The Year in Admissions

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
1

<p>I posted this on the UPenn thread, but given all the interest surrounding Chicago’s jump in application numbers, I figured I’d post this here too. Here’s a collection of the news in admissions so far this year:</p>

<p>To put some of the information in one place, here’s a quick compilation of the news so far and some informed speculation:</p>

<ul>
<li>At Brown, Apps are up 20% to 30,000</li>
</ul>

<p><a href=“http://blogdailyherald.com/2010/01/09/with-apps-up-20-percent-admission-calls-alumnae-hall-into-service/[/url]”>http://blogdailyherald.com/2010/01/09/with-apps-up-20-percent-admission-calls-alumnae-hall-into-service/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Overall, Brown has around a 60% yield, and a class of around 1500, so that would make for an acceptance rate of about 8% this year (2500 accepts/ 30,000 applications).</p>

<p>Duke saw a 17% increase in applications to 23,750:</p>

<p><a href=“http://news.duke.edu/2009/01/applications.html[/url]”>http://news.duke.edu/2009/01/applications.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Duke has a class of around 1600, and it’s yield is usually around 40-45%. This would make for an accept rate of about 16% (3800 accepts / 23,750 applicants).</p>

<p>The University of Chicago had a 42% increase in applications for a total of 19,306 apps:</p>

<p><a href=“http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1836[/url]”>http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1836&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Chicago has a class of around 1300, and a yield of around 35%. This would make for an accept rate of around 18-19% (3600-3700 accepts / 19306 applicants).</p>

<p>Harvard had a 5% increase in applications, to around 30,000:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/1/14/fitzsimmons-admission-admissions-students/[/url]”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/1/14/fitzsimmons-admission-admissions-students/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Harvard usually has a class of around 1600, and a yield of around 75-80%. Harvard’s overall accept rate this year should be around 7% (2100 accepts / 30,000 applicants).</p>

<p>Princeton saw a jump of 19% in applications this year, with a total applicant pool of 26,166.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/01/15/24906/[/url]”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/01/15/24906/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Princeton usually has a yield of about 60-65%, and a class size of around 1200-1300. This year, that would mean an accept rate of about 8%.</p>

<p>Northwestern saw about a 7% increase in applications, which, extrapolating from information from last year, means around 25,000 apps this year:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c…,1037524.story%5B/url%5D”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c…,1037524.story</a></p>

<p>(Scroll down in the story to see the info on NU)</p>

<p>Northwestern usually has around a 35-40% yield and a class of around 2000. So this would mean an accept rate of around 23% (5800 accepts / 25,000 applicants).</p>

<p>According to this board, Penn sees a 10% increase in apps, to around 25,000. Penn usually has a yield of around 60-65% and a class of about 2500. So this would mean an accept rate of around 15-16% (3900 accepts / 25,000 applicants).</p>

<p>Overall, these numbers indicate some significant shifts in the admissions landscape. For the first time ever, Brown will pretty much be right alongside HYPS in terms of selectivity with a 8% accept rate. Harvard and Princeton will have accept rates around 7-8% this year as well. Also, Chicago for the first time ever will be roughly in the same ballpark as Duke and Penn on the selectivity front, and there is now a bit of separation between U of C and Northwestern on the admissions front (18-19% accept rate at Chicago to a 23-24% accept rate at Northwestern). Just 3 years ago, Penn had an accept rate of 18%, Duke of around 20%, and Chicago’s accept rate was much higher than either - at around 35%.</p>

<p>So we’re seeing, in just one year, Brown converge upon HYPS in terms of selectivity, and Chicago’s accept rate plummets from 27% last year to 18-19% this year. Penn sees strong gains, and Duke sees some very strong gains as well.</p>

2

<p>Good analysis! Keep them coming! I’ve been watching the board looking for who is up or down. So far, the ones that are down haven’t reported the results. I wonder if UPenn’s gains are primarily from Wharton undergrad.</p>

3

<p>But can these school really hold theirs yield numbers? Seems like many students are just applying to more schools.</p>

4

<p>I found this thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/849181-applications-growth-class-2014-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/849181-applications-growth-class-2014-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Geesh. Our poor kiddos. What a general time and specific year to be entering college.</p>

<p>I also wonder what soomoo asked. Can one of y’all math wiz types address that? With these increases, there IS no other answer, right…except that kids are ADDING to their overall application numbers. Mini baby boom aside, even adding the fact that more and more colleges are offering increased financial aid…a 20%-42% increase is surely caused by kids adding 1,2,3,4 colleges to their list, right? Those that know how low are their odds for top 10 will now be applying to all of them instead of 3-4?</p>

<p>And, since it’s basically the same elite kids who will be admitted to the majority, don’t we think there will be more cross admits, and therefore a (significant?) reduction in yeild? </p>

<p>I’m thinking, if one is waitlisted at an elite this year…that’s a GREAT place to be because there should surely be a lot of waitlist movement. But I don’t profess to really understand statistics. Am I missing any factors?</p>

6

<p>on the flip side, I noticed on the board the other day several schools selectivity had gone up, accepted more to get their class size put together. the most dramatic went from 41% to 60% (I wonder if that ones an error as most of the others were a 3 - 5% change). Seems like kids applying to many, many schools. My D applied to seven, but she knows many that applied to upwards of a dozen.</p>

7

<p>S2 applied to ten schools. Yield at any of these schools will depend on cross admits and FA/merit awards.</p>

8

<p>I applied to 9 schools: UPitt, Penn State, UMichigan, Boston U, Wash U, Duke, UChicago, Yale, and Harvard</p>

<p>And, if anyone actually knows me somewhat, you’ll realize that I’m way too unintelligent to even be considered for half of those schools, so remember when you’re looking at these application numbers - the rise in applications may simply be a result of morons like me applying to places that will instantaneously reject them so, if you’re qualified, then I wouldn’t worry too much about application increases.</p>

9

<p>motion12345. Hahaha… You’re funny. I was discussing this yesterday with my daughter. How one increase would be people like her. Those with the very edge of the sort of possible stats. She had a safety, plus a match dream school. So she added some elite schools because of their increased aid for middle income. But, due to a terribly bad semester that dropped her GPA, these schools are pretty much pie-in-the-sky. So I’m SURE this is one level of kid who increases the number of applications. But there is also the other end. Kids who are VERY high achievers who are middle income. THEY never applied before, knowing they would get no aid. So there are some “top of the pile” kids who will be added too.</p>

10

<p>If there are increased “long shot” apps, the absolute pool of competitive students may not change as much as the raw numbers indicate.</p>

11

<p>I know a girl who’s applying to 17 schools, and most people at my high school are applying to about 8-9 schools (including me).</p>

<p>I was going to apply to 11 schools, but I cut it to 9 when I realized that I don’t like Stanford or UT Austin. Half my schools are insane reaches, and thinking back on it, I really should have applied to more safeties. I would be screwed if it weren’t for Chicago. I applied to MIT, Chicago, Emory, Cornell, Duke, William and Mary, Harvard, Princeton, and CU-Boulder. That’s about ~6 reaches… which is quite disturbing looking back.</p>

<p>The people at my school are applying to more and more reach schools because our counseling office encourages it. They know that the state school is really good, so they have no problem telling people to aim high, and depend on state U if/when they don’t get in. I wish they counseled us to have a more balanced list. </p>

<p>eh, what can you do?</p>

12

<p>There’s no reason to believe the increases are due to “long-shot” applicants. Its students across the board in terms of stats applying to more schools.</p>

13

<p>I posted this info on another forum, but it is relevant here. Few schools publish the data that would answer the “long shot” question, but one selective (24% admission rate) school does, USC. Here are their numbers:</p>

<p>Applicants: GPA 3.5 SAT 1710 - 2070
Admitted: GPA 3.8 SAT 1990 - 2210
Attend: GPA 3.7 SAT 1930 - 2150</p>

<p>For a student in the admitted students range, the real admission rate is much higher than the published 24% admissions rate. The question is, how do these differences reflect differences at other schools? My guess is the more well known the school, the more long shot applications. As Chicago becomes more well known it may be getting more of those in line with its better known peers.</p>

14

<p>Lol…that’s actually pretty interesting idad because I felt as though I wouldn’t get into USC cause I only have a 3.75 UW GPA (only top 20% of my class :()and a 2220 SAT. Granted, I chose not to apply there because of other reasons, but I also felt as though I wouldn’t get admitted.</p>