<p>In one of today's articles in Chicago Maroon, some people are discussing UChicago's possible switch to early decision to boost its yield.
I think it is little too early to do so. #5 or top 9 in the current U.S. News & World Report is the highest ranking for UChicago in the USNWR ranking history, UChicago should wait a few more years. </p>
<p>Uchicago won’t be switching to ED anytime soon; Nondorf knows that it’s not the best option for the University. Basically, there are very few positives for such a move and very many negatives. Some of the negatives:
- Fewer applicants. Obviously not the best idea when the University is trying to increase its name recognition.
- Admission rate would at best stay the same, but likely be negatively affected years after the decision to move to ED. This would be in part due to declining applications and the resulting decrease in name recognition.
- ED is for schools that can’t compete with their peers. Northwestern has admitted increasingly many ED students (in the hundreds) in the past 3-4 years to decrease its admit rate by artificially increasing yield. As a result, Northwestern’s class statistics (SATs et al.) have substantially decreased and they’re likely sitting on one of their worst classes in the last 10 years.</p>
<p>UChicago doesn’t need ED, and it seems that the author’s reasoning is: “we’re butthurt that people choose other schools over Chicago, so instead of actually thinking out what would be best for the university, let’s make an emotional judgment to artificially decrease the students who would pick any other university over us.” </p>
<p>Fortunately, Nondorf knows what he’s doing and won’t implement a policy. You want to increase yield? Provide better financial aid, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. The reason yield has been slow to move upwards is because we’re admitting more qualified classes. If the authors would have taken the time to look at the data, Chicago’s SATs and HS top-10% figure have increased rapidly over the past 2 years. Obviously, the better students you admit, the fewer of them you’ll win over, so it’s very impressive that yield has steadily risen while class statistics rise as opposed to the case of say, Northwestern, where the class statistics have significantly fallen as a sacrifice for a higher yield.</p>
<p>The thing i think that is a major factor in more people choosing Chicago is the merit-based financial aid it gives, compared to many of the other top schools that only give need-based aid. </p>
<p>For many fields, i think that is reason enough to choose Chicago over - say - Harvard or other schools.</p>
<p>I agree that UChicago’s best path to increasing yield involves improving financial aid. However, in terms of competing against the tippy top schools, the problem remains that Chicago’s endowment is something like $4 billion while HYPS sit on endowments equal to or greater than $20 billion.</p>
<p>The double whammy of low name recognition (compared to HYPS) and relatively high attendance costs present enormous, perhaps insurmountable challenges to Nondorf.</p>
<p>UChicago has a current endowment size at 6.58B.</p>
<p>FYI see the link.</p>
<p>[The</a> Endowment | The University of Chicago](<a href=“http://www.uchicago.edu/annualreport/financials/endowment.shtml]The”>http://www.uchicago.edu/annualreport/financials/endowment.shtml)</p>
<p>Interesting analysis, Phuriku. I tend to agree that switching to ED would be a bad move for Chicago, in large part for the reasons you mention. However, I’m not so sure that Northwestern’s decline in class stats is just because of ED. In particular, the decline you mentions coincides with UChicago’s increases in class stats, selectivity, rankings, popularity, and applications. Maybe a significant part of the reason for the Northwestern changes has to do with changes happening at their crosstown rival.</p>
<p>Phuriku,</p>
<p>you are making an outstandingly cogent and insightful analysis. Thanks. I completely agree with everything you said.</p>
<p>I noticed that SAT score wise, U Chicago is right below HYP, and either a bit above or on the same same with Stanford, MIT, and Columbia. And, definitely above the lower Ivies (except Dartmouth which has the same level as Columbia and U Chicago, etc). Basically only HYP trumps U Chicago,and even so by a very small margin. </p>
<p>No matter what people say about SAT, it is a good measure of the general level of the students, much more so than GPA which can vary widely depending on where you went to high school.</p>
<p>I think Nondorf would be a foolish man to sacrifice the academic standing of the incoming freshmen body in an attempt to increase a few percentage of yield when there are other ways to do so (like better marketing, name recognition, and fin aid.</p>
<p>Based on everything I saw, Nondorf is a very smart man on top of his trade. He won’t go in the direction of ED. Doing so now will HALT the momentum U Chicago is riding on now, and set it back.</p>