<p>For this year, I think it’s the common app. General consensus seems to be the common app effect really kicks in at the second year it is implemented. Last year (my S1) was the first, and this is the second year. I won’t be surprised if the acceptance rate is perilously close to 20% this year (from 27% last year). </p>
<p>Next year won’t see such a drastic jump, but given that U Chicago’s wider appeal is set in motion plus the Nondorf drive, I would say, the application number will continue to inch up for a few years. I know I will get flamed for this, but I will say it: I believe all in all this is good news and directionally correct. </p>
<p>I don’t buy into all this brouhaha about the Chicago fit that should trump the imperative to put together a more high caliber and competitive student body that is on par with that of its institutional peers. Any school whose student body is comprised of top <<< 1% of the national population will have a very intellectual slant anyway. If we are talking about top 30% range, then, yes, you could have one school that mostly consists of partying Greeks and and another school that has far more studious students because of the particular care the adcoms had in selecting more serious students. However, if we are talking about <<< 1%, we are not talking about student body full of non-stop drinking buddies. </p>
<p>AND, I believe Chicago can benefit from a healthy collective of “careerists” who would go on to become captains of industry and donate $B so that it can give far better fin aid to more brilliant students who may not otherwise be able to benefit from wonderful U Chicago education. Besides why does everybody feel that careerists are not intellectually driven or capable? Must one be a starving novelist or artist to earn the respect as an intellectual? I can give you plenty of examples among the people I know who are successful careerists and very intellectually gifted and driven.</p>
<p>By the way, all the people who thumb their nose at others who take the USNWR ranking seriously and apply to U Chicago partly because of that, come on! If you ever looked at consumer report or any on-line evaluation and ranking for major consumer product purchase (like a car), you have no right to play such a holier-than-thou game. If you were ever or would be embarrassed of bringing to a prom someone who is universally acknowledged to be an extremely unattractive person, again, you have no right to strut around as an intellectual whose opinions and preferences are too lofty to be influenced by what other mere mortals and minions think. We are are all influenced by the generally accepted collective perception to a certain degree, and on top of that, the rankings do provide some valuable information about the quality of the product/objects we are talking about, though there is always room for bias and error.</p>