These two numbers get used almost interchangeably in casual conversation about "how hard a school is to get into" -- but they measure completely different stages of the admissions process, run in completely different directions, and a school can be unusual on one while being completely ordinary on the other.

The two numbers, defined precisely

Acceptance rate (also called admit rate) is the share of applicants who receive an offer of admission: admitted students divided by total applicants. A lower number means a school is harder to get into.

Yield rate is the share of admitted students who actually enroll: enrolled students divided by admitted students. A higher number means more of the students a school wanted actually showed up. See our full explainer on yield rate for how this plays out across real schools.

They sit at opposite ends of the same funnel: applicants → acceptance rate → admits → yield rate → enrolled class. A school's acceptance rate tells you nothing about its yield rate, and vice versa, because they're driven by completely different factors -- acceptance rate is mostly about how many qualified people apply relative to available seats; yield rate is mostly about how attractive the offer is once made, relative to whatever else that admitted student got into.

A concrete example of the two numbers moving in opposite directions

Princeton admits about 4.6% of applicants -- an extremely low acceptance rate -- and converts about 69% of those admits into enrolled students, a solid but not extraordinary yield. BYU, by contrast, admits about 68% of applicants -- a normal, unremarkable acceptance rate -- and converts about 79% of those admits into enrolled students, a yield rate higher than Princeton's. Line the two schools up:

  • Princeton: 4.6% acceptance rate, 69% yield rate
  • BYU: 68% acceptance rate, 79% yield rate

BYU is dramatically easier to get into. Once admitted, though, a BYU student is more likely than a Princeton student to actually enroll. Neither number predicts the other.

Why the two numbers don't move together

Acceptance rate mostly reflects how many people apply relative to how many seats a school has -- a function of the applicant pool's size and the school's own capacity. Yield rate mostly reflects how committed an admitted student already is to that specific school by the time the offer arrives -- a function of whether they applied Early Decision (which produces close to 100% yield by definition, since it's binding), how many other strong offers they're weighing it against, and how singular a fit the school represents for that student specifically. That last factor is a real part of why BYU's yield runs high despite an ordinary acceptance rate -- see our piece on the specific mechanism behind BYU's yield rate for the details.

What this means for you

  • Don't use acceptance rate as a stand-in for "how much do students want to go here." A school can be very hard to get into and only moderately wanted once admitted (a common pattern for schools popular as a backup application), or comparatively easy to get into and genuinely a first choice for most who apply.
  • A low acceptance rate paired with a low yield rate can be a real signal -- it can mean a school is a common "reach" application for students who ultimately choose somewhere else, not a broadly first-choice school.
  • Check both numbers when sizing up a school, not just the one that gets quoted more often in casual conversation. A school's own Common Data Set reports both.

Sources