@marlowe1 it’s not. The overall rate is probably around 2% (give or take) including deferreds. It’s the new rd apps that have a 4% admit rate - they probably had that last year as well. Nondorf is choosing his words carefully.
@JBStillFlying after reading your post above (#18). I wonder, why UChicago even needs RD? Could they fill their entire class in ED1, EA, ED2, then fill off the differed/waitlist? Why not fill with kids that are committed at time of application. The EA would take care of the those who aren’t sure if they can afford it.
^^ that’s funny, but good question.
@BrianBoiler that would knock out a significant portion of the talent that is applying to many colleges. There is a ton of very qualified RD applicants that may not be ready to apply by the EA date. Best to leave it right where it is to get the best class possible.
Ok, who is there in RD but not EA or ED? Other then procrastinators? Are there better raw materials?
If students are a raw material that helps auniversity reach its goals, and there is arguably just as good options in the earlier rounds, then why have the RD round? What if merit was only given to those who want to be at UChicago above all other options? Instead used as another carrot to pull someone away from Harvard…
Just idle thoughts
When everyone else is taking apps until the beginning of January, and you stop at the end of October, your going to miss out on some stellar kids.
It appears their obsessive mailing of promotional materials may be paying off.
@CU123 I don’t really believe that they are so greatly superior to who applies ED1 or 2 or EA. I may not see the need and am just thinking out loud, but what if you were known as the tippy top who gave large merit to ED kids. Would that not drive those exceptional RD kids to pick early?
From the kids point of view, if you have a very strong academic story and are a winner of national/international level competitions, you can afford to wait for RD and see all the options you get.
I don’t disagree. I forget though, who of the elites offer significant merit scholarships?
@BrianBoiler - Chicago, Duke, Vanderbilt
I think that merit will eventually go away for these three.
@BrianBoiler to answer your question: UChicago might know how to work the application cycle to its advantage, but it can’t create a new version of the cycle itself, nor would it want to. There are two sets of dates established by the “industry”: Nov. 1, and Jan. 1. What UChicago has done is taken advantage of the fact that they have two types of applicants for each date: price-sensitive, and non-price-sensitive. Ergo, the four admission plans.
Now, what they could possibly do is move RD up to a Feb. decision, like they do for EDII - but why would they? If you are price sensitive you want to know where else you got in and what they are offering.
@Cue7 is that still true re: large merit at Chicago? They do not give out Stamps anymore, and the other awards that I’ve heard of are 10-20% discount on tuition. Not a small change, but unlikely to sway someone from HYP by itself.
"large merit at Chicago? They do not give out Stamps anymore, and the other awards that I’ve heard of are 10-20% discount on tuition. Not a small change, but unlikely to sway someone from HYP by itself. "
Hard for any of us to know since we don’t have access to all the data (we may know of a few that got scholarships or a few that didn’t, but that’s not a large enough sample to be representative.) But I do know at both the official info session and tour we attended the college reps specifically said multiple times and in both venues that UChicago meets full financial need but not to expect large merit scholarships. The reality may differ, but the admissions office is clearly trying to set the expectation of a needs based but little to no merit environment.
They got rid of the $4,000 /yr merit guarantee for NMF’s in the middle of the application cycle last year so would be very surprised if the amount of merit aid rivals a few years ago. Need-based, however, might be more generous than historically. The fact is that while my D’s NMF scholarship was cut in half, her need-based was pretty generous. It all came out a bit better than we were expecting. We clearly have the impression that merit aid isn’t what it used to be, but that need-based FA is ample, considering the ranking and selectivity of the school.
If you can replace an entire admitted class from one off the waitlist and see no appreciable degradation, why the need for merit scholarships? Personally I would rather see all the FA funds go to meet financial need then any go to merit. In fact I would rather have ALL universities put their FA funds into the FN bucket, no matter how meager. If corporations or philanthropic organizations still want to give scholarships based on merit I have no issue with that, although most don’t already.