<p>Gaw, you’re making me feel awfully dumb here, as I got in and attended in years before any of you are posting data for!</p>
<p>I come into these discussions with a complicated mindset. Let me attempt to explain:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Were I a high school student today being the kind of high school student I was way back when, I would have run far from the idea of applying to Chicago, for better or for worse. I wouldn’t get in now, that’s nearly for sure, and as a high school student I took a distinct amount of pride in doing things that nobody else in their right mind would do. Which was, when I was a high school student, applying to Chicago and not applying to any schools off of interstate 95.</p></li>
<li><p>That said, I think the school’s a much better place overall than it was when i was there. Alumni of my vintage are a “love to hate the place” kind of sort; I knew a bunch of kids who didn’t finish degrees (not out of a lack of academic ability, just out of flakiness or other instabilities) and other kids who didn’t take risks outside of their comfort zone as much as they could have. This is not to say that the University didn’t highly encourage all of the above at all times, but rather, these were some of the people I went to college with. The nice thing about a more selective admissions process is that it can cull away academically capable students who may not otherwise be adding to the overall experience as much as others might. Moreover, a more selective school helps attract the students who are admitted, as selectivity is (unfairly) a heuristic for quality.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As an interviewer, I find myself in the opposite scenario now. Kids (who interview well) will tell me that they want to go to Chicago because their cousin/neighbor/friend can’t stop raving about the place… and I feel that I don’t want to play any role in getting their hopes up or affirming the distinctiveness of Chicago beyond any other school ever.</p>
<ol>
<li> I disagree with TheBanker… I’d say the work of marketing to high school students is never done, as the market refreshes itself every year. And every year there are THE kids who have no idea that Chicago EXISTS, whether it be cultural myopia (living near Interstate 95 can do that to you), that they’re the first in their family to get a college degree, or what have you. Sure, the pool of posters who write on CC don’t fall into this category, and the pool of commenters on college mail are the exception to the rule. Marketers KNOW that most of the stuff they send goes into the trash anyway, so that’s why they send a lot of it. Whether this is a good use of non-profit funds is another question entirely, but if you allow that schools should be able to communicate with students, don’t hold double standards.</li>
</ol>