UM's acceptance rate is 7%? What?

<p>I received my acceptance package and it said that I was chosen from 28,000 applicants for only 2,000 spaces in the freshman class. If you do the math that comes to a little over 7%- am I tripping? I understand that the numbers are probably exaggerated and they admitted more than 2,000 people, but how can their acceptance rate be reported to be over 30% according to these numbers?</p>

<p>Did you get a scholarship? Maybe it was saying that 7% of applicants receive a scholarship which sounds a little more realistic. That is the only thing I can think of.</p>

<p>They accept more people than those that actually go there. 2000 people are probably in the Freshman class right now. They probably accepted numerous others (probably up to 10,000) that didn’t choose to go last year.</p>

<p>yeah I did get a scholarship ($17k/yr). I wonder how they figure exactly how many people to admit- what if they admit too many?</p>

<p>…the other one is YIELD, i.e. how many of the accepted students actually enroll?</p>

<p>If, for example, 28,000 students apply and 40% are accepted, that would lead to 11,000 acceptance letters…but obviously not every acceptance is created equal. In some cases, students are accepted with the kind of small financial aid packages that will likely not lead to an enrollment. The school will give its best FA packages to those students that they most want to convert into enrollments (high-quality prospects who will raise the overall academic quality of the pool and students that they feel will most likely graduate). In other cases, the school (Miami in this case) is a “safety” school for the admitted students, and a significant chunk of the group will be admitted - and attend elsewhere.</p>

<p>Miami’s “yield” is in the 20% range…which is not dramatically unusual for a private school - some will not get the financial aid they need to matriculate, while others will get into a school that is higher on their priority list. A low yield is not necessarily an issue - especially when you consider that the school is still rejecting 60% of the applicants. The key is whether a school has enough quality applicants to 1) reject 60% of the pool; 2) build an incoming freshman class with only a 20% yield; and 3) still have a freshman class with stable-to-improving academic quality (which Miami seems to be achieving).</p>

<p>Thanks for the very well written explanation bebopdeluxe :)</p>