Of course, yield is determined by what people think of the college (possibly in comparison to other colleges or other paths like employment or military service) while they are high school seniors, not what they think of the college after they have attended the college.
But it can be possible that yield (based on what people think about the college before they attend) and satisfaction (after having attended and experienced the college) mismatch significantly:
Low yield, high satisfaction: students are more likely to be pleasantly surprised, but it suggests that the college is not as effectively marketing itself to high school seniors.
High yield, low satisfaction: students are more likely to be unpleasantly surprised, which suggests that the college’s marketing to high school seniors may be overselling what it actually offers.
Not all college marketing may be actions by the college. Sometimes, location provides either positive or negative marketing for the college. How many high school seniors think more highly of Cleveland than New York (city)?
Agree, and given how many boxes Case ticked for my kids with their various interests (and urban preferences) it is surprising that we had zero outreach from them! Which is fine-- I don’t think every college needs to replicate a marketing machine (looking at you, Northeastern.)
But the Case alums we know certainly demonstrate the value of a Case education- top grad programs in their fields, fellowships, great early career success, etc. So employers and grad and professional programs understand the value proposition- it’s just HS kids who don’t get it!
Cleveland- I’ve heard about how unsafe it is (this coming from people who live in places statistically more dangerous than Cleveland). I’ve heard about how “Red” Ohio’s politics are (this coming from folks in Florida… where you’ve got some true lunacy around killing your own population by vilifying masks and vaccines). And of course- “it’s so far away” when it’s a single flight, no changes, from a bunch of cities.
For my DS20, CWRU was the far and away winner for mail received. Sometimes multiple pieces in a week. If my memory serves me correctly, I think he may have gotten 2 on the same day.
Do you have any examples of this and how do you define high yield in this case? Word of mouth would be a bigger factor than any marketing a college does.
“I’ve heard about how “Red” Ohio’s politics are (this coming from folks in Florida”
Students with more liberal views who are factoring in politics are not applying to Florida or Ohio or now, probably Texas for that matter, especially women.
With the apparently higher number of applicants at many universities this year, it will be interesting to monitor yield rates when Common Data Sets for 2023 are published.