<p>Just for perspective, the Chicago admission rate is about what the Harvard and Yale rates were a generation ago, when fewer kids were applying to college, they were submitting fewer applications, and the notion that going to an elite college is an advantage was confined to a relatively small group. (Relatively few people in my hometown knew what “Yale” was when I was in college. The Teamsters I worked with the summer after my freshman year thought I must be some kind of mental defective, because I had to go so far away to get into college. They knew plenty of fairly dumb people in college, and all of them had been able to get into local schools. So they concluded I must be even dumber than that.)</p>
<p>That’s still something of the position Chicago is in. People in professional and academic elites think of it as one of the great universities in the world, but it has very little public profile. Rory Gilmore and Veronica Mars didn’t talk about applying there, and it hasn’t produced a lot of Presidential candidates or colorful secret societies.</p>
<p>On the one hand, I’m sure it’s galling to get called a “safety” school. But on the other, there’s nothing objectively awful about having reasonably rational, predictable admissions. I’d bet the Harvard and Yale admissions staffs, in their heart of hearts, wish they could be a bit less selective and more rational. It’s nice to be able to say, “This is a good kid who shows some spark. Let’s give her a chance.”, without having to take that chance away from someone even more deserving. So, enjoy it while you can . . . I don’t think the admissions rate is going to stay this high much longer.</p>