collegehelp

school, number of freshman applications per enrollee

Washington University in St Louis 16.7
Yale University 16.0
Carnegie Mellon University 15.8
California Institute of Technology 15.6
Princeton University 15.2
Columbia University in the City of New York 14.8
Stanford University 13.9
Harvard University 13.8
Johns Hopkins University 13.1
Dartmouth College 12.9
Brown University 12.9
Tulane University of Louisiana 12.8
Boston College 12.6
Fordham University 12.4
American University 12.3
Rice University 12.1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 11.6
University of Southern California 11.4
Cornell University Endowed Colleges 11.3
Tufts University 11.2
Duke University 10.8
University of Rochester 10.8
Emory University 10.6
Lehigh University 10.4
Georgetown University 10.2
Cornell University 10.1
University of California-Berkeley 10.1
University of Miami 9.9
Brandeis University 9.9
University of California-Los Angeles 9.8
University of California-Santa Barbara 9.7
Baylor University 9.7
University of California-San Diego 9.5
SUNY at Binghamton 9.5
University of Pennsylvania 9.4
Clark University 9.1
Northwestern University 8.9
Pepperdine University 8.9
College of William and Mary 8.1
University of California-Irvine 7.9
George Washington University 7.9
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 7.9
Boston University 7.7
Vanderbilt University 7.7
University of Chicago 7.6
Marquette University 7.3
University of California-Santa Cruz 7.3
University of Notre Dame 7.3
University of California-Riverside 7.2
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 7.1
New York University 7.0
Syracuse University 6.8
University of Connecticut 6.6
Case Western Reserve University 6.4
Wake Forest University 6.4
Southern Methodist University 6.3
University of California-Davis 5.9
University of Maryland-College Park 5.7
Saint Louis University-Main Campus 5.7
University of Virginia-Main Campus 5.5
Stevens Institute of Technology 5.3
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus 5.3
University of Delaware 5.2
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 5.2
Rutgers University-New Brunswick 5.1
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 4.9
Miami University-Oxford 4.6
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4.6
Clemson University 4.5
University of Denver 4.4
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus 4.3
Auburn University Main Campus 4.2
Indiana University-Bloomington 4.0
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 3.8
Purdue University-Main Campus 3.8
University of Florida 3.7
The University of Texas at Austin 3.6
University of Wisconsin-Madison 3.6
University of Colorado at Boulder 3.6
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus 3.5
Ohio State University-Main Campus 3.5
University of Iowa 3.4
University of Washington-Seattle Campus 3.3
Michigan State University 3.2
University of Georgia 3.1
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 3.1
The University of Tennessee 2.9
University of Missouri-Columbia 2.7
Iowa State University 2.4
Texas A & M University 2.3
Yeshiva University 2.3
Brigham Young University 1.7

lfecollegeguy

How did you find these numbers?

WUSTL is no surprise through its mass marketing though I would have figured more random people (those that have little chance to be accepted) throw applications at Harvard than at Yale, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, or Princeton.

hoedown

It's a measure that deserves a little caution in interpretation. A school can be popular to apply to, but not a school that people are hoping to end up at.

At some schools, it's probably a pretty good measure of how many people are clamoring for each spot. At other schools with relatively low yield, those schools NEED to have a lot of apps, and will hustle to get them in order to meet their enrollment goals.

collegehelp

Pomona College 15.8
Claremont McKenna College 15.4
Pitzer College 15.4
Swarthmore College 14.4
Amherst College 14.1
Harvey Mudd College 12.7
Bowdoin College 12.5
Colgate University 11.8
Occidental College 11.5
Williams College 11.2
Haverford College 11.1
Middlebury College 11.0
Ursinus College 11.0
Lafayette College 10.7
Hamilton College 10.6
Drew University 10.6
Trinity College 10.3
Macalester College 10.2
Bard College 10.1
Kenyon College 10.1
Bucknell University 10.1
Wesleyan University 10.1
Bates College 10.0
Colby College 10.0
Skidmore College 9.9
College of the Holy Cross 9.8
Reed College 9.7
Carleton College 9.5
Oberlin College 9.4
Dickinson College 9.4
Colorado College 9.3
Spelman College 9.2
Vassar College 9.1
Goucher College 9.0
Denison University 8.9
Wheaton College 8.8
Gettysburg College 8.8
Franklin and Marshall College 8.8
Connecticut College 8.7
Scripps College 8.7
Muhlenberg College 8.5
Davidson College 8.4
University of Richmond 8.3
Hanover College 8.2
University of Puget Sound 8.2
Barnard College 8.2
Randolph-Macon College 8.1
Rhodes College 8.1
Washington and Lee University 8.0
Knox College 7.9
Sarah Lawrence College 7.7
Grinnell College 7.7
Allegheny College 7.5
St Lawrence University 7.4
Agnes Scott College 7.3
Lawrence University 7.3
Whitman College 7.1
Hobart William Smith Colleges 7.0
Willamette University 6.9
Centre College 6.8
Wellesley College 6.8
Beloit College 6.6
Ohio Wesleyan University 6.6
Wells College 6.6
Mount Holyoke College 6.2
Sewanee: The University of the South 6.0
Bryn Mawr College 6.0
Mills College 5.9
The College of Wooster 5.8
Earlham College 5.8
Kalamazoo College 5.8
Wabash College 5.7
Furman University 5.7
Illinois Wesleyan University 5.5
DePauw University 5.5
St. Olaf College 5.4
Wofford College 5.3
St Mary's College of Maryland 5.3
Juniata College 5.2
Southwestern University 5.2
Austin College 5.1
New College of Florida 5.1
Birmingham Southern College 5.1
Smith College 5.1
Bennington College 5.0
Gustavus Adolphus College 4.9
Union College 4.5
Albion College 4.4
Augustana College 4.3
Millsaps College 4.2
Presbyterian College 3.9
Wheaton College 3.7
Virginia Military Institute 3.7
Hendrix College 3.6
Hope College 3.4
Hollins University 3.1
Sweet Briar College 3.1
College of Saint Benedict 2.9
Saint Johns University 2.7
Thomas Aquinas College 2.2
Principia College 1.7

gadad

Regarding Hoedown's point: Wash U's yield rate - the percentage of those accepted who decide to attend - is only 32%. In this case, the apps per enrollee is perhaps an indicator of lesser popularity. A lot of students who apply to Harvard and Yale might also apply to Wash U. If they get in one of the competitor schools, they're less likely to go to Wash U - Harvard's yield is 78% and Yale's is 69%.

chaucers_pal

Source of data, please?

lgellar

This is a terrible system of measuring a college's popularity. Stick to comparing yield between similar schools.

collegehelp

source of data: IPEDS

collegehelp

yield depends on the financial aid package in addition to popularity

yield also depends on competition. popular schools in a tough, competitive 'league' can have low yield

collegehelp

40 schools that have substantially increased their apps to enrollee ratio (popularity) since 2001

school, increase in apps per enrollee since 2001

Baylor University 6.9
Yale University 6.5
Columbia University in the City of New York 6.2
Fordham University 5.9
Tulane University of Louisiana 5.6
American University 5.0
Johns Hopkins University 4.1
Boston College 3.5
Dartmouth College 3.5
Princeton University 3.4
Lehigh University 3.2
University of Miami 3.1
Marquette University 3.1
Emory University 3.1
Carnegie Mellon University 3.1
Cornell University Endowed Colleges 3.0
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2.9
University of Notre Dame 2.7
University of Connecticut 2.6
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 2.5
Southern Methodist University 2.4
University of Southern California 2.4
Duke University 2.1
Stanford University 2.1
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 2.1
Clark University 1.9
Rice University 1.9
College of William and Mary 1.7
George Washington University 1.7
University of California-Santa Cruz 1.7
Harvard University 1.7
Cornell University 1.6
Saint Louis University-Main Campus 1.5
Vanderbilt University 1.5
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1.5
University of Pennsylvania 1.4
Syracuse University 1.3
University of Rochester 1.3
University of Maryland-College Park 1.2
University of California-Berkeley 1.2

bingle

It's not clear to me *what* this measures. One click allows you to apply to all UCs, so most CA students apply to lots of schools cuz it's easy. Also some students have a clearer vision of what they want and, therefore, apply to a smaller number of very similar schools.
But for the geek in us it's always fun to see data and speculate

unregistered

Yield also depends on ED, which some colleges abuse.

ilovebagels

Sign this one up for a FAIL.

mythmom

Schools with low yield have more applications per enrollee as well. This is not a good indicator of popularity.

speedo

It's interesting data but what to make of it is
the question. I suspect that most of the schools
at the top of the list are there because of very
high selectivity - generating a lot of rejections.
The lower end are mostly schools that are targeted
by specific populations. In the middle? Maybe schools
with tremendous competition - probably the same
people apply to Dickinson as Gettsburg as Fand M -
They may also be safety schools for the elites with
weaker fin aid packages. There is a lot of work to be
done on this data before assigning "popularity" values.