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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The percentages just mean more people apply. In the case of HYSP, more unqualified people apply and then that helps to show the low acceptance rate and “exclusivity.”

Chicago attracts unqualified students on purpose so they have a low acceptance rate.

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I don't think it's "just" this, but it's a huge factor impacting acceptance rates at schools with national brands. Compounded at some schools by the small size of the school.

A school like Penn State receives around 80k applications a year. However, it's a big school -- over 40k undergraduate students. So it accepts around half of all applicants in order to fill out a fairly large class. Large state flagships have to admit more students to fill their already large cohorts because it is so common for students to apply to their in-state flagship regardless of how badly they want to go there. Many students will choose to go elsewhere for financial or fit reasons.

Harvard, on the other hand, gets around 55k applications, but they accept fewer than 2k students and they have a very high yield because their reputation makes it hard for students who are admitted to say no (and their small number of admitted students also makes it statistically less likely students admitted to Harvard will also get into schools an applicant might deem preferable to Harvard). Harvard's endowment also enables them to be very generous with financial aid -- if you gain acceptance they will make it feasible for you to attend. This also helps with yield.

Then you have a school like Notre Dame -- national name recognition but not as strong as Harvard's brand. They admit more students than Harvard (a bit over 3k) but receive fewer applications than either Penn State or Harvard -- just 30k applications. Their yield is better than Penn State's (as a prestigious Catholic school with a good campus experience they fill an important niche) but not as good as Harvard's. ND also has a very large endowment which helps with yield but it's not as good as Harvard's, so there is also incentive for ND to admit more full pay students.[/quote]

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