But there aren’t very many of those. Chicago not only is highly selective, but it also has the reputation of being a very tough school academically - definitely not a party school – and there probably very few low end students who even apply. There may be students who are automatic rejects for other reasons – probably they get more hail mary apps from students with high test scores and sub-par GPA’s than the other way around. (Because kids and parents place greater importance on test scores than colleges do). But in any case, they still have admissions readers who need to very quickly weed through apps that don’t go into the auto reject pile.
Because its not the stats game that applicants and parents think it is. The question would be: what did those applicants offer to Chicago that others didn’t. Their past accomplishments, no matter how impressive, are valuable only to the extent that they fill a need for the college – if there are too many other student like them (similar EC’s, similar academic interests) – then the college may start looking at demographic factors (to fill diversity goals). It’s probably tough to apply to Chicago as a prospective econ major; I’d imagine they have a lot of those.
Or they may start looking at yield prediction. It doesn’t help them to accept a bunch of Harvard wannabes who actually end up being accepted to Harvard… so sometimes there is a downside to having an application that is too flawless. (
When my D. was accepted to Chicago, there were a lot of kids rejected or waitlisted who had much higher scores. I felt sorry for one parent in particular on CC, as her son had very strong stats and had his heart set on Chicago, but had been waitlisted… and I knew as soon by then that my D. would be turning down her spot. (I did encourage DD to be prompt in notifying Chicago). Many of the kids who had been admitted posted their Chicago essays on CC. My daughter posted hers. It was not like any of the others.