Why do the UCs have such low yields?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>One thing I don't understand is why the UCs have such low yields relative to other top schools across the country? All of these schools are ranked as being among the top 30 public schools in the country, yet here is where they rank (if judged against the other schools in US News & World Report's top 100 national university list):</p>

<p>Yield Rank-School-Acceptance Rate-Yield
34 University of California—Berkeley 24% 42%
39 University of California—Los Angeles 26% 40%
84 University of California—Davis 68% 25%
89 University of California—Riverside 83% 22%
90 University of California—San Diego 49% 22%
93 University of California—Irvine 60% 21%
95 University of California—Santa Barbara 53% 19%
99 University of California—Santa Cruz 80% 17% </p>

<p>Any idea why the low yield rates;--particularly for the schools besides UC Berkeley and UCLA?</p>

2

<p>I think UCLA and Berkeley are often backups for kids who can get in to very good privates, and sometimes for less money out of pocket. Maybe that Belies to many of the U.C.'s. BTW, I thought a 40 percent yeild wasn't so bad in the #10 through #30 spots, especially when you can't offer much merit money.</p>

3

<p>42% for Berkeley and 40 for UCLA is not that bad. Duke has a 40% yield. </p>

<p>My guess is that many kids get into multiple UCs. Because they have to choose one UC over another, some UCs in the system will naturally have lower yield rates.</p>

4

<p>
[quote]
I think UCLA and Berkeley are often backups for kids who can get in to very good privates, and sometimes for less money out of pocket.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>"Backups" perhaps, but not "safeties." It's more accurate to say, then, that there's more overlap between those two and top privates. I think the same can be said of Duke, Johns Hopkins, U Chicago, and some others that have "low" yield rates in the 40s. It's like wrestling: getting into a higher weight class will, by definition, put you up against the heavyweights. And that means that once schools like those listed (including Berkeley and UCLA) get to that level of quality, they're going to fight against--and often lose to--private schools like HYPSM, the other Ivies, and the like.</p>

<p>As a related point, the UCs are not to practice yield protection like privates do; they are there to accept the qualified applicants and give them an education at a reasonable price. So they will accept students that will likely attend another school, but it'd be counterintuitive to their mission to reject very qualified applicants because they think they won't attend.</p>

5

<p>Careful not to call UCLA or Berkeley safeties! Have I learned nothing here?</p>

6

<p>Low yields at UCs other than Berkeley and UCLA are probably due to the fact that so many California residents apply to a bunch of UCs on a single convenient app, checking off boxes for as many UCs as they care to be considered at. Most have Berkeley and/or UCLA as their top choice, but knowing these are highly selective schools. So UCSD, UCSD, UCI, UCD, UCSB are often listed as back-ups ("safeties") by most of the applicants who end up at Berkeley and UCLA. Also very likely a lot of applicants whose first choice is Berkeley also list UCLA and vice versa, pushing down yields for both as successful applicants ultimately end up choosing their top pick.</p>

7

<p>^^ good point, but I would say more choose Berkeley over UCLA than the other way around. This might help to explain why UCLA's yield usually lags behind Berkeley's by a few percent (I think it's usually in the high 30s).</p>

8

<p>When you apply to the UC system which uses one application for all, you just check off which campuses you would consider attending so there is no harm in checking many. </p>

<p>Most of the folks I know in CA apply to a handful of privates and then 3-4 UCs. The smaller colleges know they have stiff competition for the top students so a few have been matching UC tuition to lure kids away. The UCs are the 800lb gorilla in the room in CA.</p>

9

<p>California is a big state. If you are in the top half of your class you are expected to apply to at least one if not 4 or 5. That's a lot of people. I had very little interest in going to a UC and I still applied to three.</p>

10

<p>Some people want to attend a large public university (cost, sports, less elitist, etc) and some people want to attend a small private (prestige, quality of life, more nurturing etc). But kids who want private schools often cross apply to the large publics to cover their bases. Backups as you call them. Everyone can identify the problems in admissions, but nobody has any real solutions. Its a vexing set of problems.</p>

<p>One thing right off the top is to eliminate somehow the people who are just collecting acceptance letters for bragging rights. They have NO intention of attending those schools even if accepted.</p>

11

<p>Why do CalTech (38.1%), Chicago (36.1), USC (34.6), Rice (34.3), WUSTL (34.2), Northwestern (33.7), Johns Hopkins (33.5), Tufts (32.5), Lehigh (30.0), Emory (29.6), Boston College (29.1), Brandeis (27.1), RPI (25.7), Carnegie Mellon (22.4), and U Rochester (22.1) have such low yields? I think it's because most applicants are using them as "backups" (I won't say "safeties"), hoping to do better. Despite their large applicant pools and high "selectivity," nearly 2 out of 3 applicants offered admission turn down schools like CalTech (!!!), Chicago (!!), Rice, WUSTL, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, etc. For Lehigh, Emory, and Boston College it's more like 7 in 10, and for Carnegie Mellon and U Rochester it approaches 80%.</p>

<p>See:<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/545061-destination-schools-backups.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/545061-destination-schools-backups.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

12

<p>This is because so many kids from California apply to just about every UC, since it's just one application.</p>

13

<p>Here are the numbers (For Californians HS) </p>

<p>Almost 140,000 students are admitted at the UC university wide system, but there are only 79,661 *unique *applicants of which 60,008 are admitted. The average applications for every applicants is around 3.5/3.6.</p>

<p>Applied ..Admitted ..Rate ..School
38,740 ....8,615 ..22.2% Berkeley
37,747 ...19,762 ..52.4% Davis
39,247 ...19,214 ..49.0% Irvine
46,678 ...10,319 ..22.1% UCLA
.9,980 ....7,658 ...76.7% Merced
21,224 ...16,316 ..76.9% Riverside
42,233 ...16,992 ..40.2% San Diego
43,023 ...21,367 ..49.7% Santa Barbara</p>

<h1>25,746 ...19,138 ..74.3% Santa Cruz</h1>

<p>304,618 .139,381 ..45.8% Total</p>

<p>Applied Admitted Rate School
79,661 60,008 75.3% UC System</p>

<p>Very few schools in the country have yields of more than 50%. Also, yield, by itself, is not always an indication of selectivity as a school can represent one of the few competitive options available. A mediocre pool can contribute to a higher yield.</p>