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Disclaimer: This is an analysis that i did when i was bored. I wrote down 19 top schools(Private) that i could remember of and their acceptance and yield rate. i gave them ranking by the acceptance% and then their yield rate ranking. i added those two rankings and started ranking colleges which have lowest sum of number. Eg.
Acceptance Yield Total
Harvard 11% (2) 79%(1) 3
Princeton 10% (1) 73%(2) 3
Yale 11% (2) 67%(4) 6
MIT 16% (6) 59%(7) 13
Stanford 13% (5) 70%(3) 8
Caltech 21% (12) 45%(12) 24
.
.
.
.
This data is collected by Princeton Review site. The data is from the class of 2007.
The number next to percentage is the respective rank. Like Princeton is the most selective.
The lowest number in the "Total" section gets the highest ranking like in the above table Harvard and Princeton has the lowest number (i:e "3") and then next at number 3 is Yale with total number 6.
Also, i apologize for not including Johns Hopkins University and Rice coz I totally forgot while doing the calculations and too lazy to re-do everything. I am pretty sure if i had included it ...JHU(Acceptance - 30%, Yield - 34%) and Rice they would have been somewhere in the middle
HERE ARE THE RANKINGS.
1.HARVARD.
1.PRINCETON.
3.YALE.
4.STANFORD.
4.COLUMBIA.
6.MIT.
7.BROWN.
8.UPENN.
9.DARTMOUTH.
10.AMHERST.
11.WILLIAMS.
12.CALTECH.
13.CORNELL.
14.GEORGETOWN.
15.DUKE.
16.SWATHMORE.
17.NORTHWESTERN.
18.WUSTL.
18.UCHICAGO.

ANALYSIS - Remember these are just numbers and not my personal opinion.

By Feenotype2 (Feenotype2) on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 04:08 pm: Edit

Yeah, I can see the value of this as a quantitative analysis of brand name recogntion of schools. But college admissions is more than quantitative calculations; it has a "feel factor" than many rankings don't account for.

Furthermore, you left off a lot of schools on this list.

By Fuzzzylogicc (Fuzzzylogicc) on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 04:10 pm: Edit

For a more accurate ranking of "selectivity" you have to factor in not just quantity of apps (acceptance rate) and popularity (yield) but the quality of each schools' applicant pool (test scores, rank, gpa, etc). Caltech, for instance, selects from a more competitive pool than Penn or Brown. And Georgetown isn't as tough as Duke or Swarthmore.

By Angel_Handsome (Angel_Handsome) on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 05:16 pm: Edit

You guys are definitely right. MIT has the most competitive aplicant pool, even competitive then most of its 'peer' schools and often shares applicants with them. Caltech probably looses 'some' students to MIT and to Stanford but the applicant pool is the same.
Surprisingly, Cornell had a yield of 50% which is very impressive but not worth picking over HPYSMC. I guess the Hotel and the Agricultural college probably influences Cornell's yield in a positive way. Columbia's prestige and academics aside, it benefits from NYC a lot!!!! Duke's yield of 44% was pretty poor for a school like that. I wonder why? Maybe someone can shed more light on that.
YES THIS IS NOT A WAY TO JUDGE A SCHOOL'S QUALITY. LIKE I SAID THIS IS JUST A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS. ALL ABOVE UNIVERSITIES ARE EXCELLENT IN ACADEMICS AND RANKING THEM IN QUALITY IS USELESS.

By Mini (Mini) on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 07:09 pm: Edit

Would you double the ranking of all the women's colleges because they have only half the population as the applicant pool?

(just kidding - you'd also have to adjust for the percentage of applicants who come from abroad but who only get admitted at a 2-3% rate -- then, all of sudden, HYP begin to tank (well, go down a little.)
I believe you left out the most competitive school in the U.S. - Deep Springs.

Of course, this all begs the big question: why would rejecting a very large number of qualified applicants, most of the time in favor of equally qualified but higher income applicants, be considered a good thing?

By Collegeparent (Collegeparent) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 11:01 am: Edit

The most competitive schools in the US, IMHO, are the service academies.

By Voodoochile (Voodoochile) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 12:10 pm: Edit

"You'd also have to adjust for the percentage of applicants who come from abroad but who only get admitted at a 2-3% rate"

If I'm not mistaken, it was more like 6% to 7% for HYPS and 4% to 5% for MIT. These numbers are several years old, though, so maybe they're not accurate any more.

By Chrisy (Chrisy) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 01:58 pm: Edit

if you use usnews's stats it's
1. harvard
2. princeton
3. stanford
4. yale
5. columbia
6. brown
7. upenn
8. mit
9. dartmouth
10. amherst