More students than expected have accepted a spot in the College’s class of 2016, pushing University officials to balance the U of C’s increasing popularity and its commitment to an intimate undergraduate experience.
The incoming freshman class will comprise approximately 1,525 students, 125 more than the College’s consistent target size, according to University spokesperson Jeremy Manier.
The College only accepted 20 transfer students, instead of the usual 40 or 50.
The College is keeping a “z-list” option for the first time, offering applicants admission into the class of 2017 if they first take a gap year. Manier said that between 20 and 30 students are expected to accept that option.
The unexpectedly high yield partly stems from the University’s growing name recognition, which pulls in larger applicant pools but makes it trickier for administrators to estimate matriculation.
“It definitely means something to go to the fifth-best university in the United States,” said Daisy Lu, a senior at Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City, referring to the University’s ranking in the latest U.S. News and World Report. “It means that I have tons of resources and an impressive alumni base to draw from. It means that my mom can brag to our relatives abroad in China. It means that when I say I’m attending UChicago in the fall, I get nods and respect from my teachers and peers.”
The perception of prestige is difficult to track, however.
“The appeal of the College to students around the world has been growing quite a bit in recent years, and that creates a somewhat difficult job of predicting exactly where yield will end up in a given year,” Manier wrote in an e-mail.
A few incoming students worry that a larger class may diminish the quality of their Core classes, like Humanities sequences capped at 19 students.
“The small class sizes were a major plus when considering UChicago, and now I’m disappointed that those sizes won’t be what were advertised,” said Maira Khwaja, a senior at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, PA.
A larger class of 2016 is, “well within the ability of the College and the Office of Campus and Student Life to accommodate,” Manier said. “The College will bring in additional junior faculty to help meet teaching needs.”
More students will be placed in Midway House in New Graduate Residence Hall, which housed first-year students for the first time this year. International House will also accommodate a new College House for roughly 78 students.
Francisco Meyer, an incoming international student from Buenos Aires, is still skeptical about the quality of student life offered by newer dorm options after receiving an e-mail addressed to incoming students.
“I would prefer to go somewhere with a more established culture where I can get the legitimate college dorm experience,” Meyer said.
However, Edouard Brooks, a senior at the U of C Laboratory Schools, requested I-House as his first choice, optimistic that newer dorms can have a college culture, too.
“Dorm life is what you make of it,” he said.
The U of C joins other private universities and peer institutions with rising yield rates, including Case Western Reserve and Pitzer College, according to data from The Choice, a higher education blog of The New York Times.
Actually this article is not correct. In 1998, the yield rate for the College was less than 30% (somewhere between 25-29%). By 2012, the rate was 47% That an increase in the yield of 50% (20 percentage points or so) over the past 14 years.
There were a couple of recent years in which the yield fluctuated a bid in the mid 30s or so. But that does not change the long range trend, which appears to have accelerated.
Why do you have an outdated graphic that has no connection with the story? Too lazy to make a new one? At least you could update it to show this year’s admit rate of 13.3%. Thank you.
(46.8 % yield rate) (3344 admits) = 1565. What happens when 1550 admits show up in the fall ?
Time for a name change. It’s no longer “New Graduate Residence Hall.” It’s “New Undergraduate Residence Hall.”
New UnderGrad not New Grad.
Don’t understand why Maroon didn’t use a new chart with updated class of 2016 admit rate. It is pretty easy to make in excel, paint it with UChicago color, it will attract more attention.
Why a “consistent target size” of 1400? That is already more than 50% of housing allocated to first-years. Try aiming at 1200.
So, does this mean the Student Life Fee goes up?
Is it a good or bad thing that less than 46.8% of the people we give offers too have this college as their first-choice?
Anon,
UChicago’s stats are increasing in every way faster than any school in the country. It’s yield is 47% this year. Who knows what it will be next year? The yield rate has practically trouble from 25%-25% maybe 14 years ago. That’s a blink of an eye for these institutions. If the yield continues to grow it could be 60-70% in 15 years.
Yeah go UChicago! Best decision I’ve made so far was to come here, and it’s only fitting that such an incredible university reaches the level of respect it deserves.
One thing I’m having a hard time coming to terms with is how the admissions office yet again “underestimated” yield, leading to a housing crunch for first years. Sure, if this was done one year, at most two years, this mistake could be dismissed. But this is the third year in a row admissions took in a large class and had to find alternate housing accommodations.
To Support Maroon:
Hey! Cut the Admissions Office a little slack. As a long-suffering Alumni Schools Committee member, I can recall through gnashing teeth that every kid I interviewed, starting in the mid-1980s and going up to 2008, who was also accepted at HYP or S and Chicago was gone — we lost ‘em all. Every bloody last one. Back then, even though every entering class had pockets of unquestioned brilliance, the bottom edge of entering classes was, in the words of an Admissions staffer, “pretty ragged.” Put bluntly, we were living then off the culls of more popular peer institutions. We took “slugs” — kids with 1500 SATs and a C+/B- average. The College Admissions staff used a formula to predict roughly how many applicants needed to be accepted in order to fill the class, given that historically, X percent would turn down Chicago for someplace else.
Since then, things have looked up for the College. Investments in dorms, athletic facilities, the arts, study abroad programs, paid internships, vastly improved career and graduate study counselling — these have increased the popularity (and perhaps, more important, the profile) of the College to kids in high school. Reflecting these improvements in undergraduate life, the College picked up an extra star in the Fiske Guide for “Social” and “Quality of Life.
All this stuff equals a hot college, a (to me) welcome departure from the tepid place it was up until the last few years. No more slugs — actually, my impression is their numbers had pretty much died out by 2000.
For the Admissions Committee folk who figure out how many to accept to fill the next class, all the historical data they used for their predictive model have flown out the window — there’s no statistical precedent for the College as a winner — only as an also-ran. In a wierd sense, they’re victims of their own success. They’ll do better next year.
“It definitely means something to go to the fifth-best university in the United States,” said Daisy Lu, a senior at Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City, referring to the University’s ranking in the latest U.S. News and World Report. “It means that I have tons of resources and an impressive alumni base to draw from. It means that my mom can brag to our relatives abroad in China. It means that when I say I’m attending UChicago in the fall, I get nods and respect from my teachers and peers.”
This was all true when UChicago was eighth place instead of in a THREE-WAY TIE for fifth.
Glad I got in on the gettin’ while the gettin’ was good.
That’s what I love about these college kids. My degree keeps appreciating, and they stay the same age.
It’s actually a five-way tie…
I feel bad for the 1,525 students enrolling. Right now, they’re on top of the world: they’ve been accepted by and have the means to attend one of the most prestigious universities in the world. If only they knew how anti-social and sad this place really is.
There are a lot of things wrong with this University, and fixing them begins neither with a higher US News ranking nor ensuring 19 students per core class. In other words, fixing them begins not with outside perceptions of the University but rather the perceptions of those who actually attend it. It begins with finding ways to make the University a happier and more enjoyable place for its students. I know you know this, John, so keep telling your story about the Stanford professors: it reminds us students that you continue to miss the point.
I fear this increase is the result of UChi throwing away the Uncommon Application and using the Common Application. I fear there will be a dumbing down of the core, as they admit, and try to keep students who are not traditional UChi material. As Zed said “Glad got in on the gettin’ while the gettin’ was good.” I am not sure I would have wanted my kids going here now, because there is no guarantee the quality will be the same.
Oh, where are the New Graduate Students supposed to live if they are being displaced by undergrads?
Agree with UChicago Mom — The “type” of student UChicago wants now is the same “type” of student at the more traditionally prestigious schools: overachieving, obsessed with not what they experience, but how those experiences will look on paper.
What made UChicago great was that it was a wonderfully bizarre place. Now, the admissions office tries too hard to be just quirky enough so that it’s cute…just like everywhere else.
I miss Ted O’Neill!
The new admits are all obsessed with prestige. Take a look at college confidential, that is all these kids talk about. “Oh look, so and so attended Chicago in 1985! OMG!” What a joke. The Chicago brand has been tarnished beyond repair. I’d rather the school be a ‘safety school’ for intellectuals than a reach school for ignorant d-bags.