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Yield Rates at the Most-Selective 4-Year Colleges, Fall 2014

By Chronicle Staff January 15, 2017

The 25 most-selective private nonprofit institutions all had much higher yield rates, or percentages of accepted students who enrolled, than did such institutions over all. In contrast, more than half of the 20 most-selective public institutions had yield rates that fell below the 32-percent rate for public colleges over all.

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The 25 most-selective private nonprofit institutions all had much higher yield rates, or percentages of accepted students who enrolled, than did such institutions over all. In contrast, more than half of the 20 most-selective public institutions had yield rates that fell below the 32-percent rate for public colleges over all.

Private institutions

Rank for selectivityInstitutionApplicantsAcceptedAdmission rateEnrolledYield
1. Stanford U. 42,167 2,145 5.1% 1,678 78.2%
2. Harvard U. 34,295 2,045 6.0% 1,654 80.9%
3. Yale U. 30,932 1,950 6.3% 1,361 69.8%
4. Columbia U. 32,967 2,291 6.9% 1,424 62.2%
5. Princeton U. 26,641 1,983 7.4% 1,312 66.2%
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 18,356 1,447 7.9% 1,043 72.1%
7. College of the Ozarks 3,407 283 8.3% 256 90.5%
8. Juilliard School 2,385 201 8.4% 129 64.2%
9. Brown U. 30,431 2,661 8.7% 1,561 58.7%
10. U. of Chicago 27,500 2,409 8.8% 1,445 60.0%
11. California Institute of Technology 6,525 576 8.8% 226 39.2%
12. U. of Pennsylvania 35,866 3,718 10.4% 2,425 65.2%
13. Claremont McKenna College 6,043 651 10.8% 327 50.2%
14. Duke U. 31,523 3,596 11.4% 1,721 47.9%
15. Dartmouth College 19,297 2,220 11.5% 1,152 51.9%
16. Pomona College 7,727 942 12.2% 450 47.8%
17. Pitzer College 4,324 563 13.0% 260 46.2%
18. Vanderbilt U. 29,518 3,865 13.1% 1,605 41.5%
19. Northwestern U. 33,674 4,416 13.1% 2,043 46.3%
20. Amherst College 8,477 1,173 13.8% 469 40.0%
21. Cornell University 43,037 6,105 14.2% 3,225 52.8%
22. Harvey Mudd College 3,678 524 14.2% 195 37.2%
23. Bowdoin College 6,935 1,034 14.9% 503 48.6%
24. Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art 2,536 382 15.1% 228 59.7%
25. Rice University 17,728 2,677 15.1% 949 35.5%

All 1,090 institutions 4,171,198 2,106,897 50.5% 488,745 23.2%

Public institutions

Rank for selectivityInstitutionApplicantsAcceptedAdmission rateEnrolledYield
1. U. of California at Berkeley 73,782 11,820 16.0% 5,467 46.3%
2. U. of California at Los Angeles 86,537 16,059 18.6% 5,764 35.9%
3. City U. of New York Bernard M. Baruch College 19,768 5,516 27.9% 1,282 23.2%
4. U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 31,332 8,929 28.5% 3,976 44.5%
5. City U. of New York Herbert H. Lehman College 14,605 4,222 28.9% 674 16.0%
6. U. of Virginia 31,021 8,997 29.0% 3,709 41.2%
7. California Polytechnic State U. at San Luis Obispo 43,812 13,533 30.9% 4,662 34.4%
8. U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor 49,776 16,047 32.2% 6,505 40.5%
9. College of William and Mary 14,552 4,805 33.0% 1,511 31.4%
10. U. of California at San Diego 73,448 24,449 33.3% 4,922 20.1%
11. Georgia Institute of Technology 25,884 8,641 33.4% 2,809 32.5%
12. San Diego State U. 56,921 19,625 34.5% 5,054 25.8%
13. City U. of New York Hunter College 28,935 10,031 34.7% 2,080 20.7%
14. City U. of New York Brooklyn College 20,260 7,158 35.3% 1,358 19.0%
15. California State U. at Long Beach 57,322 20,326 35.5% 4,335 21.3%
16. U. of California at Santa Barbara 66,813 24,283 36.3% 4,738 19.5%
17. Colorado School of Mines 12,340 4,501 36.5% 999 22.2%
18. City U. of New York York College 13,726 5,096 37.1% 994 19.5%
19. City U. of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice 13,884 5,180 37.3% 1,763 34.0%
20. U. of California at Irvine 66,515 24,890 37.4% 5,435 21.8%

All 530 institutions 5,213,060 3,131,404 60.1% 1,008,932 32.2%

Note: Yield refers to the percentage of freshmen accepted for admission who enroll at a given institution. Only first-time, degree- or certificate-seeking freshmen who enrolled either full time or part time are counted. In the ranking for private nonprofit institutions, only institutions that reported that they enrolled at least 100 first-time freshmen in 2014 are included. In the rankings for public institutions, only those that reported that they enrolled at least 500 first-time freshmen in 2014 are included. Overall figures, however, include institutions of all sizes. Percentages are rounded, but institutions were ranked before rounding. Send comments or questions to ruth.hammond@chronicle.com.

Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data

A version of this article appeared in the January 20, 2017, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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