<p>i don’t understand nor support this theory of self selection resulting in lower applications, thus resulting in higher admit rates. it doesn’t make sense. if what you are saying that peer schools get more apps, what are the peer schools that you are referring to? would they be brown or dartmouth or yale? they have approximately the same amount of students and yes they get twice the apps as uchi, but let’s face it, those schools are more prestigious and much more desirable among the nations seniors than uchi. that is why they get more apps. if uchi were in their catagory, then uchi would also get more apps, but uchi is not in that same class. please don’t cite to me how many well know people regard uchi as the finist institute of learning in america because that is not what i am referring to as desirable. ask any college senior to choose one of those three mentioned schools or uchi and uchi would finish second 9.5 out of 10 times. self selection is a crutch to explain why the admit rate is so high. i’m not even sure it is a good crutch. we live in a society of exclusivity. the more people that are kept out, the more people want to get in. at 40%, uchi is just not on a par with the highly selective schools. i’m not talking quality, i’m talking selectivity. until uchi understands this and starts accepting less students, america’s seniors or at least the cream of america’s seniors will always view uchi as a second choice. i won’t even buy into the statement that plenty of high gpa and sat scoring students get rejected every year because i am not sure that is true. there may be some, but not plenty. the only serious applicants that need to convince the uchi adcom that they will thrive in the “demanding chicago environment” are the marginal kids. the high gpa and high sat kids have already proven that they can handle the work.</p>