Greetings – I am a proud parent of a just accepted D to UChicago College class of 2021. As a Harvard College and Columbia Law graduate, I am surprised at the pessimism displayed by OP. Perhaps, it is the legendary half glass is empty UChicago (UC) mentality:). From my vantage point, UC together with Stanford have been the two key momentum institutions of the past decade. UC has had a meteoric rise in the rankings and is safely ensconced as a top elite powerhouse academic institution globally. It has in fact done better than many universities with larger endowments. Chicago Law School is now tied in 4th place with Columbia. I Booth is in second place with Stanford and ahead of Wharton. Only the medical school is a bit “low” in 11 th place. Candidly, the school that has been slipping is Columbia. Columbia Business School has slipped to 10th and below Yale for the first time. it is In 15-9th place for many academic subjects. Teachers College no longer the top school it was. Columbia Medical school at 7th etc. UC is ahead of Columbia in almost all disciplines in all key rankings (USNWR and world university rankings) , and Columbia has a couple Billion more in its endowment… For undergraduates, UC has become – dare I say it – sexy. UC has made a dramatic comeback at the College level and is now hot. The way I look at as overall institutions, Harvard and Stanford are the top two overall universities in the country. Chicago, Yale, Columbia and Princeton are the band bellow them, (MIT and Caltech are in their own different category) So cheer up OP – the future looks better than ever for UC.