<p>UChicago Posts One of the Largest (Maybe the Largest) Increases in Early Apps This year</p>
<p>Growth in early-action applications to College continues long-term trend
By Jeremy Manier
November 14, 2011</p>
<p>The undergraduate College received 8,698 early-action applications this year, an increase of 25 percent over last years figure.</p>
<p>This continues a period of steady growth in the number of prospective College students of high ability who aspire to attend the University of Chicago. Early applications to UChicago are non-binding, and students are free to apply elsewhere. The deadline for early applications was Nov. 1, though the Office of College Admissions allowed a few extra days this year for students on the East Coast who may have been delayed by that regions severe snowstorms at the end of October.</p>
<p>Students who choose to apply early often view UChicago as their first choice, said James G. Nondorf, Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. Last year the College experienced similar growth in early applications, with an increase of 18.5 percent over the previous year. This years increase suggests that a growing number of highly accomplished students consider the College their leading option.</p>
<p>This is a fresh indication of the passion that students around the world have for the distinctive academic culture at UChicago, Nondorf said. I am often struck by how well applicants of many backgrounds understand our traditions of open inquiry and diversity of thought. Our constant goal is to find students who would benefit from and contribute to the Colleges legacy of intellectual adventure.</p>
<p>While it’s too early to tell for sure, it would appear UChicago will have a drop of at least 3 points in overall admit rate for 2016, down to less than 12.8% from 15.8% last year.</p>
<p>class of 2009: 2461
class of 2010: 2773
class of 2011: 3053
class of 2012: 4424
class of 2013: 3774
class of 2014: 5883
class of 2015: 6960
class of 2016: 8698</p>
<p>Thanks, hyeonjlee. As you all know, some schools have binding and some non-binding and some single decision and multi-decision and no-decision and, damn it, I’m just too lazy to explain it all properly but hyeonjlee will do it for you. But if you don’t already know the difference you’re not getting in anywhere anyway.</p>
<p>by the way, for the class of 2009, the TOTAL application number was 9039, which is smidgen more than the EA application number this year. Scary…</p>
<p>“Maybe if we’re lucky USNWR will put us in a four way tie for fourth place now that we’re playing the numbers game”</p>
<p>We can only hope, ObjectivePerson. Any move up in the rankings helps most schools, from Columbia to Chicago to Emory. Chicago tried to stay true to a more stringent academic mantra in the past, and that approach failed. It’s time to move on from that.</p>
<p>Last year UChicago was tied for 9th place with Duke and Dartmouth. UChicago had the greatest decrease in admit rate and broke the tie and moved up, while the other two fell. This year, UChicago was in a 5-way tie for 5th and UChicago had the greatest decrease in admit rate (keeping in mind U.S. News is a year behind) and… guess who will probably break the tie…</p>
<p>U.S. News is a year behind, but UChicago only showed a 3% reduction in acceptance rate last year, from 18.9% to 15.8%. I don’t think it is that significant considering how selectivity (especially admittance rate) is worth so little on the U.S. News. I think it ultimately comes down to the class size, peer evaluation, graduation rate, etc.</p>
<p>But here is how the admit rate decreased for the 5 tied schools:
Stanford went from 7.3 to 7.1, down -0.2
UChicago went from 18.8 to 15.8, down -3.0
Caltech went from 12.6 to 12.0, down -0.6
MIT went from 10.1 to 9.6, down -0.5
UPenn went from 14.3 to 12.3, down -2.0</p>
<p>Keep in mind, UChicago has the fastest rising graduation rate among the top schools. It’s freshman retention rate is one of the highest in the country and graduation rate will only continue to rise as selectivity drops.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m not going to try to predict U.S. News, but based on their criteria UChicago should be well-positioned for next year, barring any major changes in methodology.</p>
<p>DivineComedy - of more interest to US News will be Chicago’s better performance with graduation rate, alumni giving rate, etc.</p>
<p>Currently, the alum giving rate listed in US News is 33%, and the graduation rate in 6 years is 92%. I think even with the lag, the alum giving rate should rise to around 36% (I think it’s close to 40% currently), and the grad rate should rise a few % points as well. Also, the freshman in the top 10% of the class for U of C’s Class of 2015 is around 92% or so, I believe, up from the 89% currently listed in US News. </p>
<p>The SAT 25-75th percentile will also improve, from 1400-1560 for '14 to 1420-1560 for '15. So, overall Student Selectivity (which was 13th best in the nation for the current US News) should bump up to #10 or #11 for the next edition of the ranking. </p>
<p>It’s pretty interesting - very quietly, and, at first, with almost no one looking, Chicago has built this institution that can really max out in the US News rankings. As US News continues to measure and value stuff like “faculty resources,” “classes with under 20 students” etc., Chicago will do very well. </p>
<p>When I was at Chicago, disgruntled students, unhappy with the school’s #14 or so ranking, always used to say the meat and potatoes were already there - the school has a great rep, small class sizes, etc. If the administration just added the garnish - i.e. polish to the student body - the school would zoom up the rankings. Well, roughly 10 years later, the school really went down that path. Lo and behold, Chicago is now in the top 5, and it seems as if it’s still improving on the factors US News values. It’s becoming quite the juggernaut in this arbitrary (but relevant) publication.</p>
<p>The biggest roadblock to UChicago climbing up into the very top level of schools (top three) would be the relatively small endowment. I don’t see how UChicago can compete with schools that have 4x (or more) the funds to draw upon.</p>
<p>And the exciting thing is, UChicago really hasn’t maxed out yet and it is already in the Top 5. It is still making gains in admissions, graduation rate, etc.–and then there is the ‘virtuous circle’ (as Steve Jobs would say) in which the higher ranking results in higher peer assessment, which results in even higher ranking and more apps, etc. </p>
<p>(Really these rankings are self-fulfilling prophecies.)</p>
<p>I’m not going to argue against UChicago’s having more money, but its endowment is roughly the same as Cambridge University, which U.S. News ranked as the #1 university in the world. Fortunately, Stanford, Berkeley, and Harvard are located in places that I believe still have a higher average cost of living than the City of Chicago, which means the school’s money goes further (for faculty pay, etc.)</p>
<p>Size of endowment actually doesn’t matter much in the US News formula. US News doesn’t rank the size of endowments. In fact, the two rankings of school wealth, “faculty resources” and “financial resources” still incorporate factors such as “faculty salaries and class sizes,” or the amount spent on “student services.” </p>
<p>So, while Stanford has a huge endowment (several times bigger than the U of C’s), they rank #12 in financial resources and #11 in faculty resources (ostensibly because Stanford has a higher % of large classes, which US News interprets as “lessening” the resources available to students). On the other hand, U of C is #8 in financial resources and #2 in faculty resources, primarily because Chicago has smaller class sizes, and probably because Chicago has managed to finagle other factors (maybe medical funding?) into their computation of the ranking.</p>
<p>In any case, the biggest reason Chicago can’t move up is because its academic peer reputation score (worth 25% of the overall score) is still significantly lower than Stanford, Harvard, etc. Chicago’s academic rep score is 4.6, and these other schools are around 4.9. This isn’t going to change any time soon (in fact, Chicago’s academic rep has dropped by .1, from 4.7 to 4.6 now - Yale’s has dropped by .1 as well, I believe, to 4.8). No private schools outside of H, Y, P, etc. have been able to break higher than 4.6 on the academic rep. Consequently, I think #5 or #4 is about as high as Chicago can go. Also, I think this is completely fine - if Chicago stays in the top 5, it’ll continue to see positive gains because of it. </p>
<p>This was a much more exhaustive analysis than I wanted, but I’m curious about the arbitrary nature of the US News rankings (i.e. how come student selectivity matters so much, but generosity in financial aid isn’t measured at all? etc.)</p>
<p>No comment on the peer assessment ‘lol’ since they do rely on high school guidance counselors! However, those are the same people who would be aware of the buzz UChicago is picking up and are greatly influenced by admit rate–and that may be the only thing they consider. Obviously they overestimate MIT, which really can’t be put on the same level across the board as Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford. Anyway, I remember people saying last year UChicago could only reach maybe 6 or 7 for all kinds of reasons. And now it’s already in the top 5.</p>
<p>These rankings greatly influence peer assessment and these days word travels much faster than in the past. Hell, we all check the rankings as soon as they come out–or hear about them from somebody.</p>
<p>I might add that Businessweek ranks UChicago #1 in business, ahead of Harvard and Stanford. Yes, their methodology is different. But it shows Chicago can make it to the very top even in a very competitive field. And those rankings have had an affect on the business school, which is another story.</p>
<p>By the way, if you check the academic rankings from the early part of the century, UChicago was ranked higher than Harvard in almost every field in the 30s and was in fact the #1 university in the U.S. based on faculty, as perhaps Berkeley would be today. And Chicago shall rise again. UChicago really is unique in that it is really just returning to its glory, or perhaps we should say its popularity is finally catching up with its quality.</p>
<p>O.K., o.k., one last thing. As far as peer assessment goes, even U.S. News ranks UChicago higher than Princeton and Stanford in its World University rankings, so I’m not so sure I buy claims that it is impossible for UChicago to equal or exceed them in the U.S. peer assessment.</p>