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Intellect

BYU ranked No.1 in U.S. News & World Report admissions study

BYU ties Harvard for highest yield among national universities

Brigham Young University is tied with Harvard as the No. 1 university in the country when it comes to admitted students who actually enroll, according to a new study in U.S. News & World Report.

Using as its measurement yield - the percentage of students accepted who ultimately enroll - U.S. News ranked the top 100 schools from its own national universities and liberal arts colleges rankings, and BYU came out on top in the national universities category.

BYU and Harvard share the highest yield in that category, with 79 percent. That means nearly 80 percent of the students admitted to BYU go on to enroll in the Provo university.

"The environment here very much coincides with their own personal values," said Carri Jenkins, spokeswoman for BYU.

The report is based on 2006 data. Of 9,737 applicants, 6,827 were accepted to BYU that year, with 5,367 of those enrolling.

Following BYU and Harvard were Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT, respectively. The U.S. Military Academy had the highest yield among liberal arts colleges, followed by the U.S. Naval Academy, Thomas Aquinas College (Calif.), Berea College (Ky.) and Principia College (Ill.).

The report was published in the Feb. 11, 2008 issue of U.S. News & World Report.

Writer: Marissa Ballantyne

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Photo by Matthew Bekker

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