I live in the South, and I don’t think the University of Chicago is, at least among students at my school, that prestigious. They say everybody applies to Harvard because, hey, it’s Harvard, even if they have no chance. Same with Stanford. Why do you think so many people apply to UChicago?
Is it better known in the midwest? Because the free application?
@tutututututuru Well of course it’s better known in the midwest. But it’s pretty well known among most people in the U.S. The South tends to stay put with state schools and stuff. Not as many people venture out. I’m from the Northeast (live about twenty minutes from Harvard actually), and UChicago is very well known here.
@tutututututuru Yeah I agree with @jarrett211 . I’ve heard people say that UChicago is actually tougher than Harvard (from both current and alumni UChicago and Harvard students).
@hope1938 omg it’d be hilarious if we could plot out the five stages of grief on this thread
@kathkath42 tougher to get in or stay in?
@alpha525 well, technically they’re still breaking the record lmao
@VaishS depends, is Penn one of those schools that defers a lot and rejects barely any applicants?
@waddups All I really got from that was that I’m not going to get in
@dr0wning Tougher to stay in and do well. I’ve heard about shirts circulating the UChicago campus that say “If I wanted an A I would’ve gone to Harvard”. There’s also a lot of talk recently about how an acceptance letter from Harvard or Yale or another Ivy is more impressive than your degree from there…
Our family member who is an alumni of UChicago turned down CalTech, Harvard, and Cornell to go to UChicago and being from the south got A LOT of questions about that but the very small very specific area he wanted was by far the best at UChicago (though Caltech was a similar level the specific professors he would be working with personalities were off putting). If you are academically suited for UChicago you probably do not want to be working for someone who doesn’t know how good it is anyway 
I do believe that UChicago would be tougher intellectually, but there’s no doubt that - for now - Harvard is more difficult to get in.
@kathkath42 lol at the shirts. I thought a UChicago student on CC said that the grade deflation wasn’t as bad as everyone thought it was. It does seem like no one cares if you graduated from Harvard with a degree in Folklore and Mythology as long as it’s from Harvard.
@dr0wning Penn ED rejects about 60%, admits about 23%, and defers about 17%.
@dr0wning I feel like grade deflation is more of like a rude awakening for kids who were the smartest at their high school and realize in college that there are people out there who are smarter than them… UChicago still has a pretty high graduation rate so I’m assuming it’s not that much of a downer.
@dr0wning No, sorry!!! I did not mean to make you feel like you won’t get in. There was just a few posters saying that 2-4% for RD is not normal, but I just don’t think they really thought through the process (not trying to be condescending, it’s easy to think 2% is crazy low when the published statistic is 7.8%, but that is overall not RD).
Also this is EA, so that is about 9-11%.
Whoever said people in the South go to state schools is so right.
And yes, I’ve heard that UChicago is much more difficult than Harvard, Yale,etc.
@dr0wning I think it rejects more
@Indigoraccoon4 Midnight blue (but idk, it changes all the time), idk def not scalia lol, 1964 (beatlemania is pretty cool)
For anyone wondering, Columbia has around the same ratio as Penn. 20% accepted 20% deferred 60% reject.
@alpha525 that actually made me feel better because I know that some schools defer a majority and reject a crazy low amount.
@waddups I was joking, haha. Thanks for doing the math for us all!
Harvard deferred the majority of their early applicants this year. 6,173 applied early, and 4,673 were deferred. I don’t know why they would do that, but it is what it is.