- They are all smart and motivated. And they were so even back in the days when UChicago admitted 70% of the applicant pool, saw 10% of the class not return the following year, and watch as many as a third not make it to graduation. Being smart or motivated isn't quite the same thing as being a good fit.
Recently I watched the UChicago Night Owls session on “What Are Universities For/Why Do they Matter?” and I’d highly recommend watching all three hours of it! Dan Diermeier, former UC provost and soon-to-be Chancellor at Vandy provided a very thoughtful take on the subject. During the conversation, he made it very clear that not everyone is the right fit for a UChicago education. Here’s a quote directly from the recorded session, during which time he was, not surprisingly, asked why the College didn’t just auction spots off to the highest bidder:
“Not everyone would benefit. This is a demanding place. You have to bring quite a bit to be flourishing at the University of Chicago; not everybody can flourish here. And we want it that way, that’s the way it’s set up. It’s a place for a particular type of student and, as Agnes (Philosophy Professor Agnes Callard who runs the Night Owl sessions and who had served on the Admissions Committee one year) could testify, it’s hard to identify them. And yes, it’s true that there are many more that could benefit from this university than we have space for, but we try very, very, hard to pick the type of students who would benefit (the most) from the University of Chicago. They’re intellectually curious, they’re engaged, they have a lively mind . . .these are all words that we use, but we try that very hard. And every university should do that. They should have a clear sense of their own purpose and then they should try to pick the students that would benefit the most from that, that would basically have the best chance of flourishing in that environment and then have an impact once they leave. That’s what we want.”
Prof. Deirmaier’s statement indicates that UC - and most likely other schools as well - have specific criteria that they look for in an applicant. This criteria will have overlaps among the schools, but some of it will also be unique to the individual school, conforming to that particular “clear sense of their own purpose” that Prof. Diermeier mentioned.
We hear and read a lot about “yield protection” these days, and it’s hard to understand why that would be a crucial statistic to the institution if they didn’t feel that they were matriculating a better-matched class as a result.
IMO, you don’t need homogeneity among the student body to choose those who best match the “clear sense of” the institution’s own purpose. For example, research universities - particularly the “great universities” such as UChicago - will have a wide assortment of top specialties to attract a diversity of academic interests and talent.