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Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:17 am
by tgir

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:20 am
by fatduck
your point? yield isn't part of the usnwr ranking criteria.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:25 am
by tgir
fatduck wrote:your point? yield isn't part of the usnwr ranking criteria.
I know.

People just sometimes bring up yield on TLS as an indicator of a school's value, and I thought the table on the USNews website was a particularly stunning display of why that is not really a useful metric.

As it is a recent article and I hadn't seen anyone else post it to TLS yet, I thought I'd post it for people to look at. I'm not trying to start some long discussion about yield.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:32 pm
by Fred_McGriff
Some of those schools have high yield because they suck and they're isolated, people from outside aren't looking in, people applying aren't getting in anywhere else.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:39 pm
by bk1
fatduck wrote:your point? yield isn't part of the usnwr ranking criteria.
In a way, isn't it?
USNWR Methodology wrote:Acceptance Rate (.025)
The proportion of applicants to the full-time program who were accepted for entry into the 2007 entering class.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:40 pm
by bk1
tgir wrote:People just sometimes bring up yield on TLS as an indicator of a school's value
I have honestly never seen this.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:51 pm
by tgir
bk187 wrote:
tgir wrote:People just sometimes bring up yield on TLS as an indicator of a school's value
I have honestly never seen this.
Ok...so then you and I have obviously not looked at exactly the same threads.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:53 pm
by bk1
tgir wrote:Ok...so then you and I have obviously not looked at exactly the same threads.
Anybody who has said it is talking completely out of their ass.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:56 pm
by tgir
bk187 wrote: Anybody who has said it is talking completely out of their ass.
Agreed.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:56 pm
by DorianGray89
Yield is a very important factor within admissions and higher ed; it doesn't speak much to the value of the school, or how good it is, but it is important for admissions directors. They need to know their overall yield, and their yield within URMs, yield within certain LSAT numbers, so that they can get a class of X number of students without over enrolling.

Say a school with a median of 165, admits a lot of people above 173. Those people are most likely not going to come, so they just admitted a lot of people for nothing. Meaning their acceptance rate will go up (which hurts them in rankings). If they decide to not admit those people above 170, because ultimately they wont come, their acceptance rate goes down and they seem more exclusive.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:01 pm
by cubswin
tgir wrote:
bk187 wrote:
tgir wrote:People just sometimes bring up yield on TLS as an indicator of a school's value
I have honestly never seen this.
Ok...so then you and I have obviously not looked at exactly the same threads.
I agree with bk187 here. I have never seen people discuss a school's merits based on the criterion of yield, i.e. "Dude, pick Michigan over UVA. Their yield is 3% better!" The only time I see yield discussed is when an applicant with high numbers gets dinged and people suggest that its YP.

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:03 pm
by Aberzombie1892
f

Re: Further proof that "yield" is a meaningless stat

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:05 pm
by bk1
Aberzombie1892 wrote:f
They don't really hide anything:

http://www.usnews.com/education/article ... ethodology