<p>I think that while most EA applicants at Chicago have Chicago as their first choice, they apply elsewhere to keep their options open and to compare financial offers. Chicago loses a lot of its strongest students this way, who are undoubtedly given offers they can’t refuse by other schools that may offer more prestige, better aid, or both. I’ve seen a fair share of kids come in with Chicago as their number 1 and wind up at schools like Swarthmore, Princeton, MIT, and Harvard. Schools with ED admits don’t have to worry about losing them to other schools. Northwestern’s ED admits are exclusive to Northwestern and are not going to shop around at other schools. 90 percent of the time, I think it’s in the student’s best interest to shop around, though.</p>
<p>The kids who do choose Chicago over other offers, I feel, are more prepared to come and as a result are happier with their decision. It was only when I got to know some of my friends better that I learned they had specific reasons for choosing Chicago over schools like Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown. Even though they were offered the ivy league option, they still found their way back to Chicago.</p>
<p>My decision to apply EA and call it a day was based on a few factors. First, my parents agreed to pay the pricetag for college, however high it was. Secondly, I didn’t like any other school that I considered anywhere nearly as much as I liked Chicago (earlier on this thread, I indicated that there were schools I now know about that I might have applied to RD had I known about them). Thirdly, I was probably too aware of my high-profile status in my high-profile high school, so I wanted to go to Chicago to make a point that it’s not all about the Ivy League (at my school, Chicago is considered “obscure.” How sad).</p>
<p>I’ve never really asked my other friends why they called it a day after EA admittance, like I did. I feel like most of them just felt that Chicago was home and applying elsewhere was pointless. I was not in the slightest curious to see if I would be admitted by other schools-- I knew I would turn them down for Chicago and I didn’t want to wait four months for that decision, nor did I want to nab a spot from somebody who really wanted one.</p>