I’m just following along here and think it’s worth pointing out that a number of schools have seen 10-15% increases in early applications over last year, with interesting exceptions being Harvard and Columbia. So, if Chicago saw a significant increase in early apps, it wouldn’t be surprising.
I made this list a few weeks ago and haven’t updated it since. Maybe it isn’t a fair comparison because some are EA, some ED. Percent increase in early applications over last year:
Rice 19.5%
Cornell 17.4%
Duke 16.3%
Penn 15.1%
Boston College 15.0%
MIT 13.9%
Dartmouth 13.6%
Yale 12.7%
Brown 10.5%
Notre Dame 9.6%
Princeton 8.0%
Northwestern 6.0%
Johns Hopkins 5.3%
Harvard 2.4%
Columbia 0.0%