<p>You’d expect a lower acceptance rate from a top 10 university. I’ve heard that it is just because more qualified applicant apply there than other top 10s because other schools experience the “I’ll apply to see if I can get in” factor. Is this true?</p>
<p>also is there a dorm which meet the following requirements?
-single room
-private bathroom</p>
<p>Dorms: Yes, Broadview Hall.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that Chicago’s acceptance rate is high, but that other schools in the “top 10” have low acceptance rates. A few reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Chicago is not as much a “designer label” as other schools. You can’t tell how many kids apply to a school just because it has a good brand name attached to it, but it seems like a lot of the kids who want to go to Harvard don’t want to go to Chicago.</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago doesn’t have academic programs that lead directly into a profession after graduation. (Business, education, engineering, journalism, nursing, are all “pre-professional” programs and are probably more attractive across the board than religious studies, art history, and philosophy).</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago claims to meet 100% of demonstrated need, but it doesn’t mean the school is going to be a student’s least expensive option. If accepted students turn down Chicago due to having better financial options, then the school has to admit more students to make sure it has an appropriately sized incoming class.</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago does not offer ED. Many schools that boast low admissions rates fill up a large portion of their class with ED kids and have a relatively high acceptance rate, and considering that these ED admitted kids are sure bets, there’s more competition for the seats that are still available.</p></li>
<li><p>The essay questions make it hard to just apply for the sake of applying.</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago kids aren’t really into athletic-based school pride or tooting their own horns to make their school look amazing. This kind of school pride is probably very appealing to prospective students… even though Chicago kids have the option of displaying school pride (the bookstore sells these horrifically ugly “LOOKEE AT ALL OUR NOBEL LAUREATES LOLZ” t-shirts) a Chicago kid is about 34,000 times more likely to be wearing an unofficial “Where fun comes to die” shirt. Some people get really turned off that there isn’t the typical collegey scene here. To me, it was a big draw.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Chicago’s acceptance rate is higher because more acceptees turn down chicago to go elsewhere…</p>
<p>But the OP should consider re-phrasing the question, and ask if it matters.</p>
<p>Chicago is less of a “brand”, as unalove suggested, than its peers, so it no doubt gets fewer of those “let’s try” applications that have no hope of getting in. This is especially true with the essay issue.</p>
<p>Rather than focus on acceptance rate, though, why not compare transfer and completion rates? In other words, of 100 freshman (1st years) that start at UofC, how many transfer after their first year? How many drop out? How do these numbers compare to peer institutions.</p>
<p>I don’t have the answer to this, but I think these numbers would tell you much more about the satisfaction (or lack?) of students that enroll.</p>
<p>1 - Another phrase sometimes used to describe Chicago’s admissions is “self-selecting.” Because it is unique in many ways, more applicants affirmatively select Chicago as the right place for them vs. add it to their list to maximize their chances of a certain tier school making the selection for them. Thus, the applicant pool is heavily weighted with students who have genuinely educated themselves about Chicago and determined they are Chicago material and who really want to be there. </p>
<p>2 - Newmassdad makes a good point about the significance of retention rate. I posed that exact question during a June information session, and the adcom stated the percentage who graduate. She was quick to move on and offer a different figure as more telling: U Chicago has very few openings for transfers, i.e., most accepted students stay. (Sorry, my middle-aged mom brain doesn’t recall either number.) That suggests “self-selection” works AND Chicago is doing a terrific job meeting student needs.</p>
<p>According to collegeboard.com, Chicago has a 98 percent retention rate. I don’t know what exactly the other colleges in the top 10 and top 20 look like, but it’s hard to beat 98 percent…</p>
<p>Retention rates from College Board –
Harvard – 96%
Tufts – 96%
MIT – 98%
JHU – 97%
Brown – 98%
NYU – 92%
WUSTL – 97%
Reed – 91%
Colgate – 94%
Brandeis – 94%
Columbia – 97%
Berkeley – 97%
UMich – 96%</p>
<p>Wow, it’s interesting that MIT and Chicago, two of the undergraduate schools that are considered the most rigorous in the country, have the highest retention rates.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would argue that this is precisely because MIT and Chicago, previously two of the most rigorous schools in the nation, have lately eased their curriculums so that a more general crowd would be interested in the school. This is how MIT can now draw many more students from majors that are not the hard sciences. What is Caltech’s retention rate?</p>
<p>98 percent for Caltech. Though the work might be hard, the students they admit are able to do it (same with Chicago).</p>
<p>It’s possible to snooze through Chicago-- it’s just not something that kids here tend to want to do.</p>
<p>Hmm… yeah.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, it seems feasible for practically any admitted student to succeed in any school because of more rigorous admissions. So the Caltech, MIT, and Chicago thing may be based more on self-selection than I previously thought. I am surprised that Reed only has a 91% retention rate, though.</p>
<p>Phuriku,
Retention and 4-6 year graduation rates have been a frequent topic of discussion on the Reed CC threads. The admissions folks were quite upfront about it when we visited campus. They give the students a lot of freedom and the workload is pretty intense – some later realize it’s not the place for them. That said, both my kids really liked the school.</p>
<p>I think a school like Reed attracts students who aren’t as interested in getting a diploma as they are a certain kind of experience. As such, they’re probably more likely to think about transferring/dropping out than a student who feels they have to be on track with getting a diploma and getting one at the institution they started out at.</p>
<p>It seems like many of the “learn for the sake of learning, not for the diploma” schools have lower retention rates:</p>
<p>Oberlin has a 92% retention rate.
Bard College has an 88% retention rate.
Hampshire College has a 78% retention rate.
Marlboro College has a 75% retention rate.
St. John’s College has an 80% retention rate.
Lawrence University has an 88% retention rate.
Goucher has a 78% retention rate.</p>
<p>There are probably other issues at stake too (financial, social, academic, etc.)</p>
<p>If pressed I can probably find the source, but a couple of years ago I read that 20% of all students who transfer out of Chicago end up transferring back in. I don’t know what the numbers are for other schools, but found that fascinating.</p>
<p>wow. that’s interesting, idad. i’d never heard about somebody transferring back into a school that they left, and 20% is quite a bit.</p>
<p>idad, found the article!</p>
<p>[Chicago</a> Maroon](<a href=“http://www.chicagomaroon.com/online_edition/print/423]Chicago”>Printing error – Chicago Maroon)</p>
<p>2 big reasons:</p>
<p>1) NO early decision, which means students arent locked in, so chicago needs to accept more.</p>
<p>2) Uncommon App: its a pain to fill out if you are “iffy” about applying</p>
<p>Be careful what one wishes for, one is liable to get it. This past year’s admit rate was about 28%. With the increasing popularity of the school and the move to the common app (even with the uncommon essays) that number is likely to decrease even more.</p>
<p>I don’t think the uncommon essays will be too much of a hindrance to semi-interested applicants. They could just choose their own prompt (or take one from a peer school’s application), and therefore not spend a significant amount of time or thought on the essay.</p>
<p>Although the students who don’t put a lot of effort into the essay questions will likely be rejected, the admit rate will decrease, thereby increasing the arbitrariness of the admissions process.</p>
<p>This is the site you can find all statistics about UChicago and all schools in US</p>
<p>[College</a> Navigator - University of Chicago](<a href=“College Navigator - Search Results”>College Navigator - University of Chicago)
I am sure it was posted somewhere on CC before, great source of INFO</p>
<p>The site is not bad, but their data lag about 2 years.</p>