Washington and Lee is a relatively selective school, admitting just 1,239 (or 21%) of the students who chose to apply. However, it must be said that the school also receives a small number of applications compared to some other colleges in the area. For example, the University of Virginia received 37,182 applicants, more than five times as many as Washington and Lee.
Of the admitted applicants, 474 (38%) chose to enroll in the school. This is on par with other Virginia schools, including the University of Virginia’s 39%. However, it’s noticeably better than the similarly-sized Marymount University, which had a yield of just 16%.
Yield indicates how prestigious a program is. The more students who get admitted and choose to enroll, the more desirable a school is. For example, Ivy league schools such as Harvard have yield rates exceeding 80%.
Washington and Lee is pretty much equally-popular with men and women, with a 1.03 ratio of female applicants to male applicants. However, the yield for female students is much higher at 40%, compared to 36% for men, making the ratio for admitted students 1.32 women for every man.
Admissions rates and yield are useful statistics for students to keep in mind when applying to schools. High admissions rates are good for schools that you’re applying to as a safety school, but may indicate less prestigious programs that are willing to admit more students.
