<p>Chicago’s acceptance rate is only high in comparison to Ivies et. al. In the grand scheme of things, it’s low.</p>
<p>To me, there are a constellation of reasons why Chicago has a relatively high acceptance rate:</p>
<p>1) As already pointed out, the application provides a mental obstacle for many.
2) Lack of big-time name recognition and lack of membership to a certain athletic conference.
3) We’re not a big-time player in the holy trinity of football, beer, and girls. Turn-off for many prospective applicants.
4) Geographic location, which could play a factor for a few reasons, primarily a) Chicago’s largest potential market is in the midwest, where students have a lot of excellent and prestigious public college options, b) there’s more wealth and a higher population density on the East Coast, so there’s inherently a bigger market of students who are highly interested in elite private schools.</p>
<p>The quality of the application pool is an unknown, but the SAT and ACT midranges suggest that Chicago is able to pull in students of exceptional quality.</p>
<p>So the “catch” is that you’re not going to walk into a bar with your U of C sweatshirt on and have people cheer for you or spill beer on you. You won’t have the emotional cachet of saying “I go to an Ivy”-- which is important for some. You will, however, work similarly hard.</p>
<p>I mean, I can go on and on about how great this school is and how much I love it. I just think it’s also fair to say that there are a lot of people out there who want a different kind of college experience.</p>