That’s a very interesting query, @Mom2Melcs : Why indeed would a talented kid capable of getting into HYPS pass them up for Chicago? Your answer is the only logical one, and it’s a stirring one and a call to arms. I would put it this way (as spoken by a hypothetical kid who has made that choice): “An HYPS degree conveys cachet, prestige, bragging rights, call it what you will, I acknowledge these things with eyes open, but I hereby renounce and give them up for the more purely academic and intellectual experience that Chicago offers.” These words gladden the heart, even if they are not the only words that could be spoken and even if Chicago is no longer without its own creature comforts.
The kid making that choice certainly believes that Chicago offers something different from HYPS. Other kids will make other choices, and, yes, some kids will end up at Chicago and be happy there after being rebuffed by a preferred school. These kids are also okay in my book, and there’s hope for them too. Just let them not be the dominant majority.
Interestingly, the kids at Harvard and Stanford in the study you cite also think that Chicago offers something different from their schools and other top schools. They preferred what their own schools offered - greater prestige, greater social life, etc - and they feel Chicago doesn’t have enough of all that, but they were in no doubt about what it does have - that purer focus on studies and even a somewhat “scary” intellectualism. That’s the brand. It is not a large leap of logic to assume that the brand attracts a type and that the type reinforces the brand. We see evidence of this constantly on cc.