<p>For 2013…</p>
<p>MIT 9.94%
Stanford 11.88%
Georgetown 12.83%
UChicago 13.38%
Yale 14.36%
Caltech 14.59%
Princeton 18.29%
Harvard 18.43%
Brown 18.53%
Penn 24.85%
Pomona 26.51%
Johns Hopkins 26.55%
Dartmouth 29.48%
Cornell 29.48%
Duke 29.65%
Northwestern 32.48%
Claremont McKenna 38.63%</p>
<p><a href=“Applicants Continue to Flock to Early Admission Programs - The New York Times”>Applicants Continue to Flock to Early Admission Programs - The New York Times;
<p>And now I feel weird for getting into UChicago and getting deferred from Brown.</p>
<p>@hevydevy I would say go to UChicago and enjoy, if you feel it’s the right school for you. You won’t have any regrets. This year UChicago will have about a 10% overall admit rate and Brown will have about a 9.5% overall admit rate. By next year, UChicago will drop into the single digits and pass up Brown and Darmouth. And it won’t stop there–UChicago is going to have increasingly competitive admissions in the years to come. So congrats and be glad you got in!</p>
<p>I’m glad I got in; it just wasn’t my first choice. I understand that UChicago is technically a “better school”, but I think I fit Brown more. I have a few more applications to send in and I’ll see where I go from there. Three universities and three LACs.</p>
<p>Hevydevy,
I second the congratulations on your being accepted by Chicago. Obviously, the adcom thought you were a fit and they’re generally pretty savvy about these things. So, even if you aren’t sure, you can take it on faith that they’re probably right. In other words, if you decide to matriculate, it’s likely to turn out to have been a very good decision. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if based on adequate research, visits, et al., you truly believe someplace else fits you better, that you resonate more with its vibe, and you get in there, by all means go. At the level of school you are apparently applying to, any of them will serve you well, both as a college experience and as preparation for and entree into whatever is your post graduation direction, all things being equal.</p>
<p>One more probably gratuitous bit of advice: I’m sure you are well aware of the general and usual differences between a LAC experience and that at a mid-size private research university (and then, of course, you have to consider the characteristics of and differences among the specific LACs and universities of interest). For some, perhaps the majority (?), one type of school will just fit better than the other. For others, either will suit equally well, just in different ways. I assume that because you’re applying to 3 of each, you know yourself well enough to be sure that you’d be equally comfortable, equally challenged, and equally fulfilled, whether at the LAC or a university. </p>
<p>Best of luck with your other applications. For whatever it’s worth, based on my observations of my 3rd year son, and a gaggle of nephews and nieces who’ve recently done their studies at Y,H,S Columbia and Dartmouth, the UChicago undergraduate education is second to none, and he seems to be having at least as rich and enjoyable an overall experience as his cousins did.</p>
<p>Thank you for the great advice. I have done a fair amount of research, yes, and I do believe that each college/university I’m applying to fits me in a specific way. Once I’m done with apps and April roles around, I will visit every place I get in (with the places I’m applying to, Chicago could very well end up being my only acceptance) and I will go from there. Thanks a ton.</p>
<p>I doubt I would’ve gotten in this year if I applied. Congrats Class of 2017!</p>
<p>@hevydevy: Whoa, we have the same story! I couldn’t feel better being accepted EA to UChicago; especially after a deferral from Brown, I thought I was done for with such a large EA pool. I couldn’t believe my eyes.</p>
<p>Are you done with apps?</p>
<p>I’m still applying to Princeton, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, and McGill (in case any other FA package sucks, I’d be able to go for cheap.)</p>
<p>Oh wow! Wait do you know how Earl Action differs from Early Action? I applied Early action and I was wondering if the stats were the same, of if they varied a bit. I heard that they were comprable to each other, but that might have just been a rumor.</p>
<p>If I had been deferred or rejected from UChicago, I was actually planning to apply to three of the schools on your list (Princeton, Amherst, Swarthmore). If Brown decides to accept me later, it’ll come down to cost. UChicago offered solid FA, so right now I consider myself done with apps.</p>
<p>Yowsers, I definitely would not have gotten in this year! Congratulations to everybody who was accepted. To those deferred, please don’t lose hope, make sure to remain active and show U Chicago that it is one of your top choices (if it isn’t, then concentrate much more on your actual top choices). Those who were unfortunately rejected, please remember that this is only the EARLY round. I was in a similar position to many of you this time last year and straight up panicked because I thought I wasn’t going to be accepted into any colleges (well, maybe I was exaggerating a bit). Trust me, once April comes around you’ll have a lot of great choices to choose from and by this time next year you will be too immersed into your freshman year to care about these decisions.</p>
<p>hevydevy,
You’re most welcome. And yes, given the schools you are applying to, acceptances are something of a crapshoot no matter how strong you appear on paper. In other words, “it isn’t personal; it’s just business,” so to speak. Be thankful, as you are, that Chicago is in the bag. In recent years, in particular, and increasingly so into the future, I suspect, attending UChicago is turning out to be a solid to spectacular experience on all levels for the large majority of kids who matriculate. I doubt you’ll have regrets, should you end up there. </p>
<p>Being on CC, I’m sure you’ve seen the incredible credentials of many of the kids whom UChicago waitlisted (Why? Who’s to say?), and the same will go for Brown and the others. But it’s not a tragedy. As you’ve likely heard many times (and it’s true), most kids end up happy wherever they land (provided they’ve applied sensibly, as you seem to be). It only takes one acceptance, and that you’ve got.</p>
<p>Your plan to visit wherever you get into is most sensible. Upon visiting, you might decide for good reasons personal to you that Chicago is not for you. Or, just the opposite. Do keep in mind, though, that those “accepted student visit” experiences can be skewed, for better or for worse, away from the mean general flavor of the place, depending on the particulars into which you land, e.g., your student host, the specific class(es) you sit in on, the particular party or dorm room BS session that you might find yourself at on a given evening, etc. So, do your best to see the schools you visit more broadly and comprehensively than the localized, and limiting, circumstances arranged for you. </p>
<p>Again, congratulations and best of luck.</p>
<p>UChicago Early Admit Acceptance Percentage Recent Years:</p>
<p>2011 (Class of 2015)–22.66%
2012 (Class of 2016)–17.61%
2013 (Class of 2017)–13.38%</p>
<p>Wow, an EA acceptance rate lower than Harvard!</p>
<p>Yeah, I definitely feel weird that I got deferred by Brown (okay, uhm, an 18% ED acceptance rate sounds so good right now, I really do not want to compete in the RD pool but have no choice) and accepted EA into UChicago. It was a crazy EA pool this year and I’m really, really honored. And I’m definitely grateful and so happy, but I’m also just grateful to have applied this year and not years from now, where kids will have to have medschool-quality apps just to get into the top 20.
I literally feel so sorry for my future kids already.</p>
<p>And I agree, UChicago is definitely climbing the ranks right now. I wonder if it will gain Stanford status soon (just the connotation of Stanford itself; a lot of people here still don’t think of UChicago as more than just a state school).</p>
<p>tawarren95, U of Chicago topped Stanford in the most recent US News & World report rankings. So some people would say they are already there. 
This was the source of MUCH handwringing among Stanford-affiliated folks, of course.</p>
<p>…The difference being UChicago always had the reputation for being a serious school whereas Stanford always had the reputation for being a lighter “fun in the sun school” as Stanford’s alumni magazine often admitted. Where I went to high school no one considered S at the same level as the Ivies or UChicago… I was the top student in my school and considered S to be on the same level as Carnegie Mellon. Didn’t even apply. Never considered it.</p>
<p>And I won’t even trot out the Nobel prize statistics, which are vastly in UChicago’s favor…</p>
<p>But it’s not even necessary to go there because UChicago is climbing faster in popularity than any school in the country. It always had quality and now even uninformed high school students will know the obvious.</p>
<p>I think Astoria has hit the nail on the head regarding why these EA percentages don’t mean much (in terms of indicating either how hard it is to get in for a qualified student and how great the undergrad education is – there’s already a weaker link with regard to the second conclusion people have been drawing here):</p>
<p>a) EA vs. ED - more applications = a greater percentage not accepted; EA invites a great volume of submissions because it isn’t binding and can only improve one’s chances (no “opportunity cost.” Comparing ED schools (or even SCEA ones, because you still have to give up a lot in picking one of those) with an EA school is comparing apples to oranges; of course the numbers at the EA schools will be lower. As a point of reference, most of the very low numbers were also at EA schools, proving the argument: MIT, Georgetown, Caltech.</p>
<p>b) Qualifications of those who applied - If you’re applying single choice early to Harvard, you’ve got to think you have a damn good shot. Most people in the early pool over there are awesome, so it makes sense that they, and other SCEA elite schools, would take more of them. On the other hand, the no-reaon-not-to nature of EA invites a lot of “might as well try” underqualified types, and so do new policies intended to reach out to urban lower class students (for instance, the new no-loans arrangement with Chicago public schools).</p>
<p>c) Chicago’s relationship with numbers - They set the ballpark of this number in advance. I mean, yes, it’s going to be as hard to get into as they want it to be, but their overhead imposition of the early acceptance rate is designed to spark threads exactly like this one, where people start saying UChicago is better than the Ivies because it’s “competitive” to get in. I’d just take the number with a grain of salt – it’s been artificially manipulated by a desire to rise in the rankings and finally ditch past poor reputations.</p>
<p>I’m sure the average well-informed college applicant/parent understands UChicago’s rise in popularity and such. I’m more curious about when it’ll reach Stanford status in terms of name, as it’s almost always grouped with Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Like I said, a lot of people still see UChicago as a state school (then again, I live in Texas, so there’s that) but they all know who Stanford is. </p>
<p>@truth123 Stanford the same level as CMU? That surprises me that anyone would say that. I’m still waiting for the day when uninformed students see UChicago for what it is. Today is not the day, in my opinion. But I’m still superproud of my possible future school!</p>