Cue, to be clear, I am making only the narrow point that it seems unlikely to me that a high school kid’s choice of mode of application to Chicago will be changed by his/her knowing with utter precision the final statistics for all modes of application in the prior year. Their general purport is clear enough and have been described by you and others many times here, whether with approval or disapproval. Approximate calculations of success are in any event what drive us to action - that is, to the extent our actions are determined by data rather than by hope and emotion.
Sure - a high schooler need not know final stats “with utter precision,” and approximate calculations (which are what come out in the spring anyway) are sufficient to spur action/choices.
I think we agree, though, that having NO data to use until mid-October is a poor route to take indeed.
@marlowe1 - a kid who would really benefit from more UChicago disclosure to the public would be one who believes UChicago is a peer of HYPS (the SCEA schools), thinks that s/he is in range for those schools and really wants to attend one of them without a strong preference for any in particular.
If that kid doesn’t read CC and have access to real-time reporting on UChicago’s oral disclosures to small groups, supplemented by @PurpleTitan’s higher math, s/he is unlikely to figure out that by far the smartest play for them is to apply ED to UChicago (perhaps after applying to and being deferred by one of the SCEA schools), since doing so is likely to increase their odds dramatically.
Yeah, SCEA plus ED2 looks like the optimal strategy in that situation, though we don’t know whether ED2 gave you worse odds than ED1 this year and, if so, whether that will be true next year as well (UofC could change its approach and/or one or both of the applicant pools could change). It does seem pretty clear that one or both of UChicago’s ED pools this year was/were significantly easier than any of the SCEA pools. But a truly indifferent kid with no hooks for an HYPS school should probably go for ED1. And a legacy at an SCEA school should go ED2.
That said, I can’t imagine many people being indifferent given the choice between Stanford and UChicago. Realistically, we’re probably talking about kids whose prime objective is maximize prestige. It’ll be interesting to see whether those kids are happy/successful at UChicago.
Here is a thought. You can apply EA to UChicago and ED to an equivalent top school, if you slightly prefer that Inge over Uchicago (you want to be in NY a and therefore prefer Columbia). IF you dont get in, there usually is at east a week until EA UChicago announced. Switch to ED1 immediately. ED1 has a better chance than ED2.
@Chrchill I don’t know about that strategy, only a week from decision announcement and you switch, I imagine the decisions have been made by that point for ED1. You would probably be put in the ED2 pile at that point. Also, the question remains if they will let you switch from EA to ED next year, I think they will, but who knows, with such a low RD rate they could increase that by keeping deferred EA applicants in RD.
@exacademic That was exactly what my DD did, however it was my influence that caused it. After we visited Harvard Princeton, Brown, Cornell and UChicago she was leaning toward UChicago, but she also liked Harvard as a very close second. I convinced her to apply SCEA to Harvard since UCHicago offered ED2. She did and was subsequently deferred in SCEA and accepted ED2 to UChicago. At that point she withdrew all apps so no idea whether she would have been accepted to any other schools.
@Chrchill we knew someone who did that a couple years ago (EA to UChi and ED to Columbia) and found out about UChicago right before Columbia. As UChicago was first choice, he immediately pulled the app. from Columbia but that was a very risky strategy as the release dates were very similar that year. He was lucky. This year UChicago announced a bit later, no? Perhaps they delay in order to allow those switches. You really need to have that ED agreement signed and ready to go. UChicago usually announces the early release data about a week prior (but you can’t bank on that - they didn’t give that amount of lead time for either EDII or RD). It’s a risky strategy. You need to be comfortable with either school because overlap might take you by surprise.
EDII is precisely for those who are deferred from SCEA/EA/ED/EDI. BTW, wondering if anyone applied EDI at UChi, was deferred, switched to EDII and then accepted? That will tell you which had the better admit rate 
W
ED2 is probably even more appealing to those who were rejected SCEA/ED than for those who were deferred. Some will be applicants for whom Chicago was always their clear #2 choice and others will have decided, after being rejected from an Ivy and lowering their expectations, that UChicago is their last/best shot at a highly ranked school, given the ED2 edge. ED2 can also be an option for those who were accepted SCEA but would actually prefer UChicago. So why didn’t they apply ED1? They thought they might have a better chance at their SCEA school, or there was a division of opinion within the family, or applicant had a change of heart/opinion post-Nov1.
My kid applied EA (after much agonizing). Had ED2 been available, I’m pretty sure that, like CUE123, we would have convinced her to SCEA one of the schools where she had legacy. EA was a “which ONE school do you want to put your chip on?” decision. ED2 in effect gives you a second marker to play, which is especially useful if you bet wrong the first time. I’m pretty sure our kid would have applied to UChicago even if she had made a successful SCEA application elsewhere. Not sure whether her UofC app under that scenario would have been ED2 or RD.
Copying an entry made on a different thread since it seems pertinent here as well…
Done with day 1of 2 Admitted Students Day at UChicago. It was interesting in a number of ways. Primarily different was our attitude going in: looking to utterly affirm the love for the school that allowed for an ED application to be put forth in the first place. As opposed to essentially every other college visit mission: to assess for fit while definitely taking care not to lose your heart…it was totally different counsel here today…absolutely hoping for a bloodletting of affection. My take from a distance (the students and parents for the most part have different agendas) is that S17’s loving it (even more) thankfully. He attended a philosophy course, went to a low key team practice in his sport, now spending his evening and night with host students.
All the bells and whistles were out today and it was pretty impressive: beautiful weather to highlight the spring flowering redbud, crab, and pear trees along with the resurgent perennial beds and bulbs. Dean of Admissions (aka Wizard Jim Nondorf), whom I’ve read about here and other places but not met in the flesh, was ever present, effectively glittering everyone with fairy dust in all the hallowed gothic gathering places…he even had the magnificent pipe organ opening the session before an alumnus and trustee delivered a heartfelt keynote address in the Chapel…even the streaming rays of sunlight cutting through the stain and beveled glass seemed in on the orchestration to impress. Nondorf shared that the admission rate for this class was 8% with an average SAT score of 1499…yield of course yet to be determined (but significantly up due to ED/ED2 options for the first time). The evening ended for the parents, after hearing from a panel of 4th year students, mingling with admission and administration personnel over cocktails and finger food in the amazingly beautiful and vast Harper Reading Room…Hogwarts come to life…for real!
@vandyeyes I absolutely concur with you, what an impressive showing all around.
I actually bumped into Nondorf a few times during the day on Thursday. His excitement and energy was intoxicating. He seemed genuinely interested in speaking with both my son and his family.
Very pleased my son made the choice he has for UChicago.
That is very vividly described, vandyeyes, and warms the cockles of this alumnus’s heart. Your son is joining and will become part of the history of a great institution, which now goes all out to strut its stuff to both students and parents in a way it never did in days of yore. I had never laid eyes on the campus when I arrived for Orientation Week after 36 hours on a Greyhound bus. My parents didn’t lay eyes on it till the day I graduated four years later. There is such a thing as progress in the world, it seems. And it is wonderful to see a youngster embrace the place in which his destiny is going to be forged over the next four years and which will mark him forever. Far as I have strayed from the academic life I always carry with me the pride of having been part of a truly distinguished place.
I hope you also took a peek into Bond Chapel, just behind Swift Hall. If not, do it next time you visit. Many events of a smaller scale take place there, but I ask you to imagine many generations of undergraduate would-be poets standing behind the eagle lectern (I hope it’s still there) and reading aloud poems of their choosing in the annual poetry-reading competition for big bucks ($200-100-50 prizes for the first, second and third place winners). I trust the prize money has improved. But that, too, is the spirit of the University of Chicago.
I was on campus on Good Friday. It was a perfectly gorgeous spring day in Chicago. I was in the Main Quadrangle when I saw group after group of admitted students and parents coming out of Rockefeller Chapel walking north on University Avenue . Each group was led by a eager college student walking backward. That reminded me a tour of Pentagon many years ago when the soldier had to walk backward all the way to keep an eye on our tour group. Kudos to the students who also perfect that backward walking art.
Area around the Main Quadrangle has become much more students friendly. For old-timer alumni you would recall the famous opening scene of When Harry Met Sally: Harry was kissing Amanda right in front of Stuart Hall while Sally was waiting. Now driving was no longer allowed in the Main Quadrangle. In addition, the old 58th Street in front of Chicago Theological Seminary was turned into another pedestrian only walkway along the new Saieh Hall. I have to say the campus has become even more pleasing to the eyes.
Speaking of the main quadrangle, I think it’s really an architectural achievement. Check out this video narrated by the landscape architect who led the design and installation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9KbJz6LBjs
I constantly debate with my young son (now a UChicago 4th year) whether UChicago’s or Princeton’s campus is more beautiful. He always votes for Princeton, but just think that UChicago is better because of the way the landscape is so thoughtfully and completely integrated into the history and structures of the campus, as well as Hyde Park in general. Having open spaces and buildings right there designed by architectural icons such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Frederick Law Olmstead also adds to the wonder of the place.
People who visit UChicago for the first time (especially late spring) are astonished at how beautiful the campus is.
@kaukauna I agree with you - Princeton’s campus is a hodgepodge of buildings that feel scattered somewhat haphazardly. The beautiful planning and symmetry of the original campus (around Nassau Hall) was lost while UChicago managed to expand and preserve the original vision of the main quad. UChicago also blends into Hyde Park really well - there’s a clear divide between the university and Nassau St. while UChicago is Hyde Park and Hyde Park is UChicago.
Still, Princeton’s individual buildings tend to have small, subtle details that UChicago couldn’t afford. The windows are particularly noticeable. Buildings like Cobb, Haskell, and Ryerson have very flat, rectangular, and (imo) rather ugly windows that stick out against the neo-gothic facade. Some buildings don’t (Wieboldt, Stuart, Harper, Social Sciences, etc.), but at Princeton, none of the buildings look like they ran out of money and couldn’t complete their vision.
Sorry . . . No campus whose core includes the Max Palevsky Residential Commons and the Regenstein Library gets to the finals of the America’s Most Beautiful Campus pageant.
That’s not to say the University of Chicago doesn’t look great on a nice spring day. It does. The landscaping at Princeton is exquisite, though – something that depends on having a clear separation between town and campus, and also having the kind of money that might just as well grow on trees.
I always thought that Princeton’s campus looked like someone had been playing jacks with the buildings and just tossed out a handful somewhat randomly. Changes of grade are a PITA and not predictable from campus maps. (I started grad school with an ankle fracture – I might not have noticed/resented this otherwise.)
But I’m partial to red brick and domes rather than gray stone and towers.
And amazed at how much universities seem to spend on landscaping.
I’m golden because I’ve got HydeSnark on my side.