The colleges with the highest yield as listed in 2017-18 IPEDS are below. I am only including non-online US colleges that report ACT with at least 50 bachelor’s degree graduates. The are dozens more with near 100% yield, without these limitations. This group often has something unique about the colleges that is not replicated well at alternatives, such as the military universities or Brigham Young.
Colleges with >75% Yield
Logan University – 100%
US Military Academy – 98%
US Air Force Academy – 97%
US Coast Guard Academy – 95%
Bellin College - 95%
Bryan College of Health Sciences – 95%
Martin Luther College – 88%
Southwestern Christian University – 88%
College of the Ozarks – 84%
Harvard – 83%
Stanford – 82%
Haskell Indian Nations University – 82%
Brigham Young University – 81%
Florida College – 81%
Clarkson College – 80%
Cleary Univeristy – 80%
Purdue University: Northwest – 78%
MIT – 76%
Marantha Baptist University – 76%
Minot State – 76%
Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing – 75%
The group below limits to highly selective academic colleges, like HYPSM… In this case the yield rate is largely a function of selectivity and ED/EA/REA/SCEA policy. Early applicants have close to 100% yield at many of the colleges, so the more a college draws on early applicants, the higher the yield. Otherwise yield follows selectivity, as students tend to apply to less selective colleges as a backup, not more selective as a backup. For example, students whose first choice is their state school rarely apply to HYPSM as a backup in case their first choice state school rejects them, so they don’t knock down the yield for HYPSM in spite of it not being their first choice. However, students whose first choice is HYPSM do often apply to their state school as a backup, so it these students do knock down the yield for their state school. Another less significant, but still influential factor is having a unique admissions policy that favors “fit” students who are less likely to be admitted to or to favor other colleges. I expect this contributes to Caltech not appearing on this >50% yield list.
Highly Selective, Non-Military Colleges with >50% Yield
Harvard – 83%
Stanford – 82%
Brigham Young – 81%
MIT – 76%
Chicago – 72%
Webb – 70%
Yale – 69%
Princeton – 66%
Penn 65%
Olin – 63%
Columbia – 61%
Brown – 59%
Dartmouth – 58%
Cooper Union – 57%
Cornell – 56%
Northwestern – 55%
Notre Dame – 55%
Duke – 54%
Pomona – 54%
Clremont McKenna – 53%
Bowdoin – 51%
Barnard – 51%