<p>Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but:</p>
<p>University of Chicago admissions is in a period of extreme transition and uncertainty. The two men who have been responsible for college admissions for the past 15 years or so will both be gone next year, and are being replaced by someone with a very different background. A recently installed president seems less enamored than his predecessors with the notion that Chicago should be looking for a different sort of student than its Eastern competitors. It is possible, even likely, that the number of applications received next year will be close to double what was received only four years ago, and triple what was received four years before that, and I think everyone’s impression is that Chicago is getting more applications from students with very high SATs and GPAs. It was not so long ago that Chicago accepted half or more of its applicants; this year, it was just over 25%, and probably headed downward next year.</p>
<p>In other words, the past is a very questionable guide to the future of Chicago admissions. Practices and tendencies that developed in an 8,000-application, 40% admission world will not necessarily carry over to a 15,000-application, 20% admission world. Chicago’s applicants may not be quite so self-selecting as they were in the past, and the admissions office may not be quite so selective in evaluating them. It’s one thing to turn down a pedestrian 2300, 3.9 GPA kid in favor of a 2300, 3.5 GPA kid with great essays, quite another to turn down four or five 3.9 GPA kids in favor of the 3.5 GPA kid. They’re not all going to look pedestrian.</p>