UChicago Class of 2023 Applicants

April Fool’s?

From the Maroon article:

“The acceptance rate for UChicago’s Class of 2023 reached an all-time low of 5.9 percent, Dean of Admissions Jim Nondorf told admitted students at reception held at Credit Suisse in New York on March 30.”

Someone already reported the 5.9% yesterday at this thread #1033 and so I don’t think that is an April Fool’s Joke.

The essay prompt is a joke though:

https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/early-essay-prompts

I actually like those a lot better than the 2019-20 essay prompts!

if it’s that low then can I assume that the number on the waitlist is high?

Does anyone expect for U Chicago to release stats by round? ED I, ED II, EA, or RD??? I think that would be very helpful to any potential applicants that are very interested in U Chicago, and I’m sure there are many reading this thread.

I do not expect them to release them by those classifications. However in the past it has been dropped in Accepted Student Receptions what ED(1&2), EA, and RD were approximately. I’m not sure we can get that unless someone on the board attends these. If I recall last year someone actually did an audio recording of Nondorf’s statement and put it on YouTube. There was a lot of stats dropped in that speach. SAT average, etc…

@collegemomjam Generally each year we try to hash it out based on the snippets of information we have which seems to be true to UChicago modus operandi. IOW they just give us enough info to take educated guesses at each of these numbers (similar to a scav hunt for parents).

Thanks @cu123. I thought I saw last year or the year before that the RD rate was something like 2%. I just think some kids would want to know that.

@collegemomjam Last year I think that snippet came from Nondorf at an admitted student event. If you ever have a chance to meet him he is a very positive person with a good sense of humor. JMHO.

At an admitted student reception in Jan, they announced 15,000 early applicants and a 7% acceptance. (Roughly 1000 accepted?) No breakdown by ED 1,2 or EA. That would mean approximately 20,000 applications for RD leading to an overall acceptance of 5.9. We are attending an additional reception later this month. I’ll update this group if they make any comments about numbers.

Agree Nondorf has a great sense of humor! His recent comments from an admitted student reception are on the Chicago Maroon website.

Have never seen Nondorf without that golly-nice Midwestern smile. But don’t be fooled. Given that he left Yale Admissions when he wasn’t named Director, and given that - in addition to all their other admissions achievements - UChicago now has the same admit rate as Yale, Dean Nondorf is probably smiling like the cat that swallowed the canary.

Do we know when/if they will accept people off the waitlist?

I understand your anxiety but no one knows.

This is the first week of April. There will be two Admitted Students events in the next few weeks. So Admission Office is likely preoccupied with those events. Their job is to try to persuade admitted students to commit.

Afterwards when they have a clear idea of how many admitted students actually matriculate, then they will (if there is space available) call students off wait list. My guess it will be AFTER May 1st.

it has to be after May 1st bc that’s the national deadline for responses. Only then will they know who will actually matriculate. If they have spaces, they’ll start pulling from the waitlist and that can continue until as late as August. but hopefully we’ll get good news earlier!!!

@85bears46 and @xusins are both right

@cheekyactor4 looking from the past years threads they sometimes draw off the waitlist at the end of the last week in April, but most of their waitlist acceptions will come in the first week of May when they know their Yield. And I would expect Uchicago to pull people off the waitlist to the class of 2024 as long as the yield isn’t North of 87%(or so) .

The big unknown is class size. Will that be 1,800 (+/- 10) like last year? Or will that be 1,750 (the ideal class size according to Dean Boyer)?

The College right now has 6.494 students.

https://uchicago.app.box.com/s/trkqpw1ztu0lc4niahgz0y7g6eyqt6z6/file/394017728104

The College can take one or two more classes of 1,800 before tapering back down to 1,750. The main question is, as usual, housing. Can Residence Life take another 1,800 class without resorting to putting students at expensive rental like Vue53? And Woodlawn Residential Commons is still a couple years away from completion.

The admitted size - fewer than 2,100 - is a strong indication that they aren’t planning to enroll 1,800. 1,700-1,750 seems more like it. My guess is that they are shooting for 1,700 and a yield of 80% or slightly above. If their committed numbers are below 1,700 then they will pull off the waitlist. If it’s higher than 1,750, forget it - unless they invite you to enroll next year.

Where are you’ll going if Chicago doesn’t end up taking you