<p>It would be great if we could compile this information, since it reveals some important information about the desirability of some colleges. I have some data from 2007 that was posted (not totally sure on accuracy), but nothing from 2008. If anyone has anything on Columbia please share it.
USNWR Top National Universities ranked by yield</p>
<p>79% Harvard
71% Yale
70% Stanford
69% MIT
68% Princeton
67% U Penn
55% Brown
52% U Virginia (Total), 67% U Virginia (IS), 34% U Virginia (OOS)
52% Dartmouth
47% Cornell
34% Johns Hopkins (projected by admissions department)</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that UVa and Brown are not USNWR top 15. (judging by the title of this thread) :) Its okay, you can include them in if you want.</p>
<p>Dude, I cannot believe Brown is not in the top 15...It certaintly deserves to be up here. For a school that is almost synomonous with undergraduate experience and high quality, you'd expect USNews to recognize these attributes and change the ranking to accomodate such differences. :( USNews screwed up big time on this one.</p>
<p>What I was able to find, for class of 2012 preliminary yield (didn't take into account waitlist action at other schools):</p>
<p>Harvard 78%
Stanford 72%
Yale 69.4%
MIT 66%
Penn 63%
Princeton 58%
University of Chicago 39%
Caltech 33.4%</p>
<p>I'd like to find info on other schools which is possible if people attending the other colleges tell me how many are in their class of 2012 and then we can divide that by the number of students admitted. (I did this for Caltech and Princeton)</p>
<p>This year, many schools, like Harvard, seem to have accepted fewer students and then went deep into their waitlist (if memory serves me correctly, Harvard took something like 200 from their WL). This artificially increases the yield, IMO.</p>
<p>Is yield indicative of a school's "desirability", as Bescraze suggests, or is it more complicated than that?</p>
<p>Here are the most "desirable" schools in the US or US territories according to IPEDS:</p>
<p>school, yield</p>
<p>Collins College 100
Transylvania University 100
Westwood College-Anaheim 100
American Indian College of the Assemblies of God Inc 100
College of the Ozarks 100
United States Air Force Academy 100
Globe University 100
Everglades University 100
Tri-State University-South Bend Campus 100
Colgate University 100
Michigan Jewish Institute 100
Western Career College-Fremont 100
Maranatha Baptist Bible College Inc 99
DigiPen Institute of Technology 99
West Virginia University 99
Salisbury University 99
The Master's College and Seminary 98
Colegio Universitario de San Juan 98
Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology 98
Holy Names University 98
Stevens-Henager College of Business-Provo 97
Massachusetts Maritime Academy 97
Bethune-Cookman University 97
Western Career College-Emeryville 97
Huston-Tillotson University 96
Oklahoma Panhandle State University 95
EDP College of Puerto Rico Inc-San Sebastian 95
The College of Saint Thomas More 94
University of Puerto Rico-Bayamon 94
Oakland City University 94
University of Mary Washington 94
University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez 93
United States Coast Guard Academy 93
Westwood College-Los Angeles 93
University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla 93
University of Puerto Rico-Cayey University College 92
University of Puerto Rico-Humacao 92
University of West Alabama 92
Montana Tech of the University of Montana 91
University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus 91
University of North Alabama 91
University of the Cumberlands 91
University of Puerto Rico in Ponce 90
Goddard College 89
Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Fajardo 89
Crown College 89
Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Bayamon 88
Barclay College 88
University of Puerto Rico-Carolina 87
Metropolitan College of New York 87
American Intercontinental University 86
Hodges University 86
Central Baptist College 86
Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo 86
Westwood College-Inland Empire 86
Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Barranquitas 86
Maharishi University of Management 85
Long Island University-C W Post Campus 85
United States Naval Academy 85
Delta State University 84
Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Guayama 84
Marshall University 83
Southern University and A & M College 83
EDP College of Puerto Rico Inc 83
Harvard University 83</p>
<p>Brown lost a tenth of a point in the peer rating, as did 10 of the top 25. No one gained. That's a little weird--in a valid measurement of this type, variations from year to year should go in both directions. Since I find it hard to believe that a whole bunch of people suddenly decided that Princeton, Brown, and CalTech were less distinguished than they were last year, it suggests that the respondent pool for the survey has changed somewhat. Make of that what you will. </p>
<p>Of the ten schools who lost ground in the peer ranking, 8 of them also dropped in their ultimate USNews ranking. Brown among them.</p>
<p>So, a bit of a digression, but I think that's what happened to Brown. Obviously it isn't a "worse" school than it was last year, and obviously it's a fabulous place whether USNews sticks a 2, 5, 12, or 16 in front of it.</p>
<p>They are similar in size and, with the exception of the US Naval Academy, the yield rates are more similar than among universities. The yield rates are generally lower than among the top universities yet the selectivity, as measured by SAT scores, is similar to Universities. Harvey Mudd has the lowest yield yet it has the highest SAT scores. This must have something to do with its focus on engineering. The Naval Academy has a high yield because it is a special interest school but Mudd is also a special interest school. In the case of Mudd, the population of engineering applicants is limited, especially top engineering applicants, and the competion for top engineering students is tough. Students simply don't apply to the Naval Academy unless they really want to go there. Navy has almost no competition. Grinnell's yield might be adversely affected by its location.</p>
<p>So, yield is affected by competition, size, location, special focus, and other factors.</p>
<p>United States Naval Academy 81
Williams College 47
Middlebury College 42
Bowdoin College 41
Wellesley College 41
Swarthmore College 40
Pomona College 39
Davidson College 39
Washington and Lee University 39
Wesleyan University 38
Amherst College 38
Smith College 37
Vassar College 37
Claremont McKenna College 36
Carleton College 36
Haverford College 36
Hamilton College 35
Colgate University 34
Oberlin College 32
Grinnell College 28
Harvey Mudd College 22</p>
<p>Hanna,
In the case of WVU, their yield went from 99% in 2006 to 45% in 2007. Some schools have crazy fluctuations in the US Department of Education data.</p>
<p>The yield data is a combination of 2006 and 2007 figures from the US Department of Education as reported to them by the schools.</p>
<p>Some other US New top 15 yield rates (class entering 2007):</p>
<p>Columbia 59.1%
Duke 43.2%
Caltech 38.1%
Chicago 36.1%
WUSTL 34.2%
Northwestern 33.7%</p>
<p>Some top publics:
UNC Chapel Hill 55.4%
Texas 53.8%
U Washington 45.6%
UIUC 45.2%
Michigan 43.1%
Georgia Tech 42.9%
Wisconsin 42.8%
UC Berkeley 40.1%
UCLA 37.7%</p>
<p>I don't think yield tells us much about the desirability of a school in the abstract. I do think it tells us something about the degree to which it's the first (or only) choice of its own applicant pool. Some very good schools---Chicago, WUSTL, Northwestern---land only about 1/3 of their admits, presumably because many are cross-admits with other top schools which in the end are preferred by a large fraction of the cross-applicants. </p>
<p>The heavy skew of Virginia's yield identified in bescraze's original post---extremely high (67%) for in-state admits, much lower (34%) for OOS---confirms this. It makes sense that Virginia is seen as a "destination" school for many Virginia residents: it's an opportunity to get a first-class education at a bargain price. For most OOS applicants, however, it's a "back-up" (I won't say "safety")---an acceptable fallback if they don't get into one of their preferred schools a little higher up in the pecking order. It appears schools like Chicago, WUSTL, and Northwestern are "backups" for a large fraction of their applicants.</p>