<p>Cue7, It is interesting how many folks rationalize the relatively weaker admissions stats by saying either that UofC’s applicant pool is self selecting (whose is not?) or that UofC pays less attention to SAT scores. </p>
<p>In truth, there’s scant evidence for either. It is true that UofC does not require SAT II test scores (unless something has changed) and it is true that UofC is not located in a coastal location (unless you count Lake Michigan. 
Most don’t). It is also true that UofC is reputed to have a tough curriculum, but MIT, Caltech and others have a similar reputation. </p>
<p>Much of this stems from, dare I say, a bit of defensiveness because of weaker name recognition, and frequent loss of cross admit battles with coastal schools. </p>
<p>Such is life. For example, outside the Northeast and that cohort hungry for an Ivy education of any brand, colleges like Penn or Brown are not well known, and each regularly loses cross admits to “higher” ivies. I’m sure they decry their own “problems” too.</p>
<p>In summary, I think it time the UofC family recognize that (1) UofC will never be an Ivy, even though it was a founding member of the Big 10 (2) Chicago (the city) will never be considered coastal (3) UofC will always be confused with UIC and CSU among some groups, and will never be a brand name recognized by your aunt…Soooo, it is what it is, and we should let kids like the OP find out on their own what “fairly easy” means. After all, intelligent shopping is an important maturity factor.</p>