<p>Chicago admits a lot of students who apply, but that's because you won't find that many students who think that a core curriculum and an academic/intellectual school is that appealing. When you're between "Yay, parties!" and "Yay, Plato!", students will tend to apply to the former over the latter.</p>
<p>Though I think tactics are changing, for a long time (and maybe even now?) Chicago did not <em>care</em> how many or how few students applied, as long as the right ones were applying. I remember visiting the school, first in '01 with my older brother, later in '05, and again in '06, and each time there were strong indicators that the typical person might not like this school and student tour guides did nothing to try to cover up or hide it. That's exactly what attracted me to it-- while all the other schools tried to convince me that students at their college had 36 hours in a day, Chicago was forthcoming about having rigorous academics and not the biggest social life or best party scene.</p>
<p>As for my high school, danas-- I went to a private in Westchester county, though I lived in the city.</p>
<p>I hate affirmative action. I don't agree with it.</p>
<p>The reason that America has not let go of racism, the reason we have not truly moved past it, is because we are still being discriminatory, even though we're trying to do it in a positive way. Discrimination is discrimination. Race should not even be a factor. The only time one's race or ethnicity is important is when it comes to one's background and culture. That's it.</p>
<p>And until we stop putting race at the forefront of society, we will never get over racism.</p>
<p>I completely agree with the above. Yes, different cultures and economic situations make a good student body...not different skin colors. And in response to an earlier post...I have never seen any white person with less then a 3.6 and 2000 sat's unless they are a recruited athlete or billioanaires.</p>
<p>That's not what I meant when I said to get more credible sources. You claim that Chicago doesn't care as much about SAT and gpa/class rank. Do you honestly believe that, and if you do can you back that up with reasonable statistics? Looking at the SAT ranges for Chicago and its peer schools (Yale), I noticed there is at most a 10-20 point difference on each of the sections, and a 1 point difference on the ACT composite averages. The logic behind Chicago's holistic admissions stance is that SAT's don't count as much because they look for personality in addition to numbers. As a 2012 admit, I can assure you that I've met/know of plenty of people accepted EA this year who have scores > 2200 and are valedictorians/salutatorians of their high schools.</p>
<p>Believe me when I say that this is not my attempt to brag about getting into UChicago but rather a description of why this student's test scores and class rank were not up to par even if he did have a plethora of ec's/an amazing personality. Being in the top 40 percent wouldn't cut it at UChicago, especially not EA during which I suspect a great number of the strongest students apply. As for the 35 percent acceptance rate, the applicant pool at UChicago tends to be very self-selecting and qualified to be accepted at the college. In addition, like unalove said, the UChicago admissions office seems to disregard that its yield is very low. </p>
<p>Lastly, don't use the College Board as the most credible source when researching colleges.</p>
<p>You guys are overestimating affirmative action. If their GPA sucked, they had no good ECs, average essays, not even a 2000 on the SAT, I seriously doubt they got in when there are minorities with amazing stats. That person had to have had a hook of some kind if they <em>did</em> get in. Maybe there's something you're overlooking? Or they're plain lying.</p>
<p>I know he plays french horn, and he's pretty good, (by most people's standards), but I don't know how much he practices or how many years he's played....</p>
<p>I see you believe in affirmative action...and if you don't want to go to a school filled with intelligent white/asian people I suggest none of the top 20 schools.</p>
<p>Edit: Obviously a culturally diverse body can be academically stimulating...my problem is how id accepting someone who has no track record of doing well academically good for them?</p>
<p>1) We have no evidence that the person with questionable grades/scores in question even got into the school, so technically this whole conversation is pointless.</p>
<p>2) I personally think that such an admittance is plausible, but I do NOT think that the admittance hinged upon the applicant's race. He might not have had the grades nor the scores, but he might have shown his stuff in other ways. Race would not have turned a no into yes, but perhaps a maybe into a yes.</p>
<p>3) Affirmative action does not mean you'll get into the school of your dreams if your skin happens to be a different color. It means that race is taken into consideration in making application decisions. Just like colleges admit for diversity in other ways (admitting athletes, newspaper kids, basoon players, drama geeks, singers), race adds a dimension to diversity. The URM's at top schools are all bright kids.</p>
<p>4) I've noted from my own experience that I've seen no intellectual difference between white kids and ethnic minority kids here, so I do not think Chicago compromises academic and intellectual standards for a more diverse student body. (I do think that it tries to attract as many nonwhite applicants as possible)</p>
<p>so this post was basically made to invite controversy, right? cool.</p>
<p>A person's ethnicity isn't just defined by their skin color. There are other components, like their culture and their value. In addition, many ethnicities tend towards a certain socioeconomic bracket, which affirmative action attempts to remedy. It doesn't work perfectly, but when have you ever found a perfect solution for life? What's more, colleges also utilize affirmative action in balancing out the ratios of men to women at colleges. Affirmative action is rooted in the belief that some people have the ability to succeed if placed in the right environment, but don't have the means or the environment to do it.</p>
<p>You don't know that Hispanic kid. Maybe his brother committed suicide and he had to live through it, and his low grades reflect that, and it has nothing to do with him being Hispanic. Maybe he suffered through gang warfare. It could be anything. Now, since it was said in a joking manner I'd probably just think he was lying, but whatever. Is it even worth your time to agonize over it?</p>
<p>I doubt being hispanic is the main reason someone gets accepted anywhere. Seriously, people make it seem like affirmative action means you can get into an Ivy League without working for it just because you're not white or asian.</p>
<p>Nickel X, affirmative action is huge; if Asians had AA, their population will double at all top schools.</p>
<p>This year from my school; 2x NU Medill ED
Asian Female; school newspaper editor; 2300+/top 1%; upper middle class
Deferral
African American Female; newspaper writer; around 8%; 2000ish SAT; 2x M.D. parents
Acceptance</p>
<p>Both has practically the same classes; neither has significant EC advantage over the other.</p>
<p>The only person I know that goes to UChicago is a douchebag that hates my best friend because he(the friend) intellectually overshadows her (the douchebag). Which is weird, because I don't think she will intellectually dominate people at UChicago.</p>
<p>Noobcake, I seriously doubt the race was the biggest issue. I'm sure there were plenty of minorities with higher stats than both those students and maybe they didn't get in. No one knows what was put on a person's application. You don't know what the admissions team thought of their essay. Maybe they felt one showed more passion for the clubs they were in. Maybe they were more impressed with the clubs of another student than the second student. You can't say 100% that being african-american is what made the admissions team reject the other applicant.</p>
<p>At my school, the #1 in the class got rejected from Stanford while the #8 got accepted. Both were in sports, both took AP, both were minorities, and yet #8, who didn't even consider Stanford her first choice, got in over #1. Why? I don't know why. You just never know why someone got rejected while someone else got accepted, but I think someone gets accepted for a reason and it was probably a good one.</p>
<p>1) so many people are discussing so earnestly a probably made-up story, and </p>
<p>2) so many people are willing to offer opinions about how, why, and to what degree the U of Chicago practices "affirmative action" in an almost total absence of information. That's the usual problem with affirmative action threads on CC. Most college admission offices simply don't release enough information about how they practice affirmative action to allow sound inferences about one or another applicant's admission chances or basis for admission. College admission offices like things that way, and typically only a lawsuit can pry open the files.</p>