anaesabc: you child chose Chicago over Cambridge because of the core curriculum? That is so odd since British universities don’t have the same system, and none have a core curriculum. You apply to read a subject. Chicago has a great Core but no one would apply to a British university for a “liberal arts” degree.
As for visiting Chicago, I have, and I have relatives who have attended the College. Chicago is brilliant but it is some of the people on this board that are the exception. When you get to UC, you will discover that almost everyone has great grades and great SAT scores, so that isn’t distinguishing.
My other objection is to how Chicago has trawled for applications just to boost its numbers. That is disappointing. And I’m not the only one saying this: so did their old Dean of Admissions, Theodore O’Neill. And Hannah Gray, their former President.
In all fairness, trawling just partly levels the statistics. HYP are so well known, they attract huge numbers of average applicants.Until the statistics exclude poor quality applicants (like grades and test scores below some threshold), this disgusting practice will likely continue.
It is interesting that some are more hung up on the marketing many colleges employ to generate applications than the practice of grade inflation practiced by too many elite colleges including Harvard and Stanford. Grade inflation cheats the entire grad school application process when a Stanford or Harvard applicant is accepted over a Columbia, U Chicago, or MIT applicant who actually earned his or her As. Don’t pretend grade inflation is not prevalent at these two schools. Everyone knows it including those who attend. It’s one of the reasons so many apply to them.
@scrippieangel It’s not that dire. Graduate schools now the grading standards of college very well, especially the ones you mention. Columbia, UChicago and MIT students have no trouble getting into even the most competitive colleges, including Ivy League graduate programs.
They did say it was a record, so I’m guessing 60.4% (any more and they’d probably have rounded it up to 61%). As I’ve pointed out in the past, Chicago admissions are settling at being between MIT and Princeton on acceptance rate, and tied with Columbia (and I think Penn) for yield rate. Pretty good overall. Now, to get our name in that acronym…
I am fine with being an Ivy Equivalent, I just want my parents’ friends (all of whom are college eduated) to not think I am going to some OOS state school because I obviously could not get into ours
I’ve seen a few comments on this thread lamenting UChicago’s aggressive marketing. I’d just like to say that I am truly thankful for their campaign. I honestly knew nothing about UChicago before my son started paying attention to their mailings. We scheduled a visit to Northwestern, with an excursion to UChicago as a convenient side trip. We were unimpressed with Northwestern and were blown away by UChicago. Had it not been for their marketing, my son would not have even applied to UChicago, let alone be attending.
I agree with LegacyMom. My son in same boat and would of never of really known about UChicago if not for their marketing campaign. Our family is extremely grateful for this unbelievable oportunity!
I also agree with LegacyMom. Five students (including my son) from his high school are attending UChicago and some were not aware of UChicago prior to receiving marketing information. Additionally, UChicago did a great job in continuing contact with the students throughout the process.
I too agree about the merits of the marketing campaign. The materials they sent struck a chord with my son and prompted him (and me) to learn more about the school. He applied without even visiting. Once admitted, he and my husband visited on accepted students day and they were both amazed at the campus and what the school had to offer. UChicago has not traditionally been a destination for top students in his high school. That trend is changing. Last year he and another student chose UChicago. This year, two more students in his high school will be attending. And our younger son will most likely apply this year.
We’ve visited UChicago so definitely on their mailing list and we’ve gotten less mail from them than we have from HYP. We’ve visited Princeton and get less mail from them than Harvard and Yale which neither of my kids are interested in. What I really don’t understand is why we get mailers from tiny non-competitive schools far away from our home when our kids are totally out of range of their student population and have declared their techniness on the surveys . Yes I’m talking about you Juniata among others
It’s interesting to hear that. Perhaps, Chicago is reducing the marketing effort. The strong marketing campaign over the last several years definitely strengthened the brand name, so I am not totally sure tapping the brake is the right idea yet; but I supposed The University has enough data to make smart decisions.
Free publicity from the US News rankings reduces the need to spend money to get the word out.
I also think that even though they send less stuff, they are probably sending to more people. They likely now have enough data to figure out how much is enough to encourage students to look them up and how much is too much that it irritates people.
We’ve gotten tons of (non-duplicative) UofC mail this year, so maybe they’ve just changed what triggers the volume. Very successful campaign in my DC’s case. She chose UofC for EA rather than either of the HYPS schools where she’d have legacy status. Nerdcasting works!
I agree that Chicago’s marketing material is very effective. DS applied EA. Chicago was on my radar before, and we visited, so he probably would have applied EA in any case. And they have been very good at keeping in touch since his application went in. I came here this morning looking for the date that EA results would be released, but I was distracted by this thread.
dcplanner, I agree about all the mail from non-selective schools in the middle of nowhere that don’t even offer a program in DS’s likely major!
Was just thinking about this thread this morning, as we received yet another letter from Columbia. My kid fits their demographics, but has zero interest – despite the fact that core curriculum and urban campus are two of the attributes she loves about Chicago. The tone of the Columbia materials is different – she seems to be on two or three different mailing lists of theirs (one arts, one science, maybe a third humanities) and the fact that the pitch is different in each case is something she finds off-putting, whereas the vibe she gets from Chicago is that they assume many of their students will have diverse interests that resist this kind of pigeon-holing.
