UChicago Reports Nation's Highest Yield Rate 87.8% for Class of 2027

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA uses ED

Almost all colleges and universities do with a few exceptions.

+1. What separates Chicago in its practices is that it is indeed trying to drive itself up the USNWR ratings by adopting both ED1 and ED2, and take 80% of the new class from those two groups. That practice results in enormous yield results, which is passed on to USNWR and to alumni and to media outlets as you see here. Few other schools do that. UVA had ED (just 1, not ED 2) and fills only 21 to 22 percent of its class with those ED1 candidates. UVA then has regular EA and RD. It's considered a more fair approach.

[Anonymous]

One of the things that drives high yield and that hurts U Chicago in the rankings is that they have a program called Odyssey Scholars, which is one of their crowning achievements . It is funded by U Chicago and pays 100% of financial need. They really don’t use Pell Grants, so all the Ivies which emphasize Pell Grants got 7.5% increase in the USNews score, even if the kids are only getting $1000 Chicago got close to zero for the Pell grant score because they pay financial aid privately for the $300K it costs to go to U Chicago. I’d take that any day if I needed financial aid regardless of admission round.

So because Pell is heavily weighted in this year’s US News ranking, Chicago fell. They were # 1 in small class sizes and #1 in % of teachers with advanced degrees.

[Anonymous]

And of course, if their yield was really low, the many U Chicago haters on this forum would say something like “see- they are such a bad university that the marketing doesn’t even work.” Just let Chicago be Chicago and send your kid somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is wealth related to ED?

They are committed to a school before knowing what their financial aid is, if any.

That's not true. They get the aid offer and can exit the agreement if it's too expensive.

What is true is that they have to decide on the ED school before they can compare other aid offers.

That is unethical to do so. It would turn the ED model upside down if everyone did that. Only do ED if you can easily afford it.

And? Should people feel bad if a system designed to benefit those who can easily afford it is no longer viable due to abuse?

[Anonymous]

Brooklyn Tech has more Noble Laureates than UChicago. Students they actually taught, not just people they hired who never see students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the things that drives high yield and that hurts U Chicago in the rankings is that they have a program called Odyssey Scholars, which is one of their crowning achievements . It is funded by U Chicago and pays 100% of financial need. They really don’t use Pell Grants, so all the Ivies which emphasize Pell Grants got 7.5% increase in the USNews score, even if the kids are only getting $1000 Chicago got close to zero for the Pell grant score because they pay financial aid privately for the $300K it costs to go to U Chicago. I’d take that any day if I needed financial aid regardless of admission round.

So because Pell is heavily weighted in this year’s US News ranking, Chicago fell. They were # 1 in small class sizes and #1 in % of teachers with advanced degrees.

Any kid eligible for a Pell grant can apply for a pell grant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is wealth related to ED?

They are committed to a school before knowing what their financial aid is, if any.

That's not true. They get the aid offer and can exit the agreement if it's too expensive.

What is true is that they have to decide on the ED school before they can compare other aid offers.

That is unethical to do so. It would turn the ED model upside down if everyone did that. Only do ED if you can easily afford it.

Even Ron Lieber says it's fine to move on if finances don't work. You dont need to carry water for these hedge funds with billions. It's not a legal contract. Who cares if they can't count on us being sheep anymore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is wealth related to ED?

They are committed to a school before knowing what their financial aid is, if any.

That's not true. They get the aid offer and can exit the agreement if it's too expensive.

What is true is that they have to decide on the ED school before they can compare other aid offers.

That is unethical to do so. It would turn the ED model upside down if everyone did that. Only do ED if you can easily afford it.

Life happens. Parents lose businesses, lose jobs, all kinds of things happen.

[Anonymous]

My son had very high stats but no hooks at all. His counselor said HYP would be very difficult admit. He visited Cornell, Dartmouth and Chicago.
He liked Chicago more than his other options.
He did ED1 and got in.
He probably would not get in if it was not for ED option. It is a win win situation and I am very thankful for the opportunity.
He has friends all over and definitely his work load is more demanding than HYP.
Most of his classes have 15 kids and pretty close relationships to the teachers.
His friends at Swarthmore and Pomona have extremely demanding schedules probably even more than U Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the things that drives high yield and that hurts U Chicago in the rankings is that they have a program called Odyssey Scholars, which is one of their crowning achievements . It is funded by U Chicago and pays 100% of financial need. They really don’t use Pell Grants, so all the Ivies which emphasize Pell Grants got 7.5% increase in the USNews score, even if the kids are only getting $1000 Chicago got close to zero for the Pell grant score because they pay financial aid privately for the $300K it costs to go to U Chicago. I’d take that any day if I needed financial aid regardless of admission round.

So because Pell is heavily weighted in this year’s US News ranking, Chicago fell. They were # 1 in small class sizes and #1 in % of teachers with advanced degrees.

Chicago changed their rules on class size to cap most at the highest number USNWR considered "low" They were open about doing it partially for the ranking too, which I appreciate.
Chicago will be using Pell Grants more asap! Let's be honest though, #12 is a fair spot or still slightly too high ranking for Chicago. It isn't in that group with Stanford, MIT, and Yale that USNWR was sometimes putting it. They don't have nearly the $$ of most of the very top schools either. Chicago is behind Northwestern in many rankings and is back behind NW again in USNWR too. USNWR was an outlier with how they were ranking Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the things that drives high yield and that hurts U Chicago in the rankings is that they have a program called Odyssey Scholars, which is one of their crowning achievements . It is funded by U Chicago and pays 100% of financial need. They really don’t use Pell Grants, so all the Ivies which emphasize Pell Grants got 7.5% increase in the USNews score, even if the kids are only getting $1000 Chicago got close to zero for the Pell grant score because they pay financial aid privately for the $300K it costs to go to U Chicago. I’d take that any day if I needed financial aid regardless of admission round.

So because Pell is heavily weighted in this year’s US News ranking, Chicago fell. They were # 1 in small class sizes and #1 in % of teachers with advanced degrees.

? This doesn’t make sense. The kids qualifying for odyssey scholars (including Questbridge) probably all qualify for Pell. Are you saying UChicago doesn’t accept the pell grant on behalf of the student and instead replaces the minimal Pell grant (max is around $7500) with institutional aid? The ivies and those you mention that “emphasize” Pell grant receive whatever Pell grant amount the student receives from the government which replaces that amount of institutional aid from the school. But students who receive Pell grants, have such high financial need that the institutional aid at HYP and generous meet full need schools still ends up being 60k, 70k or even more depending on the school. My DC qualified for partial Pell grant at HYP and we didn’t do anything after filling out the FAFSA and receiving the financial aid award from the school. The final award showed partial pell grant along with institutional aid. The Pell grant must have just been sent directly to the school and the balance of grants was institutional scholarship/grants.

UChicago requires the FAFSA for financial aid consideration and that is for the purpose of determining if student qualifies for a Pell grant and to be eligible for a federal student loan.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid at UChicago and it is absolutely the best place for her. I wish both the boosters and detractors would just stop. It is not a university for everyone. But for those kids that it works for, it is a great option. The kids that go there are incredibly smart and hardworking (not trying to compare them to others). The profs are also very smart but may be scattered in teaching - research and scholarship is their passion for the most part. So if this highly selective, highly academic group of scholars doesn't seem like your kid, don't waste your time. If it does, play the ED1-ED6 games and see if your kid can get in. For what little its worth, my kid was accepted RD, and chose to go there over an Ivy. It was a no brainer for her given fit.

[Anonymous]

UChicago has Pell grant students. The FAFSA is required to apply for financial aid. Pell grant, if eligible, is part of a students financial aid package in addition to institutional financial aid / odyssey scholarship.

UChicago just doesn’t have as many Pell grant students as HYPSM etc because of how they game their admissions (accepting nearly all of their class from ED1 and ED2). They are not very transparent about their “class profiles” either compared to the other colleges they like to think are their peers. I’d think most students who qualify for a Pell grant would want/need to compare financial aid offers and wouldn’t apply ED. Sure, the NPC can give you an idea of what financial aid you can get, but the amount varies widely even among “100% meet needs” schools and the NPC isn’t completely accurate for all families.

https://financialaid.uchicago.edu/files/documents/uchicago-college-aid-handbook-2022-2023.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So? Most of their students come via ED. Yield means nothing except wealthy students.

I agree. Any school that uses ED will increases its yield rate. That’s its main purpose.

It also depends on how much of the class they accept ED. This percentage is quite high at U Chicago. So, yield just means less with a school like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son had very high stats but no hooks at all. His counselor said HYP would be very difficult admit. He visited Cornell, Dartmouth and Chicago.
He liked Chicago more than his other options.
He did ED1 and got in.
He probably would not get in if it was not for ED option. It is a win win situation and I am very thankful for the opportunity.
He has friends all over and definitely his work load is more demanding than HYP.
Most of his classes have 15 kids and pretty close relationships to the teachers.
His friends at Swarthmore and Pomona have extremely demanding schedules probably even more than U Chicago.

Really? Does he have an identical twin at HYP taking exactly the same courseload?