<p>Chicago had record minority enrollment this past year and took very few if any students from its wait list. The EA admit rates for minority students were only slightly less than for RD. Chicago also had a record yield, over enrolling about 120 students. It is also inefficient to have to wade through 20,000 application, 10,000 of which have little or no shot at admission in order to be more selective. (A parent in the Parent’s Forum provided an analysis some time ago that suggests that if one were to limit the applicants to those who truly in the admit ballpark, the admit rates for most of the “highly selective” colleges are in fact much higher.) </p>
<p>Chicago makes clear what it is about, there is no promise of a job, or immediate name recognition, the promise is for hard work, often theoretical rather than practical experience, and a “life of the mind.” It is this that makes it unique. Yes, people do recognize the name, and yes, people do get good jobs, but that is not the institutional goal. Others recognize this about the University, it is academically and intellectually second to none. I think this was best expressed by the faculty representative on the recent president search committee Robert Pippen:</p>
<p>“As we traveled… we would ask for what the view form the outside was of The University, and we would hear… The University is the purist of universities, dedicated to research, creation of new knowledge, and education more than any other, that it is a kind of intellectual hothouse, that the value of ideas and the life of the mind mean more here than anywhere else. We heard this so often that I was tempted to ask, ‘So what is it you do?’”</p>
<p>It is this ideal that the University strives to maintain, whether its admit rate is 70% (as it has been in its past, and was just as highly regarded), or 30% where it will (unfortunately, in many respects) probably be in a couple of years. Students must confront this reality twice, once when considering to apply and again when considering to attend. Often the life of the mind sounds good, but time and again I have witnessed admits wrestle with the reality of what that entails and decide, in the end, that it was not for them. Accordingly, I’m not sure that there is much Chicago can or will do to improve its yield.</p>