The University of Chicago has released all admissions decisions for the Class of 2024. In all, 34,440 students applied to UChicago this year — a figure that includes Early Decision I, Early Decision II, Early Action, and Regular Decision applications. This application total for the Class of 2024 stacks up quite admirably against its total for the Class of 2023 when the school received just under 35,000 applications. So in a year when so many highly selective universities experienced significant application declines, the University of Chicago held steady. And the overall admission rate for the UChicago Class of 2024 was even with the overall admit rate for the Class of 2023 — at 6.2%. So just who earned admission to UChicago’s Class of 2024?

Breakdown of UChicago’s Class of 2024 Admits

As Justin Smith reports for The Chicago Maroon in a piece with a somewhat misleading title, “Acceptance Rate for Class of 2024 Remains Constant at 6.2 Percent,” “274 admitted students are first-generation college students, and 156 admitted students are from ‘small towns or little rural areas all around the world.’ Half of the admitted students come from six states, with 13 percent of admitted students from California, 11 percent from New York, 10 percent from Illinois, 6 percent from Texas, and 5 percent from both Florida and Massachusetts. 13 percent of the students admitted to the Class of 2024 are international students. ‘Over 60 students’ were admitted from China and the United Kingdom, and ‘between 10 and 20’ students were admitted from India, Brazil, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Canada.”

The Swim Goggle Kid Wins

But as our readers know, we especially love it when our nation’s elite universities go beyond the data and share anecdotes about admitted students. And we especially love it when our own students are reflected in the anecdotes! As Smith writes in his piece, quoting the UChicago Dean of Admissions James Nondorf, “One of your peers has created two modern operas, and has performed with the Peking Opera all across the world. One of you is Oman’s Woman of the Year, is a swimmer on the Oman national team, and is the first female swimmer on the national team. One of your entrepreneurial peers has a patent pending for an artificial intelligence swim goggle that is being made in conjunction with Olympic swimmers, in your class is a nationally ranked archer, and the No. 2 ranked Scrabble player in the world.” That’s right! A patent pending swim goggle. The swim goggle kid will win every time over the kid who plays three sports and a musical instrument. Go swim goggle kid!