How much does Yield affect your choices?

College Search & Selection
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<p>At what level (if any) does it become a turn-off or a show stopper?</p>

<p>My D (and I) visited a private college some months ago and had a very good time. Everything was a plus. The professors we met seemed very nice, engaged, and knowledgeable in their fields. Class size was small. The campus was very attractive. All the students we talked to love the place. Greek size was relatively modest. It is probably, on average, a little below my D’s academic level but, as I said, all in all, a very positive experience. So it went on the list as a very strong candidate for an application.</p>

<p>While poking around the Internet today I was looking over a school we have not visited yet and while online was curious about the yield of the school in question. Turns out it is only twelve percent. “Yikes,” I thought, “out of 100 accepted students, only 12 decide to enroll.” So, then I begin to wonder, why. What do they know that we don’t?</p>

<p>Again, I’m sure the students there do like it very much and are getting an excellent education which, of course, is the most important thing. But doesn’t such a low yield raise a red flag? </p>

<p>Is there a mythical yield cutoff? For a certain level student?</p>

<p>Is this a legitimate topic to bring up to the school administration and ask them about?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>Look at the yields of Nebraska and BYU. Then look at the yield of Tulane. And loop back to Harvard’s.</p>

<p>Conclusions? Except for enrollment managers and a few misguided alumni, yield is nothing short of useless for applicants.</p>

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<p>Yield does not necessarily correlate with academic quality. For instance, University of Alaska - Fairbanks has one of the highest yields of any school, higher than Berkeley, Cornell, Brown, Duke, and CalTech. Does anyone actually believe that UA-F offers a better overall education than CalTech? </p>

<p>Low yield usually indicates a student used a school as an academic safety. I can think of a number of phenomenal schools in California that have a much lower yield than would otherwise be expected given their academic strengths. Cal Poly SLO engineering, UCSD, Pitzer, Harvey Mudd all have a much lower yield than their academics would indicate, simply because higher stats students apply to them in case they can’t get into schools that are perceived as academically superior.</p>

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<p>Now retention rates will tell a lot about how students truly feel about the place.</p>

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<p>Money plays a big role here. Many students would rather go where they get a scholarship (funding). As a case in point, Berkeley’s OOS yield rate is lower than IN-State yield rate. That’s because Berkeley does not offer money to OOS admitted students.</p>

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<p>Not exactly true, but Berkeley’s need-based financial aid offer will be about $22,000 short of need for non-residents. ($22,000 is the non-resident additional tuition)</p>

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<p>Sorry, I don’t understand your point. (Keeping this to non-affiliated private schools only.)</p>

<p>The yields of the schools in question:</p>

<p>Harvard 76%
Tulane 25%
College “X” 12 %</p>

<p>That is exactly what anyone would expect. With your own examples, the yield exactly matches the “level” of each school. So, again, what is your point?</p>

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<p>I think yield is not important at all. Part of the yield statistic has to do with if a school takes students ED and how many they take that way. In general schools that take a lot of students ED will have a high yield - some college take almost half the incoming class ED so the yield for that half of the class will be almost 100%. Schools that have EA where no students commit early generally have lower yield - not only does the school not have a large percentage of students almost 100% committed to go there, but an EA school can easily be used as a safety school for very well qualified students.</p>

<p>IMO the important thing is to find a school that is the right fit academically, socially, and financially. Personally I wouldn’t worry about yield as long as the students at the college feel happy and proud to be there.</p>

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<p>Agree, it is not always an exact one-to-one correlation.
But, that was not the fundamental part of my question.
Sorry, if I wasn’t clear.</p>

<p>In any other situation not related to college admissions, if so few people decide to not to go somewhere, one would think there has to be a reason.</p>

<p>Is there a “red flag” number? I’m beginning to think there is. </p>

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<p>Exactly!
As my daughter put it: “I don’t want to go somewhere that was everybody else’s last choice.”</p>

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<p>True, but as in this case, college X does offer very good merit aid. With such a low yield they obviously do need to attract more students. (I believe this is more often the case than not.)</p>

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<p>Good point, thanks.</p>

<p>So, as I asked, this would be a legitimate topic to ask the Ad. office about.</p>

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<p>Is there anyway to find out about retention rates and yield rates ( a new term for me) without calling every school ? …The yield rate is those accepted, but don’t attend for every reason??? And is this appropriate to inquire, if you already were accepted? Is it awkward to call and ask? Thanks from a newbie.</p>

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<p>Well, yes, but the opposite. The yield is the percentage of those who enroll out of the total who were accepted.</p>

<p>A very simple example: Let’s say a school plans on 1,000 incoming first-year students for next fall and their yield rate is 25%. They will send out 4,000 acceptances because they know (approximately) that only 1,000 will decide to enroll.</p>

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<p>Yes, this information is in most college search databases and in a school’s Common Data Set.</p>

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<p>^^Ipeds, the federal data base, has retention rates (and yield) for most colleges.</p>

<p>[College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>

<p>In response to the OP: personally, we don’t care about yield as much as first year retention. (If kids are transferring in droves…)</p>

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<p>Golf Father:
Though a school might have a low yield rate, as others mentioned, it’s more important to note whether or not students are proud to attend that school. Remember, how a student feels in April when all the acceptances and rejections have come in, and how they feel three months into the school year when classes started and they’ve become acclimated to student life are often entirely different. I doubt most people, if they like the school, still get sad that they were rejected from their first choice. As you stated, the students primarily seemed proud that they went there. To me that indicates that after the first weeks, when they get over their rejections, they learn to love the school and all of the academic and social opportunities it provides.</p>

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<p>College may also try to increase their yield by playing the “level of applicant’s interest” game in admissions (rejecting or waitlisting high-stats applicants who appear to be using them as safeties). Private schools appear to be more likely to do that, although it is not unheard of for public schools to consider “level of applicant’s interest”. Public schools which are not that selective and admit by formula are often used as safeties, and may have relatively low yields because of that.</p>

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<p>Golfather, you skipped half of my examples. Nebraska and BYU have some of the highest yields in the country. How does that compare to Harvard’s. </p>

<p>Tulane had a much lower yield until recently. Again, what does yield tell you about Nebraska and Tulane?</p>

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<p>Note that some well regarded (at least in certain majors) schools have low yield rates (from parchment.com):</p>

<p>Stony Brook University: 24.1%
University of Massachusetts - Amherst: 21.7%
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: 21.4%
San Jose State University: 17.0%</p>

<p>Of course, some specialty schools have very high yield rates, since most people who apply think of it as their first choice:</p>

<p>New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology: 89.4%
United States Military Academy: 81.9%
Brigham Young University - Provo: 74.7%</p>

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<p>Yes, that was intentional. Read my entire post: “Keeping this to non-affiliated private schools only.”</p>

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<p>To me, a yield in the 20s is not “low.”
Remember my initial post, the school in question was at 12%.
Big difference.
Three of your four examples are state schools.
Different animal.
Read my entire posts.</p>

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<p>Isn’t Rensselaer a “specialty” school?</p>

<p>Again, this is not the issue or the question.
I will re-state it.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Does the fact that a private, non religion-affiliated, non specialty LAC has a yield in the teens cause concern or a moment’s pause? In other words, is it an issue that impacts your decision making equations? (… in a negative way)</p></li>
<li><p>Is it reasonable to contact the school’s admission’s office and ask if they have explanations about the low yield?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Hope that now makes clearer sense. Thanks.</p>

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<p>Some other highly respected colleges with a low yield are Carnegie Mellon (28.8%), Brandeis (28.2%), University of Rochester (24.9%), Northeastern (19.8%), Boston University (18.7%), and Case Western (16.2%). It means nothing except that they’re good enough to attract applications from a lot of very strong students, most of whom end up with other options, and a large fraction of whom end up making other choices. There’s no shame in that.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I think an exceptionally high yield can be a clue that something interesting is going on. In Harvard’s case, we all know why the yield is so high: it’s Harvard, for gosh sakes! In BYU’s case, it also seems pretty clear: a lot of Mormon students want to go to a Mormon school, and BYU doesn’t have any real competition in that specialty market, so of those who apply and are admitted, most will attend. </p>

<p>For the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I think high yield also tells us something: it tells us that Nebraska is a pretty insular higher education market, with most Nebraskans preferring to(or at least electing to) stay in-state, and UNL being the clear number one choice of most who apply. Ancillary statistics bear that out. Nebraska sends relatively few students to OOS public flagships in neighboring states—only 13 Nebraskans enrolled as freshmen at the University of Iowa in 2010, 9 at the University of Colorado, and 16 at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; in contrast, 83 Iowans enrolled at Nebraska, as did 64 Coloradans and 53 Minnesotans. Only 5 Nebraskans enrolled as freshmen at the University of Chicago in 2010, along with 7 at Northwestern, 6 at WUSTL, 8 at Notre Dame, and 19 for the entire Ivy League. UNL absorbed a whopping 16.6% of the state’s HS grads in 2010; in contrast, the public flagships in nearby states ranged from a low of 5.8% for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, to a high of 9.9% for the University of South Dakota, with most in the 6-7% range. Nebraskans on the whole (not just students and alums) are fiercely loyal to their public flagship; I don’t think I’ve ever met a Nebraskan who wasn’t a rabid Cornhuskers fan, perhaps in part because Nebraska hosts no professional sports, so the Cornhuskers are as big-time as it gets, and the entire state’s identity gets wrapped up in that. I think it’s an interesting cultural phenomenon that a middling public university could inspire that devoted a following, but there you have it, it’s real and potent, and I think it’s a factor in a yield rate that far surpasses those of its peer institutions in neighboring states (U Kansas 40.5%, K State 43.7%, Mizzou 36.4%, Iowa 31.6%, Iowa State40.9%, Minnesota 30.2%, Wisconsin 39.9%)</p>