<p>I’ve never looked at yield rates (never really been interested). Is between 30 and 40% typical for a school of Michigan’s caliber? It just seems like it should be higher, but I’m sure my perception is skewed since almost every instate person I knew who got accepted ended up going (except for a handful of those who chose Ivies instead).</p>
<p>Yield varies from school to school for a number of reasons. Michigan’s yield could be lower than others because (i) it does not have a binding Early Decision program which tends to increase yield because the applicant who is accepted is bound to enroll, (ii) Michgan attracts a type of applicant that a applies to a number of Ivies and like institutions and the applicant enrolls in the Ivy, (iii) Michigan doesn’t practice the Tufts symdrome concept where applicants who are viewed as overqualified are rejected before they can turn the school down to go elsewhere, and (iv) the Common App has a tendency to reduce the acceptance rate by increasing the number of applications by making easier to apply and reducing they yield by attracting applicants who may be less interested because it was more effortless to apply. The instate concept that romani describes probably offsets this (although I do not have any data to support this or rebut this but it appears to be true based off a general observation) but in addition to those who chose Ivies there are a select few who choose attend MSU instead.</p>
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<p>Oh I’m well aware ;)</p>
<p>But really, thanks for that explanation. Like I said, just not something that I’ve ever paid attention to so that number caught me off guard a bit. Everything you said makes perfect sense though.</p>
<p>Another factor pushing Michigan’s yield down is weak financial aid for OOS students. Just take a look at the University of Michigan Class of 2017 threads on this forum. There are tons of admitted OOS kids who would love to attend Michigan–many say it’s their top choice–but who can’t or won’t because it’s not cost-competitive, insofar as Michigan doesn’t meet full need for OOS students, and its merit aid is spotty at best.</p>
<p>Hate to say it, but my own D may be in that group. We expected, based on our financial resources, that we’d be full-pay everywhere, and if we were, Michigan would be $4K to $8K per year cheaper than any of the private colleges D2 was looking at. But as it turns out, 4 of her private schools came through with merit aid offers in the range of $15K to $25K per year. Michigan? Zilch. So we find ourselves unexpectedly looking at Michigan as her high-cost option, a good $20K/year more costly than her most generous private offer, which is from a pretty darned good school. There are many things she loves about Michigan and about Ann Arbor, but they sure don’t make it easy.</p>
<p>That said, Michigan is managing to fill about 40% of its entering class with OOS students these days, despite not being able to offer generous need-based or merit aid to OOS students. That’s pretty impressive. And its (roughly) 40% yield is in line with a lot of other outstanding schools not named HYPSM. Chicago’s yield is right around 40% most years. Duke’s is a little higher, around 45%, but that’s with roughly 40% of their entering class coming from binding ED; among RD applicants, their yield is probably somewhere south of 40%. Northwestern’s total yield is under 40%, and that’s with a third of their freshman class coming from binding ED.</p>
<p>It’s probably unwise to read too much into yield in any event. The University of Nebraska has one of the highest yields in the country, higher than Princeton’s most years; but no one would say that makes it more desirable than Princeton. Too many factors go into yield to have it mean anything. But if you have nagging doubts, compare Michigan to schools like Chicago, Duke, and Northwestern (which all have the resources to be more generous with FA, by the way); Michigan’s right in the same ballpark.</p>
<p>bclintonk - if I may ask, which schools are coming through with the best merit offers for your daughter? </p>
<p>Good to hear; hopefully with their new fund raising, Michigan will begin to offer more merit to OOSers (or IS for that matter).</p>
<p>It is hard to compare Michigan’s yield rate to that of a private peer because of several factors:</p>
<p>1.Michigan does not have ED. Many of Michigan’s private peer institutions enroll large ED classes. When ED students make up 40% of your undergraduate student population, it is easy to have a very high yield rate. The yield for that 40% is almost 100%.</p>
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<li><p>While Michigan is very well respected by the intellectual and corporate elite (academe and corporate America), high school students are likely to be more impressed by the USNWR, where Michigan does very poorly because of flawed methodology and lack of institutional control/data integrity auditing. </p></li>
<li><p>As we all know, Michigan is usually a good value for IS students, but not always such a great value for OOS students because the University does not provide competitive financial aid. As a result, most lower middle income-middle income OOS kids who are admitted to Michigan will choose to attend a cheaper In-State flagship or a private peer that offers far better aid. The new fundraising drive starting later this year is reported to exceed $5billion and will likely target reaching a 100% need-based, need-blind financial aid, regardless of state of residence.</p></li>
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<p>Still, Michigan manages very high admission standards for OOS students (25% acceptance rate, mid 50% unweighed GPA 3.8-4.0, mid 50% ACT 29-33 and mid 50% SAT 1280-1480). Obviously, many of those kids got acceptances from other top universities but chose Michigan for whatever reason (down-to-earth students, friend college town, spirited campus, well-rounded academics, passable athletic tradition etc…). </p>
<p>At any rate, Michigan’s overall yield is 40%, compared to 35%-45% for most non-Ivy peers.</p>
<p>“For lower class students, who could be just as enthusiastic about attending UM as their affluent counterparts, it is too risky to submit a binding application without knowing if the financial aid is going to be sufficient.”</p>
<p>For schools that HAVE an ED program, there’s the risk that the ED FA offer might not be the best you could get. If the offered ED FA is insufficient to support attendence (the family decides, not the school), you decline the offer, and apply RD elsewhere.</p>
<p>Even for in-state students, the financial aid is not very well. I know one students got full tuition scholarship from Northwestern (still need to pay boarding) and made it much cheaper than the deal from UMich in-state. NWU offers mostly need based aids.</p>
<p>billcscho, there may be instances where an OOS school can be cheaper to attend than Michigan for residents of Michigan, but that is not common. Typically, Michigan will meet 100% of demonstrated need for in-state students.</p>
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<p>Here’s an article (linked in another thread) that explains a bit of what’s going on. The University’s Admissions Director states that in-state yield is nearly 70%, while OOS yield is less than 25%. The most important explanation for this disparity, in my opinion, is disparate financial treatment. In-state students pay a much lower tuition, and on top of that the University meets 100% of their need. OOS students pay a much higher tuition, the University doesn’t meet full need, and merit scholarships for OOS students are spotty. That means the OOS students who attend are going to be heavily tilted toward full-pays.</p>
<p>[Enrollment</a> trends: Out-of-state students form 42.6 percent of University of Michigan’s freshman class](<a href=“http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-sees-increase-in-out-of-state-students/]Enrollment”>Enrollment trends: Out-of-state students form 42.6 percent of University of Michigan's freshman class)</p>
<p>None of that is surprising to me. The stunning figure to my mind was that only about 10,000 of Michigan’s 40,000+ applicants in 2012 were in-state students. Over 30,000 were OOS applicants. I would have guessed something closer to equal numbers in-state and OOS. I think a couple of things are going on here. First, there’s lot of “steering” among in-state students; many in-state students who might be interested are advised they’re unlikely to be admitted, and so they never bother to apply. Among those in-state students who do apply, many are well qualified, many of the well-qualified are admitted, and many of the admitted in-state students elect to attend. </p>
<p>At the same time, many OOS students look at Michigan’s overall somewhat high admit rate (often using outdated figures from US News) and figure Michigan is a “match” or “safety,” not realizing the admit rate they’re seeing is a blended rate, reflecting a high in-state admit rate (due to self-selection in the applicant pool) and a somewhat lower OOS admit rate. So lots of OOS applicants apply; they’re admitted at a lower percentage than the overall admit rate; and their yield is somewhat lower, because the University doesn’t provide a lot of grant or scholarship aid to OOS students.</p>
<p>Goodness how mercenary we have all become - elite this, rank that. How about education folks? Where does one become smarter and learned?</p>
<p>You can get a good education almost anywhere. Some strive to get what they perceive to be the best education possible, at an affordable price.</p>
<p>Looks like it’ll be at 33% this year - 10% increase in applications from last year to 46,733</p>
<p>[Freshman</a> applications to U-M continue to set records](<a href=“http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/130523/applicants]Freshman”>http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/130523/applicants)</p>
<p>I was expecting more applicants (50,000 instead of 47,000), but a lower yield (39%, like last year instead of 42%). I suppose the increased selectivity is already making Michigan more desirable. I knew the yield would hold and eventually increase over time as the university becomes more selective and in-demand, but I did not expect it to happen this quickly. The acceptance rate could drop to under 30% next year.</p>
<p>That 41.8% yield will probably shrink a little. It’s based on the number of admitted students who put down deposits, but there’s always some “melt” from that number as some come off waitlists from other schools, others change their minds and decide to enroll elsewhere, and others decide to take a gap year or not attend college at all. Still, the growth in applications and the declining admit rate are impressive.</p>
<p>Considering the rise in applications and resulting drop in admin rates that peer universities have experienced the first 5-10 years of joining the common application, it is not at all surprising. Chicago is the most recent peer to join and their admit rate dropped from 40% to 8% in 7 years. Michigan’s admit rate will not drop nearly as much, but I anticipate it will eventually reach the 20% range in the next 3-4 years.</p>
<p>We had 46,000 applicants; heard it first hand from someone who should know. They are expecting the yield to hold.</p>
<p>“Still, the growth in applications and the declining admit rate are impressive.” Not as impressive if you did not get in, more like depressive! :-)</p>
<p>It would be more helpful if UofM broke out the application numbers and acceptance numbers by in-state and OOS.</p>
<p>^submit a FOIA request. they are obligated to break it down to the last number. I recently submited a FOIA request myself and it’s not that hard.</p>