How did U. Chicago get its GPA median up so fast? Forum

[Dr. Dre]

How did they do it?

2012 − 3.90
2011 − 3.87
2010 − 3.78

Aren't they beating H now?



This doesn't make sense (no offense Regulus)



Even their 75th percentile is freaking high!

[jbagelboy]

Rubenstein

[Nova]

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/node/3762

[John_rizzy_rawls]

Yep, the Ruby is your answer here.

It's improved their yield, GPA median, and bumped them up into a tied for 4th with Columbia.

[20141023]

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[Dr. Dre]

Even so, I wonder if the Ruby recipients alone (20 students per year) were really able to pull up the GPA median that much. The entering class at Chicago is about 190 students, which means that the Ruby recipients accounted for about 9.5% of each of their classes (it is actually a little less because not 20 people accepted the Ruby each year).

yes, i'm still thinking about this. . .

[loomstate]

they place more value in admissions in higher GPA than other similar schools.

[sublime]

..

[Dr. Dre]

they place more value in admissions in higher GPA than other similar schools.

it does not explain the sudden increase

[badaboom61]

The Ruby was Chicago right wing economics at its finest. Once they gave full rides to the top, the already existing scholarship money "trickled down" to the bottom, which means everyone got more money than they previously would have.

This helps explain the noticeable numerical increases when only 10% of the class is on a Ruby.

[sublime]

..

[2014]

We accept individuals who exclusively engaged in RIGOROUS undergraduate study and pursued EXCELLENCE. Splitters are slackers.

[wisdom]

Well now that I see that data, which I did not know about at all, I'm curious why they didn't have any bump in their median LSAT score. If the Rubenstein helped them attract better candidates overall, then they had some flexibility about who to selectively admit/attract -- do you want the 3.95/170 guy, or the 3.85/173? The upward trend in GPAs with the flat LSAT median indicates a very deliberate effort on the part of the admissions office to bump the GPA number up.

[20141023]

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[Dr. Dre]

In this (the last year of the Ruby), Chicago began doing interviews, which might also throw off the numbers.

Throw off numbers? how?

[20141023]

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[ms9]

they place more value in admissions in higher GPA than other similar schools.

This is the answer, if started before Ruby, and it was likely a conscious and strategic decision. Admissions strategy goes through "in vogue" trends, it kind of reminds me of diet and exercise modalities although I imagine there are thousands of other and better example (the big trend now is yield protection which i find laughable as it is only a component of selectivity, which is turn is an absurdly small percentage of overall USWR rankings...but since applications are down, down, and then down a third year in a row it has become increasing difficult to increase the applicant pool [for example only 1 school this cycle is up 40% or more in applications and 45 schools are down 30% or more] and so yield is more important to admissions deans). Anyway, back to the matter, LSAT went through a huge trend of being overemphasized and Chicago was sort of leading this pack which fit the intellectual premium and brand of the university in general. BUT (and this is a big one) what most law schools did not know and never figured out was the Bob Morse did not weight raw LSAT scores, but rather LSAT bandwidths. So a bandwidth (he changed them up) might have a 170 weighted the same as a 173 and thus a 173 had no more impact on USNWR than a 170. I think (or perhaps know) the Chicago folks, who are good at what they do and have been in it a good while, figured this out and adjusted. Many schools still have not.

[Dr. Dre]

Thanks Mike. That explains the flat LSAT median.

So I'm assuming there is no GPA bandwidth, right?

[ms9]

Thanks Mike. That explains the flat LSAT median.

So I'm assuming there is no GPA bandwidth, right?

Yes that is correct and Dre won't find any of this stuff in a book

[20141023]

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[06102016]

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[TaipeiMort]

Something else to remember is that UChicago UG doesn't grade inflate. The admits from there (a large number each year) have had around 3.5 or 3.6 GPAs. This has traditionally dragged down our numbers. I'm not sure if there was a policy change or a change in the type of UChicago UG admits, but this could help explain. But, I don't think it has changed. They still seen to be to biggest group in each class.

[RodneyRuxin]

Is Regulus going to be the new Taipeimort?

/mindblown

[20141023]

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[Big Dog]

Something else to remember is that UChicago UG doesn't grade inflate.

But to be fair, only a handful of colleges truly have high gpa medians - here's looking at you, Brown, Yale and Pomona. Most private colleges are in the 3.3-3.4 range, which is exactly where Chicago lies.