
<p><—guitar player</p>
<p>I don’t think one can either credit Nondorf or blame him as the case may be. He only took over on July 1. Most of this year’s recruiting, materials etc. had been planned, sent or produced by then. Perhaps the letter and the one late color brochure with a different emphasis convinced that extra 32%, but I doubt it. We are see a cumulative effect of years of work by many people.</p>
<p>Nondorf may still deserve a good portion of credit/blame. It’s one thing to craft a marketing message. It’s another to select a target market for the PR campaign. Based on some anecdotal examples/stories coming out, he made an effort to do the pitch in areas not targeted/covered well by his predecessor - such as south, southwest, etc. So even if the brochure and other materials were already prepared before him, if it was his decision to pick areas for heavy artillery, then he is still get a good portion of the credit/blame</p>
<p>I don’t have first hand, direct evidence of this. So, I may be completely off target here.</p>
<p>guys i think, honestly, none of us have factored in the obama effect!! haha maybe its my blinding desperation for a ray of hope, but i just thought how big of a publicity that must have been and some might have applied just outta name or something!!</p>
<p>lets hope :)</p>
<p>If colleges like Chicago advertised only because they weren’t satisfied with the quality of applications I wouldn’t care. But it seems pretty obvious that this is a game. Look at USNWR rankings over time. Some schools figure out what’s important and then make big leaps. Chicago has always been known as a great school for eggheads, sort of like Cal Tech. Applicants who were blanketing the Ivies didn’t usually include Chicago (or Cal Tech) so Chicago’s acceptance rate was always like 28% or a heck of a lot higher than HYSP. Part of USNWR’s ranking criteria is based on acceptance percentages. Chicago can climb the polls if its acceptance numbers drop. To seek more applications to rise in a poll is dirty to me.</p>
<p>Old College Try: Acceptance rate is worth exactly 1.5% of the total ranking. Chicago couldn’t climb to the next spot by just changing this, even if the acceptance rate went down to 5%. And even though I agree with the comparison with Caltech, it’s notable that Caltech has a lot of problems of its own. Its yield is only about 35%, comparable with Chicago’s, which means that it’s losing a lot of the students it desires to other schools. Although Caltech and Chicago could both stay with the idea that “everyone that goes off to another school is scared by the seriousness of our school and probably shouldn’t be here anyway,” it’s best not to be in denial, and I think we should actually make steps toward obtaining our most desired students by increasing our yield. But yield is often determined by how well-known a school is, and so Chicago must get its name out there, and part of a side-effect of this is that more students will inevitably apply.</p>
<p>Unlike other schools (like, say, Caltech), Chicago has had a tough history. There have been periods where if it had not performed in a very specific way, it may not have survived as an institution. The university was on par with Harvard and the like just a few decades ago, and while said other universities became increasingly healthy with their recruiting techniques, Chicago relied on its name-based prestige in the circle of intellectuals to survive. Now that we have a chance to become as healthy as an institution as Harvard has been in the past few decades, why not take it and run with it? I don’t see Harvard as a place of intellectual squalor, so why would Chicago become one?</p>
<p>It is interesting that most of the complaints about Chicago becoming like Ivies that attract prestige seekers not interested in the pure life of the mind tradition are coming from applicants who believe they DESERVE to be admitted by Chicago, in spite of their lower GPAs and SATs, over more qualified applicants, because they are the Chicago purists. </p>
<p>Why is it that we are not hearing from 4.0/2300+ applicants who loudly complain about vulgarization of the lofty Chicago tradition and pollution by prestige seekers who are coming out of the woodwork to apply to U Chicago now that it is becoming a more exciting “it” school among top caliber candidates?</p>
<p>Listen. If I wasn’t an applicant to Chicago this year, I would think all this marketing is awesome. Chicago getting its name out there, improving publicity, and seeking a highly qualified class are great strides by the University. Chicago is on the path to being publicly considered on par with Harvard and the like. </p>
<p>The fear that Chicago might lose it’s base and and compromise its ideals in attempt to achieve a more academically qualified class, even if it means turning away students who have a genuine interest in the school’s philosophy, is legitimate. Far-fetched and exaggerated, but legitimate. But remember, we are applicants to Chicago this year, and while we all proclaim to be perfect for Chicago and fear that its losings its traditional admissions outlook, we are really just nervous about our decision. </p>
<p>In other threads, some non-applicant CC’ers have squabbled with the current applicants’ mantra: “I am applying to UC this year, and though I am not as academically qualified as some other applicants, I hope UC accepts me because I am more quirky/intellectual/genuinely interested in the school”: Please guys, understand we are just terribly nervous about our decisions. I understand that this whole saying that UC should pick me over so-so with higher scores is off base, but please, for the sake of our sanity, just humor our anxiety. </p>
<p>On another note, loved the Bon Iver reference a couple of posts ago. Saw him live over the summer, it was awesome, when he played Woods, he got everyone in the crowd to sing along to mimic the layers of his own voice recorded for the song. </p>
<p>Also, I play percussion, and would be happy to join the melancholic troubadours as they tour the world.</p>
<p>You know our stats, ROTCherewego? Don’t assume so much. My GPA is 4.63/3.96. My SAT is 2330. </p>
<p>I admire universities like Cal Tech for being true to its history and niche. To me, Chicago is losing its way by trying to be Ivy-like.</p>
<p>I’m with you on Bon Iver, punk. But what was Justin thinking when he allowed Rosyln" to be part of the New Moon soundtrack? I’m still cringing.</p>