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A trauma for colleges, the drive to recruit is proving a boon for high school seniors. The State University of New York at Stony Brook, considered a selective school, must accept 5,000 applicants to fill a class of 1,500—a "yield" rate, as educators call it, of only 30%. The ratio between those accepted and those who enroll varies widely. Harvard boasts one of the highest yields, but it is only 74%, which means that four acceptances must be sent out for every three spaces in the freshman class. Also in the high-yield range: Yale, 69%; San Jose State (Calif.), 67%; Stanford, 65%; University of California at Berkeley, 60%; M.I.T., 51%; Princeton, 50%; Lewis and Clark College (Ore.), 50%. As M.I.T.'s Richardson notes, "Anybody in the trade knows that if you get over 50% of the kids to whom you offer admissions, you're doing better than average."
Not many exceed 50%. Wagner College on Staten Island in New York City hopes to get 1,500 applicants and must accept 1,100 of them to fill a class of 500 —a yield of 47%. Georgia Tech has the same yield, and Emory University in Atlanta has a 38% rate. There is no dearth of colleges with still lower yields. Notes Writer-Educator David Tilley in Hurdles: The Admissions Dilemma in American Higher Education, published last week (Atheneum; $13.95): "Many institutions labeled as selective are not."
To weather the crisis, colleges are considering a number of innovations. Some are beginning to stress career-oriented courses and work-related programs to satisfy the more pragmatic job applicants of the late 1970s. Quite a few colleges have inaugurated rolling admissions, deciding on applications as they come in, thus enabling students to determine their fates before the dreaded 15th of April.
"The emphasis has been on selection. In the future it will be on recruitment," noted Richard Skelton of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. In the meantime, small colleges are fearful. Says Tom Daniels, director of admissions at the 800-student Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa: "The next 15 years may well be some of the most crucial times in higher education."