Actually, more than 3/4 of all admits matriculate at Harvard, and far more than 25% of all the "losses" are to to four schools: MIT, Stanford, Princeton and Yale - more than 50%, in fact - although I believe Harvard takes 3/4 of the common admits from that subgrouping as well.
AMof MA9:15AM January 30, 2012
"Most Popular" would be the Universities with the greatest number of applicants relative to class size, by which standard the Ivies readily outpace other schools....that is which University has the greatest aspiration rate among potential applicants. For the top academic schools, the cross-admission rate has to be included. For example, Harvard's admission rate falls because its applicants are often admitted to the other Ivies, Stanford to MIT as well and they must choose among them. Relative to its peer group, Harvard yields 60% of cross-admits. Relative to non-peer Universities Harvard yields 90-95% (vs. Brigham Young, Notre Dame, Michigan etc.). BYU is vastly preferred by Mormons which make up almost 2/3 of its applicants. In that regard they are best compared to Yeshiva, or to service academies because they have a self-selected audience. High yields for religious affiliation groupings or those aspiring to a military career is only natural but provides little information across the broad population.
Johns Hopkinsof AZ5:48PM January 29, 2012
I am so proud of Savannah State University's ranking as being one of the most popular universities in the country. In addition, Savannah State University is one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation. Our University is known for its highly impressive NROTC, Marine Biology, and Business programs.
Best regards,
WELCH C. FAIR, JR.
Commander, U. S. Navy (Retired)
Class of 1976
CDR Welch C. Fair, Jr., USN (Retired)of TX12:31PM January 26, 2012
USNews realizes that it made a mistake when it removed "yield" as a factor in its rankings, and ever since has been looking for a way to report these numbers, which is the measure by which most top elites compare themselves to their peer group.
That said, USNews should find some way of filtering out the less competitive schools, including state schools in remote areas, where the yield rate is high because the applicant group is "self-selecting".
The way to separate the two groups is to limit yield rankings in the top group to schools with both a high yield rate and a high SAT median.
The BEST way of ranking the "popularity" of top schools is by the cross-admit rate - a statistic that can be hard to come by. In this metric, schools are compared on the basis of which of two or more schools an applicant chooses when admitted to more than one.
A.M.of MA1:49PM January 25, 2012
Why does US News insist on giving this ranking a misleading title year after year? Yield is not a good measure of popularity. It measures how much applicants have their mind set on a certain university. Popularity might be more accurately measured by number of applicants, or number of people who would attend a university if admission and financial aid were assured. This is a gross treatment of statistics and an insult to analysts everywhere.
Beanof NY3:42PM January 24, 2012
Really, none of this seems very surprising to me. I would be willing to bet that the 25% of students who are admitted to Harvard but do not actually attend either 1) attend one of the other top-ranked Universities (because if you're accepted at Harvard, you'r going to be accepted at The University of Pennsylvania) or 2) can't afford it.
At least the article was astute enough to note for itself that the admissions process that students must go through in order even be accepted to a one of the US Military Academies means that students will attend if accepted.
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AM of MA 9:15AM January 30, 2012
Johns Hopkins of AZ 5:48PM January 29, 2012
CDR Welch C. Fair, Jr., USN (Retired) of TX 12:31PM January 26, 2012
A.M. of MA 1:49PM January 25, 2012
Bean of NY 3:42PM January 24, 2012
RTurner of KY 2:10PM January 24, 2012