A Couple Questions about U of C

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
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<p>First Post! I’ve just started looking at colleges seriously, and U of C is at the top of my list. I have a couple questions about the college and my chances that I’m hoping you guys can help me with.</p>

<li><p>In US News and World Report it says U of C has an acceptance rate of 35% (highest of the top 25 universities in the country I believe). How does UC manage this? Does it improve my chances of getting in? Or does UC just have a smaller but more competitive pool of applicants?</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve read that UC has great math and physics programs. How do they compare with those of MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Stanford etc?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Now about my chances.
-GPA -99.5
-Class Rank -2
-Extracurriculars - chess club, school newspaper, school literary magazine, National Honor Society (i know they’re weak)
-Athletics - Serious soccer player. Co-Captain of the varsity squad at my school. Interested in playing at UC.
-Community Service-CYO coach for girls soccer team (a little over 100 hours since Freshman year)
-National Merit Scholar
-SATs(predicted based on six practices)- Math 800, Reading 780-800, Writing 780-800</p>

<li>How high would you say my chances are of getting into UC?</li>
<li>UC seems to be one of the only top colleges to give Merit Scholarships. What do you think my chances are of getting one?</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks in advance for your help!</p>

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<p>Okay, I will try to answers your question concisely, because you could get the in-depth answers through out the forums if you search other threads.</p>

<p>1a.) The acceptance rate at U of C is not 35% anymore, for the Class of 2012 it was around ~28%. Yes, that’s still rather high for a top ten school. Why? Check out U of C’s essay topics. They should show you that not the typical HYPS applicant will or always can successfully apply to U of C. Their essays are not run-of-the-mill, and probably deters people from applying who ready doesn’t know much nor like the school that much. Of course, that is changing because U of C is trying to get their name out there more. When you apply (you’re Class of 2014, correct) the acceptance rate will most likely be lower.</p>

<p>2a.) I will pass on this because I haven’t researched these departments enough to know how they compare to the schools you listed. Suffice to say, practically every department at U of C is pretty renowned.</p>

<p>1b.) From an objective criteria, your chances are strong. You obvisouly have the GPA/SATs to get into a top school. However, U of C puts A LOT of emphasis on your essays. A lot. Fit is also important. Very important. Go look at 2013 EA decision thread or the 2012 RD thread to see what I am talking about. You will see that many high scorers are rejected while some people who scored in the 1300s and 1400s get accepted. So, doing chances for Chicago are hard because a lot of weight is on the subjective elements of your application.</p>

<p>2b) As far as I can tell, merit scholarships are extremely competitive to get. I believe they are given through a holistic review, just like the regular application process, so it is hard to chance. Other top schools also do merit-based scholarships (Duke/UNC-CH does the Robertson, Vandy does several, Rice does some…).</p>

<p>Anyway good luck, and go in these boards and read up some older threads to get a more complete answer to your questions. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Math and physics usually mean grad school, so compare the various schools using this handy table: [REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]REED”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College)</p>

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<p>There’s two reasons why Chicago’s admission rate is higher than its peers’. One is what rockerguy told you – fewer people apply per slot available than at many other colleges. That lowers the denominator on the admission rate calculation, which of course increases the admission rate.</p>

<p>How does Chicago accomplish that? By having a PITA application, by having a reputation for wonkiness, by not having a world-famous party scene or world-famous sports teams, and by being located in a cold, Midwestern, urban place that turns off some potential students and seems far away to others. (Chicago and Northwestern, with a better party scene, Big 10 athletics, and “nicer” neighborhood, get about the same number of applications per slot, which suggests that geography is pretty important.)</p>

<p>The second thing Chicago does to raise its admission rate is not to have Early Decision. Most of its competitors other than HYPSM fill 25-50% of their classes with Early Decision admittees. Since ED admitees are bound to enroll, the ratio of admittees to enrollees at ED colleges is just about 1:1. Chicago has Early Action, which is not mandatory, so it has to admit at least twice as many applicants early to fill the same number of slots. At the RD stage, except for HYPSM and one or two others, most elite colleges admit at a rate of 5:2 - 3:1, which is true at Chicago, too. The bottom line is that, compared to a college that admits half of its class ED, but is otherwise comparable to Chicago, Chicago will have to admit 2.5 people per slot, and College X will admit 2 people per slot. This raises the numerator of the admission rate formula.</p>

<p>So . . . when you lower the denominator, and raise the numerator, you get a bigger number.</p>

<p>Does it mean that you have a better chance of admission? I think it has to, certainly compared to colleges that have single-digit admission rates. The Chicago applicant pool is certainly self-selective, and may be stronger on average than the applicant pools of other colleges. At the end of the day, however, Chicago sends acceptance letters to almost twice the number of people that Yale does to fill the same size class, and it gets fewer than half as many applications. Admissions at Yale means paring the pool down to a group with mind-boggling applications, and then rejecting over half of those. Chicago can still probably accept everyone it considers mind-boggling, and still take some chances on people who seem merely really interesting.</p>

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<p>Here are a couple of threads (heated at times) about Chicago math and other top math programs:</p>

<p><a href=“Strong UnderGrad Math Departments - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>Strong UnderGrad Math Departments - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/515738-math-majors-chicago.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/515738-math-majors-chicago.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/551878-math-uchicago.html?highlight=math+Chicago[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/551878-math-uchicago.html?highlight=math+Chicago&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I understand Chicago has always been VERY highly rated for physics, but perhaps if there’s a physics major lurking about, she/he can post some info.</p>

<p>Chicago really looks at the essays. If you get a chance to visit, S (a current first-year math major) recommends sitting in on a HUM/SOSC class to get a sense of the Core.</p>