<p>Based on 314 private colleges that I looked at in the IPEDS database, the correlation between yield and graduation rate was only .22. So, if you use grad rate as the criterion for quality, yield is not a very good predictor of quality.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if you use SAT scores as the criterion for quality, the correlation with yield is again pretty low (.37). I arbitrarily used SAT math 75th percentile.</p>
<p>By the way, the correlation between admit rate and yield was not very high (-.31).
The correlation between grad rate and SAT, on the other hand, was .73…very high. SATs are a good predictor of graduation rates. But, this isn’t surprising.</p>
<p>I can post stats for the individual colleges if there is interest. Individual comparisons can be revealing.</p>