<p>In the world in which I live and work, the University of Chicago IS as well-known as Harvard or Princeton, or at least close. I recognize that that isn’t true for your typical high school student, but then I don’t have a lot of occasion to care what typical high school students think, unless I happen to know them. Honestly, the only things Chicago lacks are (a) a football team and tradition (I realize that it has a football tradition, but without a team that doesn’t mean much), (b) the ooomph that comes from rejecting insanely qualified applicants whom no one ought to reject, and (c) repeated mentions on The Gilmore Girls and other pop-culture artifacts. Oh, and (d) a few billion dollars of endowment, and (e) some memorable songs. (Really. Chicago has suffered badly for never having had a Cole Porter pass through.)</p>
<p>I had to laugh a little at the notion that Swarthmore and Pomona have to struggle to get their names out there. They both have admission rates around 15%, and yields of admitted students of about 40%, which place them among the most selective instutitions in the country. Both have very high minority representation, decent international representation, and a range of test scores consistent with their reputations. How many more applications are they supposed to want to attract?</p>