UChicago Class of 2023 Applicants

My daughter is on the WL, we’re expecting to get off WL, hopefully, who knows~ barely any chance.
She will definitely move on to choose the schools from her admitted lists {CMU, UCB, UCLA}

@SnowRidge Good to have hope, but a UChic WL has close to 0% chances of closing in on the + side

I’m just curious, what major did your daughter apply for in these schools?

Econ / Mathematical econ

@SnowRidge did your daughter send a LOCI yet

@Dizzyquest Yes, she did right after she got the WL result.

@SnowRidge Thanks for sharing! It’s a great major IMO. I’m CS tho.

If the recent college scandal has taught us anything, its that we can’t really believe anything that these colleges release as public information. The public perception/ official party line that schools like University of Chicago do not take people off the waitlist is hogwash - - or probably some semantic to manage the precious yield statistics. I happen to know at at least 3 students who were admitted after the official notification date in recent years. Whether thats classified as technically “off the waitlist” or not, these are students who got calls between March 15 and May 1. If it happens at Chicago, I’m sure its happening everywhere. Too many games to manage these admission statistics because the REAL objective of these selective schools is to generate more and more applications.

@Papa2boyz those are some pretty declarative statements. For example, “the REAL objective of these selective schools is to generate more and more applications.”

Let’s dissect these just a tad. The statement is really a black helicopter argument. I suspect that what the real objective is to “get the best class to meet their needs to continue to manage their brand at or above the level it currently is.” Maybe one symptom of that objective is to make sure that all that could help with that goal have a chance to apply, but it is a tactic, not an objective. I suspect that not once if you were allowed into the inner workings and most top secret meetings of the any of these institutions will you hear or read. “You know what we need, we need more applications! That is how we’ll know we are successful, when we get every graduating senior to apply to our institution.” I will bet you will hear things like, “We know that there are great potential members of our class that won’t apply because they don’t think that they are good enough, how do we reach them?”

Do you actually believe that schools receiving 40K-50K applications for fewer than 2K spots are overly concerned about still missing potentially great members of the class?? That is difficult to comprehend, when, by their own admission, they are forced to reject tens of thousands of candidates of equal quality to those accepted.

Next thing you will tell me is that their actually is a Chinese wall between admissions and development?

@Papa2boyz - what, in your opinion, is the REAL reason UChicago rolled out the Empower Initiative and test optional admissions?

@Papa2boyz appears to be not very happy with the admissions process at top schools, and justifiably so. College admissions objectives don’t necessarily align with applicants objectives, and when the results prove that out, a natural outrage occurs.

I think @Papa2boyz raises many good points. And to take it a step further, why would Chicago send out emails after the RD deadline saying there was still time to apply? I forget the exact manner in which they did it, but I thought this January they were trying to get more people to apply after the deadline…yet couldn’t wait to publish their sub 6% admission rate (still not disclosing how many kids they accepted ED (not ED combined with EA, just ED). I’m not saying Chicago isn’t a great school, but there definitely (like some other schools) seems to be quite a bit of “circumstantial” evidence that they are trying to increase their applications and decrease their acceptance rate. Do we really think that a school that is supposedly after such a great “fit” would need to do a last minute January push when they proudly announce that they reject 94 out of every 100 applications accepted?

@collegemomjam – I believe the email that was sent out went to only a small number of students that had started their application but not completed it, not to a random group of possible applicants.

Schools extending deadlines is hardly a new phenomenon. Expect about 2/3 of the early admissions to be ED1.

Yes, I am assuming they looked at the kids that selected Chicago on the common ap but didn’t complete the application. Penn did it the year or two before. Another example of a school that should in no way be needing more applicants and then boast about the “most selective class EVER!!” in late March. I’m usually not so cynical, but I think the overarching motives are pretty obvious.

I don’t have a problem with any school extending their deadline if they need more applications to fill their classes, and because they truly want to give students more time because the process can be daunting. But when you are a highly selective school you clearly don’t need to do this to get enough of the right candidates to fill your class.

So are you saying 2/3 of ED I for U Chicago was admitted? That’s really high don’t you think? I know the relationship isn’t completely linear, but 67% chance ED 1 vs. 3% RD (I’m guessing but probably not far off)??? That’s a huge spread.

I misunderstood the 2/3 from ED I. I think you meant they took 2/3 of their class. I would love to know the ADMISSION RATE of the ED I round. I think they should publish it and not lump it with EA or even ED II.

@collegemomjam

If I remember correctly, it appeared the extension was given to students affected by events i.e. CA wildfires

There was a thread that covered this better. Here’s a post from it after someone posted a link to the WSJ article that mentioned a number of elite schools extended deadlines (Oberlin, U Chicago, Wash U, GW and RPI):

Beginning of post:

The University of Chicago sent an email Jan. 3 offering to extend the deadline to Jan. 7 to a student who had started but not submitted an application, according to a copy of the note reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“We understand issues can often arise during the application process that prevent you from submitting by the deadline, and would never want those issues to hinder your college choices,” the letter said. “If you still want to apply to the University of Chicago, you can!”

A University of Chicago spokeswoman said the school “considers application extension requests.” She declined to comment further.
My impression from the article is that those students who got deadline extension from UChicago did not request it. I am wondering how many e-mails UChicago sent out to ask students who don’t want to apply to UChicago to finish their applications. It is free anyway. You just need to say you are applying for FA and you should have free time since you have finished applying to all the schools you really want to go.

End of post.

Here’s the link to the WSJ article, but I think you have to subscribe to read it all? I’m not sure they mentioned the fires as a reason, but I’m really not sure.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/oberlin-university-of-chicago-and-other-elite-colleges-extend-application-deadlines-11548766801?mod=hp_listb_pos3

@collegemomjam I’m curious why you think they should publish it? I look at a different way.

ED1 is the path to take if you have decided UChicago is for you and if accepted you will go there. Benefit to the student is you have a way of saying “You’re #1” benefit for the school. Easier way to manage yield.
EA is the path to take if you want to see if you can get into UChicago, top of the list, not necessarily #1, but if you get accepted there you’d strongly consider it against your other options
ED2 is for those who don’t get into their ED1, but UChicago was a strong #2 and everything else is not close.

RD is for those who have little difference in their list and want to play for the best possible merit.

What it isn’t:
ED1 or ED2 a path to take so I have a better chance of getting accepted to a Best in Class University. If ED is used for only that purpose, I think it is the student’s error and who is using it for what it wasn’t intended to do.

So if your saying they should publish these numbers for the student you are only looking at it from one side. I actually wouldn’t have a problem if UChicago (or any private school) went to a ED only admin process.

I’d say there’s a huge disadvantage to UCHIC RD’s due to the more than 1 previous rounds that exist, each having differs.

EA, ED I, ED II all have differs and low, but non zero admit rates. The class is filled up much more quickly (in terms of before the RD date) due to many rounds, than if there were 1 round.

THis is what it seems like.

I think this stands irrespective of the previous comments as it seems logic IMO too.

I agree indefinitely with @Papa2boyz

They’re smart in saying what they want to say, and hid the dubious stuff. The said stuff is mostly correct, but there’s always an unsaid clause to it, or the whole fact (like the avg admitted GPA) is unsaid altogether.