On the quads
Flood of early admissions apps
Chicago's massive increase in early admissions applications this fall made nationwide news, including the New York Times-mainly as evidence that September 11 hasn't led students to consider colleges closer to home. Early applications increased 35.4 percent over fall 2000, from 1,801 to 2,439. Applications were up from every region. The College early-admitted 1,114 students, 14.5 percent more than a year ago, and expects to admit 3,300-3,400, for a class of about 1,100.

Signed, sealed, and delivered
Telecommunications firm Ameritech awarded the linguistics department's American Sign Language program a $10,000 grant for innovative classroom use of technology. The grant will buy equipment for students to digitally video record assignments, post them online, and correct them.

Stepping-stones
For third-years who think a U of C degree offers two options-grad school or business jobs-this January's Taking the Next Step program offered creative alternatives. Keynoted by Mark Hollmann, AB'85, and Greg Kotis, AB'88, composer and author, respectively, of the hit Broadway musical Urinetown, the program included panels on careers in the visual arts and writing, not-for-profits, sports, and teaching. About 500 students and 70 alumni were at the event.

Programmed to win
The Flaming Phoenixes placed second behind the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville at the Association for Computing Machinery's Mid-Central USA programming contest. Sonya Cates and Aquinas Hobor, both third-years in computer science, and doctoral candidate Ivona Bezakova beat 98 teams in the region by solving six of seven problems using C, C++, Pascal, or Java programs.

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