Re. prestige, an imperfect but generally accurate – not always, not precise, but directionally accurate – is the draw rate for each college. That’s the yield rate divided by the admission rate.
For a private college, a good rule of thumb is that you want a draw rate of at least 2.0, ie the yield rate should be about twice as high as the regular admission rate.
There are exceptions, most notably Reed College, but generally speaking, a private college with a draw rate of below 2.0 is less prestigious.
Another big exception is that many small colleges located in what are currently considered “hip” or desirable areas such as LA, NY or Boston will get an artificial boost to their draw rate thanks to the perceived attractiveness of the location and its job market. For a college that’s not located in one of the “cool cities” on the coasts, a draw rate greater than 3.0 signifies elite status.
Here’s the draw rate using 2019 data for each of the colleges discussed here, along with Swarthmore and Oberlin for reference – again, Draw Rate = Yield Rate divided by RD Admission Rate:
Elites:
Amherst - 2.8
Williams - 3.5
Bowdoin - 3.6
Swarthmore - 4.4
Good, not great:
Haverford - 1.8
Hamilton - 2.0
Carleton - 1.9
Colgate - 1.6
Oberlin - 1.3
Kenyon - 0.7
Outliers - good but not elite schools with exceptionally high Draw Rates:
Bates - 3.1
Pitzer - 3.5
for reference - here are some private universities’ draw rates:
USC - 3.7 (hip location: LA)
Tulane - 2.7 (hip location: New Orleans)
Tufts - 3.2 (hip location: Boston area)
Emory - 1.9
George Washington U. - 1.7