<p>The percentage of applicants who accept offers of admission is called the “yield”. Even many elite colleges have a yield of only about 40%. So having 1300 acceptances out of 1700 offers of appointments is a very high yield indeed. Harvard’s is higher, but they are pretty much in a league of their own. The class of 2010 had about 1354 show up for I-day and about 1300 at the Acceptance parade. A college that graduates 80% of its incoming freshmen within five years is considered to be doing an outstanding job of retention. I had never heard of the 1000 cap on graduates from USAFA, but that kind of surprises me. However, I doubt that the number of graduates has ever tested that figure. This past year my son told us about a firstie who was dismissed at mid-term for academic reasons only. That’s got to have been pretty horrible for him, since he still had a service obligation.
The Air Force does seem to have been paring down some of their officer slots. The “Blue to Green” program offering cross commissioning into the army, and reports that washing out of pilot training gets you discharged from active duty.</p>