Thanks for the insider information, uofc2019parent. My concern is that if the yield this year increases from 62% to, say, 64% or higher, Chicago will get into the same “problem” of over enrollment. Again. That leads me to believe perhaps UChicago really wants to expand the size of the freshman class, hence the size of the College.
Although 7.8% is lower than 8.4% from last year, the acceptance rate this year should be made lower than that by admitting fewer students to avoid over enrollment. I understand that asking Chicago to admit fewer students is not a nice or popular thing to say, but over enrollment is not a fun thing to deal with for the administration, IMHO. That said, I trust that the administration knows exactly what they are doing.
“That leads me to believe perhaps UChicago really wants to expand the size of the freshman class, hence the size of the College.”
Looking at the past years’ enrollment in the College:
Class 2014: 1414 - wait-list?
Class 2015: 1411 - wait-list?
Class 2016: 1527 - no one off the wait-list - extremely over enrolled
Class 2017: 1426 - no one off the wait-list
Class 2018: ? - 50 to 100 off the wait-list?
You can see the freshman class was above 1400 a bit except for class 2016. I have heard the College was aiming to 1420.
We do not have the official class 2018 enrollment data yet. Since it went to the wait-list (50? or 100?) so it was an action with intended result. If the number is above 1420 we can guess the College indeed wants to expand.
From what I have read somewhere I have a feeling the College will expand to at least Columbia’s level. Yale has announced to expand and so has Stanford.
We gathered from another threads that the total number of applications this year is above 30K and let us just use 30,500 as an arbitrary figure for the sake of calculation. We also learnt from someone who went to an admitted student’s reception that unofficially Chicago announced the acceptance rate is 7.8% this year, which means total admiitted students are approximately 2,379.
If Chicago maintain the yield of 62%, total enrollment will be 1,475. However, if the yield increases to 65%, enrollment will become 1,546. Either case, it is a relatively larger freshman class of 2019.
Thanks for the correction on the yield of last year. I think it was 60.2%, so I took it as 62% Your data makes a lot of sense and it looks like the eventual total enrollment this year will end up quite “manageable” and that’s a good thing.
Taken from a release to interviewers (via the Facebook group):
Applications: 30,192
Offers of Admission: 2365
Admit Rate: 7.8%
Avg. SAT (out of 1600): 1511
Avg. ACT: 33
Top 10% in HS: 98%
49% Female, 51% Male
62 Countries represented
204 Admitted Legacies
And “significant increases in first generation, international, and minority applicants and admits”
Edit: So they’re assuming a slight yield rise for a class of 1450, to 61.3%
Just attended an accepted students event. The UChicago rep said 50% of this year’s applicants were culled out based on academics/scores as “not likely to be able to be successful here.” Among the remaining 50%, essays determined fit – “We read every single one of them.” She said the average SAT among accepted students in our region was 1560 (not including writing), and average ACT was 34. She also volunteered that the most popular essay question was “What’s odd about odd numbers?” but some of the most interesting essays came in response to the prompt “Create your own question…” I hope that’s helpful to future applicants!
@PosAttitude: A cull based on statistics seems a bit off-message. Even if a representative said such a thing (which seems odd), I highly doubt that it reflects the College admissions office’s policy–especially at Chicago, where they seem to be working to expand diversity.
@kaarboer: Re yield, another plausible explanation is that the College actually expects yield to go down this year. The number of current admits for the Class of 2019 (2,365) is actually higher than it was for the Class of 2018 (2,304) at the same point in the admissions cycle. The Class of 2018 yield number was reported when the new students enrolled, and thus appears to fold in wait list admits. Since it’s reasonable to assume that wait list offers are accepted at a higher rate (originally right on the cut line) than EA/RD offers (cross-admit losses to HYPS, etc.), the yield on the EA/RD admits (i.e. the most-desirable candidates in the admissions office’s POV) is somewhat less than the reported reported (final) number. Assuming a constant class-size (1,450-ish), one conclusion that could be drawn is that getting off the wait list will be harder this year. With more admits, if yield on the Class of 2019 EA/RD admits is the same (or greater) as for last year’s EA/RD pool, there would be fewer spots to fill during the summer to reach a 1,450-student target.
@ssn137 – “culled” was my poor word choice. The admissions rep’s words were in quotes in my previous post, and the 50/50 percentages were her numbers, as well. It is certainly possible that I misunderstood what she meant to communicate. As for diversity… at least at this event, it was quite impressive.
At the admitted student overnight they announced that RD had a ~4% acceptance rate and the acceptance rate for those deferred was a mind bogglingly low ~1%.
As an international student, I have a question: does talking about the low acceptance rate make you feel better or superior, or reinforce your self image? It just strikes me as ODD. In Britain, we restrict applications to places like Oxford, Cambrige and St Andrews, so you can only apply if you have an excellent chance of being admitted. So the acceptance rate is not at all comparable. Do students at places like Chicago walk around talking abou their SAT scores? I hope not!!
As a domestic student, I have a question: does talking about how insecure UChicago kids are make you feel better or superior, or reinforce your self image? It just strikes me as ODD. In America, we restrict pompously insulting people to places like Harvard, Yale and Princeton, so you can only be rude if a third party selected you (yes YOU) above 25,000 or more of your peers and deemed you worthy.
This is a thread about UChicago statistics. Why are you, @excanuck99, insulting someone for reporting UChicago statistics for this application cycle? Do you yell at people for chancing on chancing threads? And to answer your question, no, most UChicago kids are more likely to talk to you about Hume (the philosopher) or HUM (the class) than their SAT scores and many, many people apply to UChicago specifically because they care more about learning than prestige. I’m happy to report that the rumors of the death of the life of the mind have been greatly exaggerated.
Why you’re basing your entire perception of a school based on some posters on college confidential is beyond me. Have you visited UChicago? Talked to any current students? 3 out of the last 4 posts on your account are telling people not to come to UChicago. The question you should be thinking about shouldn’t be “Why are UChicago students obsessed with the Ivy League?”, it should be “Why am I obsessed with UChicago students?”
excanuck99, are you a UChicago student? You are very unhappy about this school. My S chose Uchicago over Cambridge because he values the core curriculum and the opportunities at UChicago. I am sure he will not feel insecure.
I do yell and people for “chancing” people becuase it is just stupid. You are asking other students to chance you when they haven’t a clue what goes on in the admissions office.
Your data makes a lot of sense and it looks like the eventual total enrollment this year will end up quite “manageable” and that’s a good thing.