Key admit. stat. -- more students want to attend U.

While some may decry the University's recent rising admissions percentages, high school seniors seem to be ignoring the hype. This year, the University's yield, the percentage which measures the number of seniors who will enroll in the fall out of those who are who were offered admission, hit 51.6 percent, more than a two point increase from last year's 49.3 rating, according to Admissions Dean Lee Stetson. Universities across the Ivy League this week reported yields ranging from 45.4 percent at Columbia University to 75 percent at Harvard University. While most schools' rates climbed this year, Yale University's yield fell "a couple of points" to 57 percent, according to Stewart Moritz, an assistant director of admissions at the Connecticut school. Since some seniors who have accepted offers of admission may change their minds and not attend the University, these figures are not yet final, Stetson said. But he added that he is "encouraged" by the increase so far this year. "We were pleasantly surprised," he said. "We're heartened by the response." Not expecting such a jump in yield, Stetson said that admissions officers were hoping to at least hold even with last year's level, as high schoolers responded to the increasing financial burden which a private education brings. "The difference in the [college] marketplace is that cost is a greater factor and is making state universities more attractive," he said. "That meant that we might have seen a softening of the numbers." Moritz pointed to this factor as causing Yale's declining yield. "It's probably down a little bit because of the financial situation," he said. "If things look a little better financially next year, I think we'll do a little bit better." Several admission officers stressed the importance of the recently released figures, in comparison to the much-ballyhooed acceptance rates. A university's enrollment yield is a major statistic in determining how many students to accept the following year, Moritz said, adding that because the enrollment yield determines the number of students admitted, it is in many ways a more important figure than the admissions rate. "The perspective goes well beyond admit rate," Stetson said. "It's also whether [accepted students] choose you or not. The real measure of a class is who arrives." Dartmouth College's Dean of Admissions Alfred Quirk agreed, adding that the quality of the class can be affected by the ability of a school to convince admitted students to enroll. "If a student has four good acceptances, and if you get one of four, you're doing pretty well," he said. "Whether we like it or not, that's where we're going to be for a couple of years." Stetson said that the new figures can be viewed as an "encouraging" sign for the University's future admissions. "We were cautious about this year," he said. "The fact that it not only stayed the same, [but] that we are showing an increase, is encouraging."

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