<p>Last year, Chicago admitted 1,350 students from a pool of 11,143 applicants, so applications increased a bit over 2% while 150 fewer students were admitted.</p>
<p>My guess is that the number of students admitted dropped because the admissions office expects an increase in applications during the regular admissions cycle. Remember that the number of applications during last year's RD cycle was unusually low, so it would be wise to expect Chicago to regain lost ground. Additionally, the elimination of application fees for those applying for financial aid will likely affect regular decision applicants the most, since it's been shown that the regular decision cycle has more applicants requiring financial assistance.</p>
<p>I think the assumed yield rate has something to do with it. </p>
<p>No official word yet but someone has said it was about 60% for class 2018. Given the new “No Barriers” initiatives (no loan, no work study, paid summer internships, 4K/year for national merit scholarship) this year it will sway a few dozens from Columbia, Penn, Duke, and state flagships in next April to Chicago.</p>
<p>Even an increase of 2% on yield rate will reduce the admitted students by 75. Since Chicago’s yield rate is approaching that of Columbia, Penn, Brown it will be hard to improve significantly, say 5%, this year.</p>
<p>Do not know why they have admitted 200 fewer - 100 makes sense.</p>
<p>I do not know if total number of applicants will be back to two years ago’s level. Traditionally Chicago gets about 1/3 from EA pool. So does MIT - another similar sized Open EA school.</p>
<p>I think our yield rate has already edged over Brown and is pretty close to Columbia. </p>
<p>Quite impressive seeing that Brown, Columbia, and Penn all use early decision, whereas Chicago only uses unrestrictive, unbinding early action. </p>
<p>Usually there are some small changes from April’s stats to Fall’s stats due to summer melt, wait-list, gap year, etc. I meant the University’s freshman profile would be very accurate to report real yield rate and admit rate.</p>
<p>The 60.3% figure is the final, post-summer melt figure.</p>
<p>So Chicago’s yield is already higher than Brown’s, and could be higher than Columbia’s and Penn’s this year. But it’s difficult to see yield surpassing the 70% mark without a move to ED/SCEA; the only school to accomplish this is MIT at 73%. Although Chicago has made great strides to decrease the distance between itself and MIT over the past few years (and in fact has higher standardized test scores now), MIT still has a higher brand name among the common population.</p>
<p>Also, if EA apps comprise a third of all applications, that would mean the total applications this year would surpass 34,000, translating to a total app increase of about 15%. But we’ll have to wait and see. I have a sneaking suspicion that the admissions committee is aiming for a 7% acceptance rate this year.</p>
<p>34,000 may be too optimistic. For the past few years Chicago has got close to 2/3 in the RD round. But last year it was off by a few thousands to 2/3.</p>
<p>I think Chicago’s open EA is sort of risk free and a great bargain. So many would-be RD applicants apply to EA. On the other hand Columbia’s ED is a great bargain but with risk. Some top students do not think it is their top choice and other students do not want to waste their only ED on their reach. That probably explains why Chicago gets much fewer RD applicant than Columbia, Penn, Duke, etc.</p>
<p>I agree MIT has higher brand name nationally and globally. If Chicago can reach MIT’s it will get more applicants in RD round.</p>
<p>I doubt we’ll switch to ED. SCEA is possible, but I would suspect still unlikely, as a lot of applications in the early round are from people who are also applying to an ED school.</p>
<p>I do not think Chicago will do ED soon or in a foreseeable future. It is basically against its principle, or something about pride. </p>
<p>Most of the times Chicago wants to compare itself to the very best. It may not be there yet but it is trying hard. Going ED means it cannot compete with the very best on that front. But going SCEA is not mature now. </p>
<p>So open EA seems the best option for it now. REA is another interesting option I have not thought about a lot. Going REA can eliminate ED overlap but generate much fewer applicants - reduce its great bargain power.</p>
<p>BTW when did Chicago exercise ED last time?</p>
Chicago does not necessarily get the same applicant pool at Brown, Columbia, Penn. Chicago is competing against the big Midwest schools. Brown, Columbia and a Penn are competing head by head with HYP. (Columbia engineering is directly competing with MIT.) HYP will always have the highest yields, followed by Stanford, Columbia, Penn. There will be little change in this metric. Chicago has artificial low admit rate because it’s EA and significant recruitment of applicants giving away applications for free. You do not see Princeton recruiting. Princeton has the second lowest number of applicants in the Ivy League and the sixth highest admit rate, but it is the number one school in the country and will remain so.
That’s not true at D’s Eastern private school for the early round, where there is more overlap of the applicant pool than you believe. Most of the MIT/Caltech early applicants also apply early to Chicago. And many of the Columbia, Penn, Brown ED applicants also apply to Chicago early, and then decline if they get in to their ED schools. It is only the SCEA applicants who are different. Those who are rejected or deferred end up applying to Chicago in the RD round.
Anecdotal evidence from a southern private school:
The two EA addmittants were also interested in Penn and Harvard (the Penner was recruited for soccer by both and chose Chicago, the latter decided to RD Harvard instead of SCEA); the two RD admittants had Penn, Brown, and Cornell as their other options.
Granted, no other midwestern schools were really considered by this group (Northwestern/Carleton get a lot of play here, but not typically among the HYPS/Chicago/MIT/Caltech early group). But I still think this helps to put to bed the idea that Chicago is skimming the cream from the rest of the midwest.
Many Chicago applicants apply to MIT/Caltech for EA and also apply to HYPS and other top schools such as Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt, Pomona, not to mention Berkeley, UCLA, etc in RD. I am speaking from the perspective of Bay Area parents in California. Chicago is highly coveted by top students in private high schools as well as top public schools.
That’s the case at other East coast private schools. Kids near the top of the class apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn, Brown, MIT in the early round and also apply to U Chicago.