UCHICAGO SUMMER STUDENT EARLY NOTIFICATION

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our (private) HS had an athlete accepted to Chicago before Columbus Day last year. It’s beginning to look like that school will do anything to lock down high-stats students from full-pay families. They must get slaughtered on yield in RD.

Ivies, Duke, Stanford all do the same. UChicago is not any different when it comes to athletes: it is the biggest hook out there. No 1500 needed, heck even a 1200 and mediocre rigor worked for an ivy in a helmet sport

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC has done a few pre-college programs (some here would call "pay to play", some that were extremely competitive and gained them college credit).

If DC includes any/all of these schools in their final application list, they'll be able to write about the "why" far more deeply than just having had an in-person or virtual tour. That makes the programs DC took/is taking worth the money.

Will it still be worth it if they don’t get in?

If you ask DC, yes. They’ve gained a lot with the programs they’ve done so far (again including some college credits) so I say yes as well.

To be clear, DC didn’t participate in any of the programs they’ve done so far thinking they would offer a leg up in admissions. In fact all of the schools say these programs make no difference in admissions.

UChicago giving consideration in some way to their pre-college students is a positive thing. I don’t think it should get you in but at minimum get some demonstrated interest consideration would be nice from any school offering these programs.

[Anonymous]

WOW, these programs are expensive. Just...wow. I'm in higher education and am having a very hard time imagining value for money here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WOW, these programs are expensive. Just...wow. I'm in higher education and am having a very hard time imagining value for money here.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WOW, these programs are expensive. Just...wow. I'm in higher education and am having a very hard time imagining value for money here.

This is not fair.

They actually are roughly the same price per credit as the regular UChicago courses. The summer program is $8K for one course. This course is a college class that awards credit. The typical UChicago undergrad that is full pay costs $93K for 10-12 courses.

My child went last summer and had a wonderful experience. He took an economics course that was challenging. It had 20 students and the teacher was incredible. The weekend activities were well run.

It’s not cheap like a Boy Scout camp, but it’s also an entirely reasonable price for what you get. Three weeks of dorm life, a world class instructor and planned weekend activities.

I will say that some of the courses (according to my son) seemed to be much easier and the teachers were scattered in quality. If your child wants a challenge, stick with econ, physics or biology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is a horrific school that does not support its students but leaves them to flounder in south side Chicago. DO NOT ATTEND! I warned you.

Can you be more specific? If you truly want people to be wary, maybe you can share your story. I’m truly curious to hear your take, minus the hysterics.

UChicago loves to discuss its rigorous academics (aka total lack of support for students and covering it up with students failing out, which is unacceptable for a private college. It’s so bent on its quirky “academia” emphasis that, unlike other top colleges, lacks professional development opportunities and likes to almost punish students with, yes a great education but you have to actually pass the courses which has become a lot more difficult over time.

It’s not “where the fun goes to die” because it’s hard, but because it likes to push students off a cliff and blame them for their stability.

So was this experience specific to your student or is this second or 3rd hand or general rumor? How did they “punish” your student? Were they unable to manage the workload? Did your student not have a positive experience with both their academic advisor and career advisor?

So I assume your snowflake either didn't get in or couldn't handle it. My student has flourished at this school surrounded by students and faculty that DO care about them as well as academic pursuits. I don't think UChicago struggles with yield in RD since they accept less than 2% in that round.

They absolutely struggle with yield in the RD round. That is why nearly 95% of the class is accepted through the early programs and ED3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOW, these programs are expensive. Just...wow. I'm in higher education and am having a very hard time imagining value for money here.

This is not fair.

They actually are roughly the same price per credit as the regular UChicago courses. The summer program is $8K for one course. This course is a college class that awards credit. The typical UChicago undergrad that is full pay costs $93K for 10-12 courses.

My child went last summer and had a wonderful experience. He took an economics course that was challenging. It had 20 students and the teacher was incredible. The weekend activities were well run.

It’s not cheap like a Boy Scout camp, but it’s also an entirely reasonable price for what you get. Three weeks of dorm life, a world class instructor and planned weekend activities.

I will say that some of the courses (according to my son) seemed to be much easier and the teachers were scattered in quality. If your child wants a challenge, stick with econ, physics or biology.

UC is making a huge per-capita profit on this enterprise. So are other universities with HS summer programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOW, these programs are expensive. Just...wow. I'm in higher education and am having a very hard time imagining value for money here.

This is not fair.

They actually are roughly the same price per credit as the regular UChicago courses. The summer program is $8K for one course. This course is a college class that awards credit. The typical UChicago undergrad that is full pay costs $93K for 10-12 courses.

My child went last summer and had a wonderful experience. He took an economics course that was challenging. It had 20 students and the teacher was incredible. The weekend activities were well run.

It’s not cheap like a Boy Scout camp, but it’s also an entirely reasonable price for what you get. Three weeks of dorm life, a world class instructor and planned weekend activities.

I will say that some of the courses (according to my son) seemed to be much easier and the teachers were scattered in quality. If your child wants a challenge, stick with econ, physics or biology.

UC is making a huge per-capita profit on this enterprise. So are other universities with HS summer programs.

Hmm, they charge the same as normal tuition and also offer need-based aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is a horrific school that does not support its students but leaves them to flounder in south side Chicago. DO NOT ATTEND! I warned you.

Can you be more specific? If you truly want people to be wary, maybe you can share your story. I’m truly curious to hear your take, minus the hysterics.

UChicago loves to discuss its rigorous academics (aka total lack of support for students and covering it up with students failing out, which is unacceptable for a private college. It’s so bent on its quirky “academia” emphasis that, unlike other top colleges, lacks professional development opportunities and likes to almost punish students with, yes a great education but you have to actually pass the courses which has become a lot more difficult over time.

It’s not “where the fun goes to die” because it’s hard, but because it likes to push students off a cliff and blame them for their stability.

So was this experience specific to your student or is this second or 3rd hand or general rumor? How did they “punish” your student? Were they unable to manage the workload? Did your student not have a positive experience with both their academic advisor and career advisor?

So I assume your snowflake either didn't get in or couldn't handle it. My student has flourished at this school surrounded by students and faculty that DO care about them as well as academic pursuits. I don't think UChicago struggles with yield in RD since they accept less than 2% in that round.

They absolutely struggle with yield in the RD round. That is why nearly 95% of the class is accepted through the early programs and ED3.

.

What’s your source for that number you just threw out- the 95%?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOW, these programs are expensive. Just...wow. I'm in higher education and am having a very hard time imagining value for money here.

This is not fair.

They actually are roughly the same price per credit as the regular UChicago courses. The summer program is $8K for one course. This course is a college class that awards credit. The typical UChicago undergrad that is full pay costs $93K for 10-12 courses.

My child went last summer and had a wonderful experience. He took an economics course that was challenging. It had 20 students and the teacher was incredible. The weekend activities were well run.

It’s not cheap like a Boy Scout camp, but it’s also an entirely reasonable price for what you get. Three weeks of dorm life, a world class instructor and planned weekend activities.

I will say that some of the courses (according to my son) seemed to be much easier and the teachers were scattered in quality. If your child wants a challenge, stick with econ, physics or biology.

UC is making a huge per-capita profit on this enterprise. So are other universities with HS summer programs.

Hmm, they charge the same as normal tuition and also offer need-based aid.

The research programs cost 11-14K. Even the regular "take a class for 3 weeks" program is charging almost 1K per week for room and board. This is not an exercise in altruism or social justice. Don't get me wrong - universities need all the revenue they can get nowadays - but the markup is real and so is the profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOW, these programs are expensive. Just...wow. I'm in higher education and am having a very hard time imagining value for money here.

This is not fair.

They actually are roughly the same price per credit as the regular UChicago courses. The summer program is $8K for one course. This course is a college class that awards credit. The typical UChicago undergrad that is full pay costs $93K for 10-12 courses.

My child went last summer and had a wonderful experience. He took an economics course that was challenging. It had 20 students and the teacher was incredible. The weekend activities were well run.

It’s not cheap like a Boy Scout camp, but it’s also an entirely reasonable price for what you get. Three weeks of dorm life, a world class instructor and planned weekend activities.

I will say that some of the courses (according to my son) seemed to be much easier and the teachers were scattered in quality. If your child wants a challenge, stick with econ, physics or biology.

UC is making a huge per-capita profit on this enterprise. So are other universities with HS summer programs.

Hmm, they charge the same as normal tuition and also offer need-based aid.

The research programs cost 11-14K. Even the regular "take a class for 3 weeks" program is charging almost 1K per week for room and board. This is not an exercise in altruism or social justice. Don't get me wrong - universities need all the revenue they can get nowadays - but the markup is real and so is the profit.

This. These programs are money makers for the universities. A good way to squeeze out profit during the summer months. Rich people need stuff to spend their money on. And people often correlate higher priced programs with higher quality which may or may not be true

[Anonymous]

Yes, these programs have advantages for full-pay students but far greater advantages for the schools. And they def disadvantage the students who are already far from opportunity. You’ll say they offer FA for these programs but kids who need FA aren’t going to apply ED so there is much less of an advantage for them.

Disappointing to see this at Chicago as it is on my kid’s list.

[Anonymous]

This is kind of awful, imo. It’s a bad look for a school that is supposed to be so great on rigor to be gunning so hard for full pay applicants. Do the poor kids go to this summer program? Probably not… Sigh. I’m kind of sad about this, tbh. My alma mater!

[Anonymous]

Just watched a video from College Meister about this new option. His take is positive and that it is a great opportunity for students to apply and hear back within 3 weeks. So a student could apply 9/1 and hear back by 10/1. This includes all summer programs including no cost programs that also target rural populations, 1st gen etc as well as online summer programs. Also, disagree with the PP who said students needing financial aid do not apply ED. Really? Why not use the NPC as a guide? If you do not like this option then your kid need not apply and move on.

[Anonymous]

Sure, it’s great for those who can afford ED. For others, it just makes it even less possible to go to a place like Chicago.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/22/business/early-decision-college-financial-aid/index.html