Yield

Definition: Most applicants pay little attention to the idea of "yield," but it's a big deal to the folks working in a college admissions office. Essentially, the "yield" is the percentage of admitted students who actually enroll in a college. The admissions office needs to estimate the yield in order to figure out how many students to accept. If they guess the yield wrong, they will end up with an incoming class that is either too big or too small. The yield varies widely from school to school. A prestigious university like Harvard may yield around 80% of the students they accept, while some of the less competitive colleges and state universities may yield closer to 25%.