Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At the time, UChicago was looking for quirky, highly intellectual kids who appreciate things like learning Assyrian, not just kids with high test scores. It's sad that they're trying to mainstream the school. Those of us who are familiar with the pre-Common App UChicago think the school has lost its way.

Yeah, maybe because the pontificating "intellectual" weirdos didn't donate any money, which now leaves Chicago's endowment distantly behind peer elite schools. It had the #1 or 2 endowment when Rockefeller gave his gift -- now #17, behind Notre Dame, Duke and WashU! Just embarrassing to squander that top position and the decades of mismanagement that occurred post war (1945-2005). Now it'll never catch up to HYPS, MIT, Penn, Columbia or even Northwestern.

When you plagiarize somebody's else's post on a different forum, at least have the decency to give them credit. What kind of values did your Mom and Dad pass on to you? Disgusting!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At the time, UChicago was looking for quirky, highly intellectual kids who appreciate things like learning Assyrian, not just kids with high test scores. It's sad that they're trying to mainstream the school. Those of us who are familiar with the pre-Common App UChicago think the school has lost its way.

Yeah, maybe because the pontificating "intellectual" weirdos didn't donate any money, which now leaves Chicago's endowment distantly behind peer elite schools. It had the #1 or 2 endowment when Rockefeller gave his gift -- now #17, behind Notre Dame, Duke and WashU! Just embarrassing to squander that top position and the decades of mismanagement that occurred post war (1945-2005). Now it'll never catch up to HYPS, MIT, Penn, Columbia or even Northwestern.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At the time, UChicago was looking for quirky, highly intellectual kids who appreciate things like learning Assyrian, not just kids with high test scores. It's sad that they're trying to mainstream the school. Those of us who are familiar with the pre-Common App UChicago think the school has lost its way.

Yeah, maybe because the pontificating "intellectual" weirdos didn't donate any money, which now leaves Chicago's endowment distantly behind peer elite schools. It had the #1 or 2 endowment when Rockefeller gave his gift -- now #17, behind Notre Dame, Duke and WashU! Just embarrassing to squander that top position and the decades of mismanagement that occurred post war (1945-2005). Now it'll never catch up to HYPS, MIT, Penn, Columbia or even Northwestern.

Anonymous wrote:
At the time, UChicago was looking for quirky, highly intellectual kids who appreciate things like learning Assyrian, not just kids with high test scores. It's sad that they're trying to mainstream the school. Those of us who are familiar with the pre-Common App UChicago think the school has lost its way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids attending UChicago now are a completely different cohort from UChicago kids of 15-20 years ago. Chicago's acceptance rate this year is 7.2% behind HYPSM which range from 4.5-6.5% but harder to get into than the other Ivys and competitors like Duke.

Heard UCLA acceptance rate this year is around 5%, lower than Chicago's. Acceptance rate is not all there is. That's more of a PR function.

Exactly. UChicago's admissions practices have totally changed. They started taking the Common App. They started recruiting much more aggressively and much more broadly. Their high acceptance rate in past years was not an indication of low quality, but rather the school being under the radar for most people.

Two anecdotes to illustrate that:

- I applied in 2004 early and was accepted (I ultimately chose elsewhere, but it was a very tough choice). My friend, who went to the same rigorous prep school and who ultimately won a Rhodes Scholarship, was waitlisted.

- My sister was accepted in 2006. She was the only person accepted at UChicago for her year at her NYC prep school.

At the time, UChicago was looking for quirky, highly intellectual kids who appreciate things like learning Assyrian, not just kids with high test scores. It's sad that they're trying to mainstream the school. Those of us who are familiar with the pre-Common App UChicago think the school has lost its way.

I'm sorry that you feel that way. DC there now has high test score, appreciates friends into anything interesting (mainstream or esoteric) and is vey happy there. Without the broadened recruitment, DC might not have found the college. I like to think we are all better off when we're inclusive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids attending UChicago now are a completely different cohort from UChicago kids of 15-20 years ago. Chicago's acceptance rate this year is 7.2% behind HYPSM which range from 4.5-6.5% but harder to get into than the other Ivys and competitors like Duke.

Heard UCLA acceptance rate this year is around 5%, lower than Chicago's. Acceptance rate is not all there is. That's more of a PR function.

Exactly. UChicago's admissions practices have totally changed. They started taking the Common App. They started recruiting much more aggressively and much more broadly. Their high acceptance rate in past years was not an indication of low quality, but rather the school being under the radar for most people.

Two anecdotes to illustrate that:

- I applied in 2004 early and was accepted (I ultimately chose elsewhere, but it was a very tough choice). My friend, who went to the same rigorous prep school and who ultimately won a Rhodes Scholarship, was waitlisted.

- My sister was accepted in 2006. She was the only person accepted at UChicago for her year at her NYC prep school.

At the time, UChicago was looking for quirky, highly intellectual kids who appreciate things like learning Assyrian, not just kids with high test scores. It's sad that they're trying to mainstream the school. Those of us who are familiar with the pre-Common App UChicago think the school has lost its way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids attending UChicago now are a completely different cohort from UChicago kids of 15-20 years ago. Chicago's acceptance rate this year is 7.2% behind HYPSM which range from 4.5-6.5% but harder to get into than the other Ivys and competitors like Duke.

Heard UCLA acceptance rate this year is around 5%, lower than Chicago's. Acceptance rate is not all there is. That's more of a PR function.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is where overachiever prep school kids go when they get rejected from every Ivy, Stanford, Notre Dame and Duke. It's a peer to Northwestern, with a less attractive student body. Rank it where it belongs in the 12-15 range and it'd have none of this tiger mom fueled frenzy. It's WashU in a major city.

+1 spot on.
No matter how much they strive, they are not in the same league as HYPS. Nothing to be ashamed of, just reality. Kinda sad that these Chicago fans are so insecure about this.

Kind of like Barnard people who think they are Columbia.

Good Lord. I am thankful every day that Chicago is not HYPS. There is a reason Chicago gets top grades from the heterodox academy and FIRE, because it is one of the few schools left where the administration has a spine, whereas, today HYPS are essentially run by spineless administrators who don't have the guts to stand up to the asinine demands placed on them by a tiny minority of the students. From the shrieking girl at Yale, to the ban on free association at Harvard, to students taking over the Princeton President's office and the administration issuing "consent guidelines for floor dances" and Stanford initially balking at allowing a US flag on a T-shirt, these schools have gone totally crazy.

Leave us one school where the inmates are not running the asylum. You can have the others. I would be SO DISAPPOINTED if Chicago became like HYPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago being elite is basically a college admissions forum meme. In real life it has the name recognition of a selective liberal arts college, which is to say, basically none. And it offers no fun and no Ivy traditions. So, if your want your kid to be depressed, turn into a neurotic swot, and come home with a degree from a college nobody has heard of, write that $70K cheque.

In real life, UChicago ranks in the top 10 universities worldwide, according to QS, AWRU/Shanghai and Times Higher Education (which are the three most influential lists).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago being elite is basically a college admissions forum meme. In real life it has the name recognition of a selective liberal arts college, which is to say, basically none. And it offers no fun and no Ivy traditions. So, if your want your kid to be depressed, turn into a neurotic swot, and come home with a degree from a college nobody has heard of, write that $70K cheque.

In real life, UChicago ranks in the top 10 universities worldwide, according to QS, AWRU/Shanghai and Times Higher Education (which are the three most influential lists).

Anonymous wrote:UChicago being elite is basically a college admissions forum meme. In real life it has the name recognition of a selective liberal arts college, which is to say, basically none. And it offers no fun and no Ivy traditions. So, if your want your kid to be depressed, turn into a neurotic swot, and come home with a degree from a college nobody has heard of, write that $70K cheque.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago has no brand name appeal outside of think tanks and academia. All the money-hungry aspirants end up disappointed in the end, as they watch gregarious and outgoing state school colleagues getting promoted over them. God bless whoever they marry for putting up with the perpetual “I’m so much smarter than him/her!” But at least your kid got to see David Axelrod interview the swamp du jour that circle through campus selling books they didn’t write.

No dog in this fight, but, wow, you are bitter. I'm gonna pray for you.
Overall, the whole Duke v. Chicago argument on this thread is one of the weirdest arguments I've ever seen on DCUM.

How sick are the haters going to be when Chicago is ranked No. 1 in this summer's US News? It's bound to happen.