For colleges, the percentage of accepted applicants who actually put own a deposit by the time the deadline arrives is a figure that is of critical importance. Referred to as the “yield,” this figure shows just how good of a year the school will actually have. These figures are particularly important for private schools. In fact, for many of them, this is the “make it or break it” time when they find out whether or not the incoming class will be consistent with their budget and academic plans for the year.

Although the deadlines for deposits have already come and gone, many schools are reluctant to release their yield figures at this time. Nonetheless, there are several factors that are sure to have an influence on the yields this year. Some of these include:

· A growing number of students and their parents are interested in career prospects
· Many colleges have more than one yield based on where various students live and the programs they are interested in
· A greater emphasis is being placed on identifying which students really want to enroll rather than accepting outstanding students who aren’t likely to attend
· More of an emphasis has been placed on attracting certain groups of students, such as Chinese students from overseas and Latinos from the United States
· More effort is being placed on using techniques other than money to attract potential students to the campuses

Some schools have really gone out of their way to attract students. Misericordia University in Pennsylvania, for example, has posted a billboard declaring “Nursing: the recession-proof career.” The billboard seems to have worked, as the percentage of incoming students enrolling in the health professions programs jumped from 49% to 56%. Furthermore, yield is up to 35%, which is 2 points higher than last year. Still, Glenn Bozinski, who is the director of admissions, said he is still looking at different yields because some of the programs can grow while others cannot. In fact, he could have easily admitted several more qualified students to the program, but he still has room remaining in his liberal arts and business programs.

Obviously, potential career opportunities are of great importance to many of today’s students as well.

“We hear parents say, ‘I will send my son to a state school for the ubiquity of many majors there. They can get their history degree or psychology degree there.’ But you don’t hear that with the health sciences,” said Bozinski in a USA Today article.

Mike Frantz, who is the vice president of enrollment at Robert Morris University, is also considering the individual yields of various programs. When it comes to undecided majors, for example, the yield is up a few percentage points to 12.5%. In mechanical engineering on the other hand, the yield is about 25%, while the yield in actuarial sciences is 36.9%. Overall, the university is quite happy because the overall yield is down less than one point despite having come from a significantly larger applicant pool. In fact, applications were up by 40%.

The University of Vermont is also in an interesting situation when it comes to determining yields. Since the school traditionally has an unusually large number of out-of-state student enrollment, the school is taking a closer look at patterns regarding out-of-state enrollment. Officials there found that applicants from out of state took longer to commit with a deposit than in-state applicants. More than likely, this was due to the fact that out-of-state students have to pay a higher tuition rate than those who are in-state and the current state of the economy caused them to take a pause before committing. In the end, the university found that the yield increased for both in-state and out-of-state applicants. Due to these higher yields, the university has no plans to admit anyone from its waiting list.

In the end, most of the schools were interested in accepting those applicants who seemed truly interested in attending the school than those with the best credentials. Therefore, if you have your heart set on a particular college, make sure to take the time to write an essay that truly expresses your interest and to show your interest by visiting the campus. In this way, you will put yourself ahead on the applicant list.