UChicago is Tops at Top Prep Schools

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

#1 Andover (2018-2019)

    1. UChicago 17
    1. Yale / Brown 14
    1. Harvard / Tufts 11
    1. Cornell 10
    1. Columbia / Georgetown / UVA / Berkeley 9

#2 Exeter (2018-2020)

    1. UChicago 38
    1. Columbia 34
    1. Yale 31
    1. Georgetown / Tufts 26
    1. Harvard / Brown 23
    1. Penn 21
    1. Princeton 20
    1. Cornell 19

#3 St. Mark’s School of Texas (2020):

    1. UT Austin 9
    1. Dartmouth /MIT / SMU 5
    1. Georgetown / Harvard / Yale 5
    1. UChicago / NYU / Alabama

https://www.smtexas.org/academics/upper-school--grades-9-12/college-counseling

#4 College Preparatory School

    1. UChicago 24
    1. Swarthmore 14
    1. Berkeley 16
    1. Georgetown 15
    1. WashU 14
    1. Harvard / NYU / Tufts 13
    1. Cornell 12
    1. Barnard 11

#5 Hotchkiss (2020)

    1. UChicago 13
    1. Penn 8
    1. Cornell 7
    1. Brown / Kenyon 6
    1. Georgetown / Yale 5
    1. Dartmouth / Princeton / Harvard 4
    1. Middlebury / Boston / Bucknell / Colby Wesleyan 4

#5 Hotchkiss (2016-2020)

    1. UChicago 44
    1. Cornell 36
    1. NYU 34
    1. Georgetown / Penn 30
    1. Harvard 26
    1. Yale 24
    1. Columbia 20
    1. Princeton 19
    1. Dartmouth / Middlebury 18

#6 Harvard-Westlake (2020 / 2016-2020)

    1. NYU (25 / 92)
    1. University of Chicago (13 / 53)
    1. University of Michigan (13 / 52)
    1. Washington U. St.Louis (13 / 60)
    1. USC (10 / 71)
    1. Cornell ( 9 / 40)
    1. Brown ( 8 / 32)
    1. Georgetown (7 / 29 )
    1. Stanford (7 / 35)
    1. Yale (7 / 23 )
  • Matriculation

#7 Trinity (2013-2017)

Doesn’t give exact number but gives tiers

UChicago is one of 15 schools that to which more than 15 students enrolled

https://www.trinityschoolnyc.org/our-programs/college-counseling/matriculation

#8 Stanford Online School

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#9 Choate Rosemary Hall (2013-2018)

  1. Yale 54
  2. NYU 45
  3. Columbia 39
  4. Boston College 37
  5. UChicago 34
  6. George Washinton 31
  7. Harvard 27
  8. Brown / Cornell 26
  1. Penn 25

#10 St. Regis

UChicago’s worst showing among the top schools

Only 1 student went to UChicago; more than 1 student went to 28 other schools

https://www.regis.org/articletest.cfm?id=8969

#11 Horace Mann (2013-2017)

  1. UChicago 93
  2. Columbia 50
  3. Penn 48
  4. Cornell 47
  5. Harvard 43
  6. NYU 41
  7. Yale 36
  8. Georgetown 27
  9. WashU 26
  10. Brown / Princeton 21

#11 Horace Mann (2017-2019)

  1. UChicago 44
  2. Cornell 43
  3. Penn 25
  4. Brown 21
  5. Harvard 20
  6. Michigan 18
  7. Columbia / NYU 17

  1. Georgetown 15

  2. Emory 13

#12 Collegiate School (2016-2020):

  1. Columbia / Harvard 17

  2. Penn / Yale 14

  3. Brown 12

  4. UChicago / Cornell 11

  5. Duke / Stanford 9

  6. Dartmouth 8

#13 Brearley School (2015-2019):

  1. Harvard 34

  2. Columbia 22

  3. Yale / Princeton 13

  4. UChicago 11

  5. Brown 9

  6. Georgetown 8

  7. Penn / Williams 7

  8. WashU 6

https://www.brearley.org/about-hp19/college-matriculations-2015-2019-hp19

  1. Castilleja School

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  1. Crystal Spring s Upland School

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  1. Lawrenceville School (2017-2019)
    1. NYU 37
    1. Princeton / Penn / Georgetown 30
    1. Cornell 20
    1. Brown 19
    1. Columbia 18
    1. UChicago / Boston 17
    1. Yale 16
  1. Groton (2016-2020)
    1. Georgetown 26
    1. UChicago / Harvard 24
    1. Brown 17
    1. Princeton 14
    1. Yale 13
    1. NYU 12
    1. Hamilton 10
    1. Columbia / Dartmouth 9

https://www.groton.org/matriculations

  1. Nueva School (2020-2021)
    1. Stanford 36
    1. UChicago 23
    1. Berkeley 12
    1. Brown / Tufts 9
    1. Harvey Mudd / Boston / Northeastern 8
    1. Olin College of Engineering
    1. Harvard / Princeton / Occidental / Worcester Polytechnique 6

#19 Flintridge

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#20) Noble and Greenough School (2016-2020)

    1. Harvard 50
    1. Boston / Dartmouth 33
    1. Middlebury 29
    1. Brown 25
  • 6 Williams 23
    1. Georgetown / Tufts 19
    1. Colby / UVA 17
    1. Hamiton 16
    1. BU 15
    1. UChicago 14

https://www.nobles.edu/school/college-counseling/five-year-matriculation-list/

Bonus:

#25 Dalton (2016-2020)

  1. Harvard 34

  2. Cornell 3

  3. Brown 31

  4. Penn / Yale 26

  5. Wesleyan 19

  6. Northwestern 18

  7. Columbia 17

  8. UChicago / WashU 16

Not private but you know…

Stuyvesant

UChicago believed to be one of the top few schools here

"Including the eight Ivy League schools, plus Stanford, MIT, and UChicago, around 146 (17.8 percent) of the 820 Stuyvesant graduates in 2017 ended up attending one of these universities… Each Ivy accepting 10 or fewer students, except for Cornell, which accepts more than the rest of the Ivies combined.”

https://www.stuyspec.com/opinions/go-college-crazy

Dean Nondorf commented in 2018 that 346 of Stuyvesasnt grads apply to UChicago—42% of the graduating class. (That was an increase from almost 200 Stuyvesant applications in 2013.)

2

Hmm. Andover, Exeter, Horace Mann, Groton. Old money is coming to UChicago. I hope they only accept the quirky scions, and not just any kind of old money.

How does UChicago do with STEM powerhouses the likes of Stuyvessant, IMSA, TJ?

3

It’s believed UChicago is in the top 3–and maybe no. 1–at Stuyvesant. The student paper says the top 11 schools are the 8 Ivies plus UChicago, MIT, and Stanford. It also so says no Ivy accepts more than 10 students except Cornell. Certainly UChicago takes more than 10. So UChicago is in the top 4 at least. In general, UChicago gets more students from the other top Eastern prep schools than MIT and Stanford, so it is likely the same holds true at Stuyvesant. I’m guessing UChicago is somewhere between 1 - 3. Huge change from even 15 years ago.

5

It’s matriculations. The schools are telling where their students went to college. They do not tell where they applied. UChicago has risen rapidly in popularity. Five years ago in 2016, UChicago was #4 at Andover and #4 at Exeter. Now in 2020 it is #1.

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6

A look at how the numbers have changed over the years.

The College Preparatory School in Oakland, CA: 2004-2008 matriculation list.

  1. Stanford University: 24
  2. Harvard University:21
  3. UC Berkeley:20
  4. Columbia University:18
  5. Princeton University:13
  6. UC Davis:11
  7. Carleton College:10
  8. UChicago / Penn / UCLA / UCSB / UCSD 10

The College Preparatory School in Oakland, CA: 2016-2020 matriculation list.

  1. UChicago 24
  2. Swarthmore 14
  3. Berkeley 16
  4. Georgetown 15
  5. WashU 14
  6. Harvard / NYU / Tufts 13
  7. Cornell 12
  8. Barnard 11
  9. Stanford / Brown / Williams / Amherst 10
7

How the numbers have changed over the years

Horace Mann Matriculation List: 1998-2002

  1. Columbia 60
  2. Harvard 54
  3. Cornell 53
  4. Yale 40
  5. Wisconsin 38
  6. Penn 34
  7. NYU 26
  8. George Washington 25
  9. Brown 24
  10. Princeton 21
  11. Dartmouth / Georgetown 20
  12. Colgate 15
  13. Stanford / Carnegie Mellon 14
  14. Emory / Skidmore 13
  15. Tufts 12
  16. Hamilton / Michigan / Wesleyan 11
  17. Duke / Barnard / WashU 10

Only schools where 10 students or more went were listed, so UChicago was <10

Horace Mann Matriculation List: 2013-2017

  1. UChicago 93
  2. Columbia 50
  3. Penn 48
  4. Cornell 47
  5. Harvard 43
  6. NYU 41
  7. Yale 36
  8. Georgetown 27
  9. WashU 26
  10. Brown / Princeton 21

Horace Mann Matriculation List: 2017-2019

  1. UChicago 44
  2. Cornell 43
  3. Penn 25
  4. Brown 21
  5. Harvard 20
  6. Michigan 18
  7. Columbia / NYU 17
  8. Georgetown 15
  9. Emory 13
8

How thing have changed over the years

Exeter matriculation: 2011-2013

  1. Columbia 34
  2. NYU 34
  3. Harvard / Yale 33
  4. MIT 27
  5. Tufts 26
  6. Princeton 25
  7. Dartmouth 24
  8. Brown 23
  9. Penn 22

Exeter matriculation: 2018-2020

  1. UChicago 38
  2. Columbia 34
  3. Yale 31
  4. Georgetown / Tufts 26
  5. Harvard / Brown 23
  6. Penn 21
  7. Princeton / MIT 20
  8. Cornell 19

As UChicago has skyrocketed over the past 10 years at Exeter, Harvard is down 10, MIT down 7, Princeton down 5, Dartmouth down 16, Yale down 2,
NYU down 20.

9

How things have changed over the years

Andover matriculation list: 2011

  1. Stanford, 15;
  2. Yale, 14
  3. Harvard, 13
  4. Columbia 12
  5. Cornell, 11
  6. USC, 10
  7. UPenn, 9
  8. Boston College, 8
  9. Brown / Carnegie Mellon / Georgetown / Princeton / Washington U., 7
  10. UChicago, 6

Andover matriculation list: 2018

  1. UChicago 17
  2. Yale / Brown 14
  3. Harvard / Tufts 11
  4. Cornell 10
  5. Columbia / Georgetown / UVA / Berkeley 9
  6. Boston College / MIT / Penn / NYU 8
  7. BU / Mass Amherst 7
  8. Stanford / Dartmouth / Barnard / Carnegie Mellon 6
10

How things have changed over the years

Choate matriculation list: 2011-15

  1. NYU - 51
  2. Georgetown - 43
  3. Columbia/George Washington - 39
  4. Yale - 38
  5. Boston U - 31
  6. Brown - 26
  7. Wesleyan - 24
  8. Cornell/Tufts - 23
  9. Trinity College - 22
  10. Boston College - 21

Choate matriculation list 2016-2020:

  1. Yale - 53
  2. NYU - 47
  3. Columbia - 41
  4. UChicago - 39
  5. Boston College - 35
  6. Brown - 29
  7. UPenn - 28
  8. Harvard - 27
  9. Georgetown - 26
  10. Cornell - 23
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11

More students from top prep schools going to UChicago doesn’t mean UChicago is their top preferred choice. All it means is that UChicago is targeting these students and accepts more of them than it used to.

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12

Yeah, so when Stanford was number one, it was because it was popular. But when UChicago is number one, it’s because it’s not popular. Nice try, though. UChicago can’t force anyone to attend. 20 years ago, UChicago didn’t even exist at Horace Mann. Now it’s #1.

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13

I’m afraid I agree with @1njparent. It’s not that Stanford or Harvard is less popular with prep school students, it’s that Stanford and Harvard (and Yale and Princeton etc) are admitting fewer of these prep school students. Chicago is admitting more of them relative to other elite schools.

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14

You’re stuck in 1950. Poor analysis of the data.

  1. during the past ten years UChicago’s admit rate has plummeted and it’s yield rate has skyrocketed.
  2. we know for instance that Bill Gates’ son chose UChicago Over Stanford and Harvard, a sign of its increased popularity.
  3. we could also discuss the many faculty members UChicago has poached from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley, and Stanford Iin recent years. For instance, Harvard lost its brand new nobelist in Econ to UChicago after less than one year—at the height of his career.
  4. so if it’s as easy as you say, why haven’t all the schools done it?
    Instead UChicago’s standing has increased relative to the other schools whose standing has dropped.
  5. you’re delusional if you think everyone wants to go to Harvard or Stanford. There are 200 million 17 years old in the world. If the top 1% Applied to Harvard or Stanford they would receive 2 million applications a year. They don’t. They get
    40,000. Of course this could be said of all the top schools. There is a great diversity of opinion about the top schools. I was the top student in my school and I never even considered applying to Stanford. I didn’t consider it good enough. It’s always been shallow and lightweight. Stanford and UChicago admission officials have done studies showing few rural or inner city students apply to ANY of the top schools. So there is a vast untapped applicant pool out there
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15

I think you are both right. HYPS is admitting fewer prep school kids, as they have increased slots for first generation and international students over the years. It has to be hard to get admitted to HYPS now from Exeter and Andover unless you are a legacy, development case, recruited athlete or the very top of your class, unlike years before. The ones that aren’t admitted as still outstanding students!
UChicago has doubled their class size and seemingly has targeted these great kids, IN ADDITION TO, making their school far more desirable by building new dorms, athletic and arts centers, etc. Consequently, I think you are both right. UChicago has to be a top choice for any seriously talented student. And as every graduating class can attest, it is a great experience and leads to great career and graduate school outcomes.

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16

Nothing anyone has posted on college
Confidential over the past decade has done anything to stop UChicago’s rapid rise in appeal to students. It may bother some people, but there’s nothing they can do about it.

17

Hey, hey, hey I have no dog in this fight!

I have been around prep schools for 20+ years and that’s where I’m coming from. @arbitrary is exactly right, many elite schools don’t really want prep school kids (to make a massive overgeneralization), feeling that these kids already have incredible advantages and they don’t really need more.

Other schools wanting to raise their profile have swept into the gap. These schools rightly believe that raising their profile with prep school families raises their profile with the “elite” of this country, thus boosting their reputation overall. Chicago is not alone, I’ve seen SMU do this very successfully as well. SMU targets the B+ students, while Chicago targets the A students.

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18

Chicago gained a reputation as a fun, vibrant city (except for now when everyone is getting murdered) and UChicago, with its top academics and city location, appealed to a lot of applicants. It’s an easy flight from most places, students seemed to accept the weather, and it’s just an elite institution.

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19

Because they accept a ton of applicants from those schools. BTDT

20

Interesting finding indeed. :+1:

Does this popularity among the top prep school students mean that the student pool at UChicago is not as “diverse” as HYPS? Or are we implying UChicago is more concerned with building an academic powerhouse than carrying out a social mission? Anyway, just trying to make sense of this finding.

Assuming @cinnamon1212 is correct, this sounds like a good strategy to build your profile (and increase your endowment!). Great school…with a great strategy to make it even greater. :wink:

21

UofC is a great school, but it is not a number one choice school for many boarding school kids. It has also become far easier to get into than other Top 15 schools as an unhooked Regular Decision applicant. Its Regular Decision without a hook admission rate to several elite boarding schools is 5-10 times HIGHER than some of its peers.

I’ve looked at detailed matriculation data from several top boarding schools. Kids are thrilled to be admitted to Chicago, but it is not often their top choice. UofC has chosen to admit a ton of kids from Exeter, Andover, Groton, Choate, Hotchkiss over the last few years, at far higher rates than its peers. I think it’s smart, because these schools have very compatible college prep. Elite schools that are not falling over themselves to admit boarding school kids are Northwestern, Duke and Vanderbilt.

I am not touching on RD with hooks, or Early Decision rates, because there is so much complexity to these situations. However, UofC ED has been very welcoming to boarding school kids as well. Focusing on RD with no hook, Chicago has definitely opened its arms to boarding school kids more than any of its Top 15 peers.

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